PUTTING

Eventually, she worked as the national director for inter-country child welfare projects. “The aim of the project was to rehabilitate children in Australia who couldn’t be rehabilitated in India with dignity. From 1978 to 1984, I sent over 38 homeless children from India to Australia for a better future.”

That was her first brush with Australia. Thanks to her work, she got multiple opportunities to visit, and in 1987 she decided to call Australia home.

With her training in social work specialising in medical and social psychiatry, she joined Liverpool Hospital, with a role in the psychiatry ward.

“That first job helped me come out of my precious abode syndrome,” she reminisced.

“I was fortunate to find wonderful colleagues who helped me embrace the local culture.”

It was rough leaving a well-established life behind, she recounted. “My boss at the hospital taught me how to wear stockings. I was a Chennai girl, how was I supposed to know how to wear stockings? You tell me!”

During this time, she also made important observations from a cultural point of view that helped her grow immensely. There were subtle and not-so-subtle differences in behaviour, such as making eye contact and smiling, which could have a huge impact on the mental health intervention. “I began to see how people from another culture could be easily misunderstood at work places like mine.”

It was Shriram’s ‘eureka’ moment. Wellversed in Hindi and Tamil, she began to

Back Into Australia

Joe de Souza, OAM

-year-old Joe de Souza, who survived the Japanese invasion in Burma in 1941 and relocated to India, before finally moving to Australia nearly six decades ago, has been presented with the OAM in the King’s Birthday honours this year. He was recognised for various services to the community in his adopted country.

Earlier this year, he was also honoured as Greater Dandenong Citizen of the Year for 2023.

Joseph Aloysious de Souza has lived in Melbourne for 57 years, raising his family in Keysborough and Springvale.

While he threw himself into his work as a marine engineer, he also became very passionate about volunteering in the community around him.

“Australia was everything I had hoped for, and my gratitude knew no bounds when I was accepted for citizenship in 1967,” acknowledged de Souza. “So I decided that for giving me a home, a nationality, and a country to call my own, I would do my best to “put back” into Australia, by devoting my time and efforts to serving the community in which I lived – seeking nothing in return except for the satisfaction of serving.”

Over the decades, he went on to serve his community in various roles and positions.

As part of the Royal Victorian Association of Honorary Justices, he served as coordinator, Springvale Document Signing Centre (since 2007), Life Member (since 2020), Fellow (2016) and Justice of the Peace (since 1977).

He also served in the Urimbirra Adult Activity Unit (now The Bridge Disability take a special interest in patients from the subcontinent. “I had a keen interest in developing the cultural side of the service.”

When the Transcultural Mental Health Centre (TMHC) in NSW was being set up, she was approached to join as a clinician. TMHC is an assessment service for providing culturally appropriate mental health care to those who face language barriers, cultural differences, and prejudice. The implications for mental health providers are huge.

We know from our own culture that treatment-seeking patterns are often different, but Kalpana Sriram elaborates that there could even be differences in the manner in which cultures view health and illness.

“Sri Lankan communities for example, do not believe in the very concept of mental health. They don’t use the term mental illness but will talk about the symptoms. Such being the case, my work became double-sided –directly working with Sri Lankan refugees on the one side, and on the other, educating my team on what to look for in other cultures’ psychiatric patients.”

Apart from life changing observations, there are certain precious moments that bring her joy. Recently, she met one of the children she had rehabilitated to Australia way back in 1978. “He was 2 months old when he came to Australia. He was named Karthik by one of the paediatricians who had found him as a baby. He is in his 40s now, and he came to meet me with his adoptive parents, wife, and children. It’s moments like these that fuel my passion to keep going.”

Today, Kalpana’s focus is on transcultural mental health care as a senior counsellor, but that’s not all. Within the Indian community, she is known for her dedication to our ancient arts as founder of the Madhuram Academy of Performing Arts.

“It is my way of practicing social work at home,” she quipped.

Since 2013, Madhuram has brought 34 young Indian classical dancers to perform in Sydney.

Kalpana Sriram laughed as she remarked, “Sometimes I feel planning Madhuram concerts is tougher than doing social work.”

Torsha Sen

Rangoon till the Japanese invasion in 1941 when he and his family evacuated to India.

“I completed the Senior Cambridge exams in 1945 in Nagpur, Central India,” he recounted to Indian Link. “From 1946 to 1948, I trained on the Indian Mercantile Marine training ship Dufferin for Merchant Navy Officers, after which I returned to Burma to serve my Marine Engineering Apprenticeship. On completion in 1952, I joined the Burmah Shell Oil Company serving on oil tankers till 1956, rising from 7th Engineer to 3rd Engineer Officer.”

Mr. de Souza left the Merchant Navy and from 1956 till 1966 he was an Assistant Engineer at a Dockyard in Calcutta.

Services), as its Secretary (1980-1992), Founding Committee Member (1970s1997) and Life Governor (1992-2020).

Mr de Souza was also a life member of the Victorian Association of Youth Clubs since 1969.

He was also associated with the Springvale Youth Club, Springvale Leisure and Activities Centre, as its President (1974-1976) and Life Member (since 1974).

Joe de Souza has quite the fascinating life story. He was born in Burma of AngloIndian parentage in 1930. He lived in

“Deciding that for the future of my children, twin boys and a girl, to have better opportunities for education and employment, it was imperative that we migrate we were fortunate to be accepted by Australia,” de Souza said.

Besides his three children, Joe de Souza presently has eight grandchildren ranging in age from 31 to 42, and 8 great-grandchildren ranging in age from 1 ½ to 18 years.

He lost a son aged 50 in 2019 and his wife of 67 years at the age of 91 in 2021.

Frankey Gerard Fernandes