Refugee Community Leadership Program Report
Updated: Jun 6, 2021
This year, the Refugee Community Leadership Program took place on the 27th of March, in partnership with the Australian Progress. The participants had the opportunity to visit the Australian Progress Media Centre and receive first-hand training to further enhance their media advocating strategies and skills.
Event Timeline:
The event began with background information about media in order to develop a base for the participants. The participants then had the chance to learn about the different types of media in Australia and how they are politically connected. Moving on, the participants had the opportunity to learn about important skills that they can use when being interviewed and how they can use that to the best of their advantage. In order to practice the skills that they had learnt, the participants had the opportunity to take part in a mock interview with the media trainees. To conclude the session, the participants reflected on the knowledge gained and strategies for how they can move forward and further advocate matters concerning refugees.
Participant Testimonials:
“I believe that I’m now equipped with the necessary skills to confidently face the media and take part in more interviews. I also enjoyed connecting with other youth who are also concerned about the treatment of refugees in Australia.” Mohammed
“It is really nice to know such media training sessions for youth refugees exist. Youth refugees have many stories to tell society, however it is difficult to ensure that society can hear them, especially if you have never dealt with the media. Now that I have received the training, I feel like I can share my story to a greater extent.” Berelian
“This training sessions was really beneficial. It is difficult to not be able to communicate to the media correctly and get your message across, however, I feel like this media training establishes a sound grounding that allows individuals to understand the media and thus be able to communicate.” Hari
Words and images by Community Organiser, Mohammad Daghagheleh
*Berelian and Hari have since gone on to share their stories of living in Australia with educational publisher, Twinkl, to make a series of teaching resources suitable for Refugee Week 2021. You can access these resources for free, here.
