The founders of RISE come from diverse backgrounds and countries such as Eritrea, Sudan, West Papua, Democratic Republic of Congo and Sri Lanka. The RISE team believes that the refugee community can be best served from within and that is what they have set out to do.

“Refugees’ insights into the social, physical and political settings in which they live are a necessary tool for understanding community needs and envisioning inventive solutions to local problems,” their website states.

“The experiences that we have been through as refugees settling in Australia will give us a chance to exchange with our fellow refugees and create a pathway for strong community and economic development in Australia. Many of us have experienced social isolation and struggles.”

RISE operates a drop-in centre and also offers many services to those trying to navigate their way around Australian life.

Some of the services RISE provide, or will soon provide, are:
A free driving program to help refugees obtain driving permits.
A music program to provide a vehicle for people to explore their musical creativity.
An advocacy service to improve refugee policy and generate social change.
A tutoring and mentor program, which will operate after-hours, to help students with their studies.
Confidential legal assistance and information on basic rights and legal challenges.

If you would like to get in touch with RISE, you can view their contact details on their website.

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This club is very exclusive, you have to be a member to be allowed in. 

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Because of where their parents were born, many famous Australian players could have played for other countries. For example, Tim Cahill played for Samoa when he was 14, Mark Viduka could have played for Croatia, and Bruce Djite could play for the USA, Ivory Coast, Togo or Australia!

There are also lots of prominent Australian players with Greek, Italian, Lebanese and Indigenous heritage, among many others. As well as this, there are many young players born in Africa and now living in Australia. Kofi Danning, who plays for Sydney FC is a great example. He was born in Ghana and is now one of the stars of Sydney FC. All of these players help to make the Socceroos a much better representation of Australia than some of our other sporting teams. So when  we watch the Socceroos play, we don’t have to think of the old Australia, which saw itself as a European country, but the new Australia, which is full of diversity.

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The UNHCR said this year was about highlighting the central idea of international refugee protection - that those people who flee their homes because of persecution and conflict need safe haven from danger.

World Refugee Day was founded in December 2000, and it was first celebrated on June 20, 2001. The year 2001 was the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. This convention set out the rights of those found to be refugees and the responsibilities of countries which grant asylum to people in need.

In Australia, there were many events held to mark this occasion. In the capital, Canberra, World Refugee Day flags decorated the streets and iconic buildings around Lake Burley Griffin were lit up in the colour blue. The colour blue is used by the UN across their organisation.

There was also a soccer tournament organised with teams from Sudan and Sierra Leone and a film festival and photographic exhibition held.

Also in Australia there was a special community gathering held in Canberra. Former refugees from Myanmar and Africa shared their stories and culture, including music and dancing, with the community.

Elsewhere around the world, film star Angelina Jolie made a moving speech imploring the world to recognise the amazing contribution refugees can make to the developed nations they seek refuge in. Angelina Jolie is the Goodwill Ambassador to the UNHCR.

The UNHCR estimates there are over 42 million refugees around the world.

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Hip-hop artists with an interest in theatre and acting have been taking to the stage and creating dynamic and powerful performances.  The performances integrate MCing, DJing, breakdancing and graffiti art.

One Australian MC and entertainer from Campbelltown, Candy Bowers, recently had her own show called Who’s that Chik?(A hip-hop tale of a brown girl with big dreams).

In the show, Candy provides insight into her life as a woman of colour and her journey in Australia’s show biz industry. She incorporates stories from her family history. She also addresses cultural identity, stereotyping and racism in her mother’s homeland of South Africa and in Australia. The show is funny as well as poignant.

Candy has long been part of Australia’s hip-hop scene as one half of Sister She. Sister She was a comic hip-hop act and this humorous style was also present in Who’s that chik? Sister She performed at big events such as the Big Day Out and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

Candy says her dream is for ‘the Australian stage, page and screen to be a place where everyone feels comfortable, can see themselves reflected and is welcome’.

Candy has now devoted herself to challenging what she sees as a white-wash in the Australian entertainment and arts industry. Candy says that a lot of those who cast for mainstream plays don’t put people of colour as characters who are presumed to be white, particularly in lead roles.

