With extensive experience working on resettlement projects overseas, Brooke McDonald has returned to settle back in Melbourne at the age of 30. Before taking on her role as the African Partnership Facilitator at Maribyrnong City Council, Ms McDonald worked at the World Bank in Jakarta, Indonesia, the Asian Development Bank in Manila, Philippines, and on the Three Gorges Project on the Yangtze River in China.
A Melbourne University Graduate with a PhD in Resettlement, Ms McDonald has the heart and mind to help the newly arrived African refugees settle into the local community. While she accepts that it will be a new challenge working on a local level with migrants facing extreme changes and a new environment, Ms McDonald has clearly learned a lot from her work overseas.
The Epoch Times: How has your work overseas impacted you?
Brooke McDonald: As a student of development studies, I was under the impression that I would go overseas and through my knowledge improve the lot of those less fortunate. This is a terribly eurocentric way of looking at development issues and is often typical of the "do-gooder" mentality. We often think we know better than the people in so-called developing countries and set about imposing our ideas. However, I have never come across a person who has not had a clear idea about what is needed and how it can be achieved. Often people just need the resources to support their plans.
ET: How do you step out of your own race to help another?
BM: I have never thought about it. My decisions to work overseas were as much about what I could learn from people who have had different experiences and knowledge as about what I could contribute.
ET: If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
BM: Carlton. I went to Melbourne Univesity for 13 years and whenever I go into Carlton it feels like coming home. Although I also loved living on the Yangtze River in China, I always feel that I need to be close to my family.
ET: What's the biggest change you've ever experienced?
BM: I think moving to the Yichang in China was the biggest change I ever experienced, but it was also the best experience of my life. Living in a city like Yichang is so different from living in Beijing or Shanghai. We became immersed in the community, our workplace and the city itself. We made good friends with our students and many of our colleagues. At times, it was incredibly challenging – particularly when our teaching practices clashed with the traditions of rote learning in China. However, we learnt so much from our relationships and were constantly surprised by our students.
ET: Whom do you admire most and why?
BM: The person I admire most is a woman working at a major Asian development bank. She is fighting for the rights of displaced people all over the world from inside a huge bureaucracy that has the capacity to make or break the fortunes of the most marginalised and vulnerable in the world. She is passionate, driven and her energy is completely contagious.
ET: What has been your greatest achievement in life?
BM: My greatest achievement in life is my relationships with my mother, sisters and my fiancé. We are all so close and support each other through life. These are the things I hold dearest to me and they overshadow any other achievements in my life.
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