Multicultural Youth Advocacy Network (MYAN) recently held the biannual national multicultural youth summit FUSE in Melbourne. The Multicultural Youth Tasmania (MYT) program and myself as the Tasmanian ambassador to the MYAN Australia, supported 5 delegates from refugee backgrounds to attend the conference.
FUSE brought together diverse young leaders from across Australia. The summit provided a platform for participants to build leadership and advocacy skills, engage with experienced advocates and workshop creative solutions to issues that are affecting us.
Throughout the three impactful and empowering days delegates learned about leadership and advocacy, self-care and community, and much more.
On the final day, delegates presented their ‘pitch’ on key issues including employment, education, and mental health to Tim Watts (MP), Children’s Commissioner Megan Mitchell, and Senator Jane Rice. The pitches were inspiring and succinct; the storytelling was powerful.
I’m grateful to be part of this amazing summit with like-minded people that share the same passion, stories and experiences as myself. Thanks to MYAN and MYT for giving us the incredible opportunity to speak out on issues faced by young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds.
It is time for us as young people, to rise and take actions from what we’ve learnt at FUSE and transform it into change. In other words, we need our young leader’s voices to come and change the world with the strength of our ideas. It’s our duty as young leaders to fight for a more fair and equitable Australia.
By Magda Mohammad Gamar
(Tasmanian Youth Ambassador, MYAN Australia)