Casting people in any role because of the strength of their performance, no matter their skin colour, is called cross-racial casting and it has become the norm in many countries. But Australia is still stuck in outdated theatrical traditions, according to Candy.

Candy said she is often type-cast. She was even cast as the maid in her graduation performance at NIDA (a leading dramatic arts college), even though the performance was a musical and Candy has an amazing voice.

Candy does a fantastic job of challenging this culture, however, and in Who’s that chik she tries to empower and inspire other people of colour to stand against racism. She also opens the eyes of white members of the audience to the struggles that come with being a person of colour in a white-dominated industry.

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Looking after a pet is a big responsibility. Animals can give a lot of love and affection, but they need love and care too. There are many kinds of animals you can keep as pets. The most common pets are cats and dogs, though some people have birds, fish, even rats! But if you do want a pet, you have to be able to look after it. You should never give an animal as a gift, because the person might not really want it. Also, make sure you have space in your home, as well as time and money to keep it happy and healthy. Most people look after their pets well because they love them, but some don’t. Because of this, there are laws about looking after animals. Not looking after an animal is serious. You can be taken to court.

Some basic things that all animals need are shelter and bedding, fresh water and a balanced diet, because pets get fat too. As well as this, they need medical care from a veterinarian if necessary, and lots of exercise to keep them fit and healthy. If you have a small home, you can take your pet to a park. In some parks, dogs are allowed to run around without a leash and play with other dogs (but you have to clean up the dog poo or you can be fined!). This is good for animals because they learn to get along with other animals and be social. There are some animals that you can’t keep as pets, because they are dangerous, or endangered, but often you just need a permit, and you need to buy the pet from an authorised breeder. A good place to call to find out about animals is the RSPCA. They can tell you how to look after animals, and it’s also a good place to buy a pet, because they don’t try to make money out of animals, but just want to give them a home.

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According to organisers the program was to promote harmony and challenge stereotypes about refugees.

The young photographers came from countries such as Afghanistan, Kenya, Somalia, Sierra Leone, India and Burma.

Sara Duale, a 17-year-old from Somalia, said her photos were about memories of her mum. Her photos pictured her at the beach. In one of them she is crouching above the words mum, I love you, which she wrote in the sand.

‘For me, the beach is a place where I feel peaceful,’ Sara said. ‘I have written a message for my mum in the sand. This is the first time I have been away from my mum and my family. I am missing them all very much. It is hard being so far from my mum but the people here are friendly and sometimes this is the only thing that cheers me up.’

Many of the young refugees expressed sadness at being away from family and the challenges of adapting to life in a new country. One photo depicted a sign that said simply, no access. The refugee from Sierra Leone who took it said the photo represents the lack of access to education, food and safety in Sierra Leone. ‘I want access to these things. I want access to the Australian community. I want acceptance,’ the photographer wrote.

A lot of photos focused on the subjects of strength and hope as well. One of the photographers, Trizah, said she chose two photos of her looking proud and strong to feature in the exhibition. ‘I feel strength about my future and feel great when I am walking around,’ she said. One of Trizah’s photos shows her standing with some Australian navy sailors. ‘I saw that they were young like me and it made me think that I myself can participate as a youth.’

Mariama Jalloh from Sierra Leone said the photos of her in the exhibition are about being a strong woman. In one photo she is smiling and in the other she has her arms folded looking down at the camera. ‘To be a strong person in any situation you have to work hard and never give up. If you are by yourself you have to keep going forward. If I do this the results will be good and I will be smiling. I feel that within myself I am strong. I sometimes feel lonely but other people say you are a strong woman. Before and now is a big difference because now I am smiling. I feel happy.’

The exhibition featuring these inspiring and strong young people even received international news attention.

