ONOURS

HEALTH, EDUCATION AND VOLUNTEERING

Dr Saba Nabi, OAM

For

service to community health, education and multicultural affairsrural psychiatry

Unless you raise your point of view, the rest of the world wouldn’t ever know it, says Dr Saba Nabi from Wagga Wagga in NSW.

She has been honoured with the Order of Australia Medal announced on the occasion of the King’s Birthday.

Felicitated for her service to community health, education and multicultural affairs, her name also features on the COVID-19 honour roll as acknowledgement of the work she did during the pandemic when she was appointed as Administrator of the COVID -19 Vaccination Hub in 2021 for the Murrumbidgee Local Health District.

Dr Nabi expressed happiness about receiving the honour, and also said she was pleasantly surprised by the news.

“The interesting part is that I don’t know who nominated me for the award, but I feel blessed knowing that there are people who trust my abilities. It’s absolutely delightful to receive this honour so early in my career,” she said.

A volunteering veteran since almost a decade, Dr Nabi feels proud being the voice of the unheard, especially in regional Australia where she lives with her husband and two children and sits on multiple advisory boards and committees, especially those working for improvements in Wagga Wagga.

In fact, it’s the P&C committee of her daughter’s school where she started out, initially to overcome the social isolation she felt having migrated from a vibrant lifestyle back home in India’s Delhi and Patna.

Buoyed by the recognition and appreciation she received for her work, she has since made her voice heard at multiple committees and advisory boards working in the areas of health (clinical innovation, cancer care, mental health, learning difficulties etc), ethnic communities and multicultural affairs, seniors’ and parents issues, education, crime prevention, creative arts and languages, besides working in her own regional community