Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to record my tribute to the amazing Selba Luka. She's a legend in our community. She's the founder and CEO of Afri-Aus Care. She was awarded City of Dandenong's Citizen of the Year 2021. She's an outstanding human as well, an inspiring role model and mentor to many. I heard her tell her personal story at the local Australia Day Awards. You could have heard a pin drop. It was one of those rare moments when someone gets up and you think, 'Oh, another speech,' but it was raw, it was honest and it was powerful. She arrived from Malawai some years ago with her eight-year-old daughter, seeking hope and opportunity. She lost a child; she lost a baby. She fell into a deep depression, was suicidal and was admitted to the Dandenong psychiatric hospital. Her husband left her. Then she was fired. But somehow she survived all this, went to university and studied mental health. She founded Afri-Aust Care in 2015, which provides holistic support to other African migrants facing displacement or trauma—positive, practical support. She uses a positive psychology model or an ancient African philosophy called ubuntu—'I am because we are'—teaching social ethics and common humanity. It's a little organisation down in Springvale, with a grassroots support program particularly focused now on women and helping mothers improve their parenting and adaption to Australian life. I congratulate Selba for all that she does, because, in her philosophy, when mothers do well and families do well, the kids will do well and the community will do well.