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Emmanuel Jal was in Sydney this week for the Sydney Writers’ Festival. Emmanuel Jal has been lots of things in his life. He was born in Sudan, and when he was about six or seven years old, he was taken from his family and forced to become a child soldier in the civil war. The fighting in Sudan has destroyed many people’s lives, and many people have died, children and adults. But Emmanuel Jal was lucky, he managed to escape thanks to a woman named Emma McCune. She smuggled him into Kenya and then adopted him. Even though he was safer in Kenya, not everything was easy. Emma McCune was killed in a car accident, and Emmanuel was alone again. Living in Kenya, he started making music, to help with the pain of his experiences. In 2005 he released his first album, called Gua, which means ‘peace’ in Nuer, his native tongue. Emmanuel’s music mixes different styles, but could mostly be called hip hop. Because he uses lots of African beats and chorus melodies that you don’t usually find in American Hip Hop, some people call his music ‘World Music’. But all music comes from the world, why should American music be called hip hop, or pop, but music from everywhere else be called world music? One of the ways that Emmanuel Jal’s music is different from some American Hip Hop, is that he wants it to be a positive influence on young people and communities. In his song ’50 Cent’, he criticises the American rapper 50 Cent for his video game Bullet Proof, saying “You have done enough damage selling crack cocaine/now you got a kill a black man video game/We have lost a whole generation through this lifestyle/now you want to put it in the game for a little child to play”.

As well as making music, Jal has written an autobiography, and there is also a documentary about his life. The book, the movie, and his latest album, are all called War Child. He also started a charity called Gua Africa, which is working to help communities in Africa, and build a school called the Emma Academy in Southern Sudan, named after the woman who helped Emmanuel to escape the war.

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Two young Australians, Matthew Albert and Samah Hadid, have chosen to use the chameleon as a metaphor for Australia. Writing in the Melbourne newspaper The Age on March 18, 2009, Albert and Hadid argue that:

Metaphors of the past will not suffice for a changing future. Australia should move away from aiming to be a melting pot or a mosaic. It should be, what we call, a chameleon nation. A chameleon nation adapts to fit in with its context.

Australian identity, it seems, is always in crisis. The stereotype that Albert and Hadid refer to as The Australian B3 (beaches, blondes, barbecues) does not represent the truth of a nation where nearly one quarter the population are born overseas, and whose people speak more than 300 languages. As Albert and Hadid say:

The chameleon nation we envision draws on, and builds all the differences it contains to ensure that Australia is a nation of the world and continues to contain the world within our nation. Our chameleon spirit can be manifested in the way we welcome migrants and refugees, and the way we accept changing demographics.

Both Matthew Albert and Samah Hadid are inspiring examples of people from a chameleon nation. Samah Hadid is a co-founder of the community magazine Reflections. Reflections is run by a group of young Muslim girls who decided to create a magazine aimed towards young people from Muslim and non-Muslim backgrounds. The magazine encourages young people to form bonds and friendships with one another. You can read all of the issues of Reflections online at their website.

Matthew Albert is the founder of the SAIL (Sudanese Australian Integrated Learning) program which gives free English support & community services to the Sudanese refugee community in Melbourne and Sydney. You can find out more about SAIL at its website.

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Refunite.org was established by Danish brothers, Christopher and David Mikkelsen. The website was launched late last year. The Mikkelsens were inspired to start the organisation, Refunite, after meeting a young Afghan refugee named Mansour.

Mansour had lost touch with his parents and siblings when he was 12. German news source Der Spiegel reports:

Five years earlier, Mansour’s family had paid a trafficker to evacuate them from Kabul to Peshawar, located across the border in Pakistan.

The night before the family was scheduled to leave, a spot opened up on another vehicle. The trafficker asked Mansour’s family to fill it and as the oldest son, Mansour, then 12, jumped aboard.

After returning to Pakistan in a search for answers to the whereabouts of his family, Mansour discovered they were scattered across the globe. Mansour and the Mikkelson brothers have only been able to locate one brother who is living in Russia.

“With Refugees United we strive to help countless people across the world suffering from not knowing the whereabouts of their family,” David said.

The site uses the concept of social networking to reunite friends and family and users can give as little or as much information as they want. For example, if a user is in hiding they can provide details that would only be known by family members. This protects their anonymity.

Refunite.org differs to systems used by NGOs such as the Red Cross. The Red Cross register is more time-consuming and complicated than the simple web platform devised by the Mikkelsens.

“We didn’t want to be the kind of NGO that is a third party providing help to refugees,” David told Der Spiegel. “We wanted to give (refugees) the opportunity to take control of their situations and help themselves — and give NGOs another tool to help.”

Refunite.org has been translated into 23 different languages with more to come. The challenge for the Mikkelsens now is attracting enough users to make reunions possible.

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