EUANAU

Guruhive’ is a conceptual government run program that hires South Sudanese tertiary educated refugees, who are unable to find work, into a mentoring program that helps South Sudanese youth undergoing their studies (primary school, high school, college, and even some university studies). The concept itself was created as a design solution for a cultural issue we discovered in Australia. Hired gurus will receive the necessary training by the administrative team through CIT (Cert IV in Youth Work and choose one of a range of other courses provided in the program) before undergoing their mentorship and are encouraged to study and write blogs/articles in regards to South Sudanese culture and life as a refugee in Australia on the ‘Guruhive’ website.

Gurus will be connected to their students’ families and will have the ability to provide them with additional government services through a priority list if they see that their student’s family is struggling (financial, health, wellbeing, etc.). Gurus will teach students in sessions within select schools (those with high rates of South Sudanese refugee children) and/or outside of school hours (online, face-to-face at students’ home or library/public space). Students who enter the program will be able to re-enter the program as gurus after completing college or choose to seek higher education, work, or simply phase out of the program. Eventually, the program aims to be completely run off of South Sudanese staff/gurus.

The designs are intended to cater to the youth and families who are seeking help for their children. Using black and yellow, colours symbolic to South Sudan, the eye-catching designs attract the attention of the target audience and draw them in with their approachable and uplifting imagery and playfulness with the composition. Equally as important as the designs, the placement is key in allowing the target audience to be able to discover and access the program. With many South Sudanese families without access to reliable internet and technology, the designs have been intended to be used through traditional mediums such as billboards, posters and brochures. The overall project covered each touchpoint, from ideation, to creation and finally, implementation.