Eugenia Tsoulis won the outstanding achievement award at the Governor’s Multicultural Awards at Government House this week for her work with migrants. When the primary school teacher first migrated to Adelaide from Greece, she automatically began work on helping other Greek migrants settle in Australia.
“I learnt English very fast because I had great support from the school system,” Ms Tsoulis told the City Messenger.
“Once a week, it was usually on a Monday, I would take a group of young men to Holden or Actil or Clipsal down on Port Rd, and come back and attend school at Hindmarsh Primary School.
“They needed a job as soon as they got here because there were no social services and I was the only one who could speak to the bus conductor and tell him where to go.”
Ms Tsoulis arrived in Australia in the 1950’s aged eight. She said her parents “different type of reception” to how migrants are welcomed to the country today. “In those days, one was on their own trying to work through settlement,” Ms Tsoulis says.
“We were very well looked after at school but there were no support systems and very little English tuition. In half a century, so much has changed in Australia. “When I came to the Migrant Resource Centre, it was one small office on Henley Beach Rd,” she says.
“We now settle around 1500 new arrivals a year and have over 300 volunteers from over 80 ethnic and language groups. I feel very privileged to work with the people I work with.”
