ASPIRING COMMUNITY LEADER ALI GHAFOOR By Nanda Nugrahanti, an ECCQ intern and Indonesian awardee of Australia Awards Scholarship and a Post Graduate Student studying Communication for Social Change at The University of Queensland. ECCQ’s Community Leadership Program participant, Ali Ghafoor, is from Iraq and lives in Brisbane with his family. He works as a Case Worker in the Community Assistance Support Program at the Australian Red Cross.
Ali, his father and two brothers arrived as refugees in Brisbane, Australia in 1995. He and his family faced many challenges adjusting to life in Australia, but the main obstacles they had to overcome were learning English and feeling isolated. Learning how to navigate the transportation system helped with accessing support services from the community and taking the initiative to get involved in the Iraqi community and Muslim groups helped him and his family to feel less isolated. “I started by helping out with social activities and seeking out organisations that can offer community support,” he said. “That’s what led me to ECCQ. I’ve been engaged with ECCQ for a long time now.” He decided to participate in the Community Leadership Program to develop his individual leadership skills to help his community engage at all levels of hierarchy – from government and business, to the community at large. “I want to voice community issues and be a mechanism for intercultural dialogue,” said Ali. This is my passion. I want to build bridges between Muslim groups and the Australian community and address Islamophobia on social media.” He recently helped to campaign on behalf of Muslim groups in Brisbane against proposed changes to the Racial Discrimination Act, which he feels could lead to more divisive commentary. Ali says the leadership program empowers people to feel proud of their cultural identity, engage with their community and voice community issues. “This is a very good platform to gain knowledge, skills, information as well as network in order to understand how to organise community work within Australia’s system,” he said.
Ali (first row on the right) when he was 8 years old with his father and two older brothers. The picture was taken in 1994 when they were at the UN Refugee Camp on the border between Iraq and Turkey.
“I am really enjoying the leadership training. It provides me with a lot of opportunities to gain skills, and receive and share information with industry experts. “The user-friendly materials, the take away tips, the activities that are real-life based, peer discussion, and opportunities for sharing are what really make this program beneficial.” His passion for community work led to a career path in human services and clinical social work. He completed a postgraduate degree in health and service management from Griffith University and is a qualified clinical social worker. After completing this program, Ali expects to maintain his contact with ECCQ staff and the other leadership program participants, who are all from different ethnic community groups. “Definitely, I have been involved with ECCQ for many years and maintaining contact with the staff and the members from other culturally diverse communities will not only help me to grow my existing networks, but will also provide me with opportunities to expand my future community work.” He hopes that many more people will have the opportunity to join leadership programs like this, so they will in turn help members of emerging and established communities to successfully settle in Australia.
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