Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I want to pay tribute to my constituent Mohammed Al Ebrahimi, the CEO of People First Healthcare, in my electorate. Recently Mohammed was awarded the 2024 Victorian Young Achiever of the Year and the Connecting Communities Award at the 7NEWS Young Achiever Awards. Of course, I was very proud to support his nomination and subsequently thrilled that he actually won.

Mohammed and his family are refugees from Iraq and have managed to turn personal adversity into personal success. In turn, they give back to the community through initiatives such as the establishment of the Beloved Community Group, a social group initially set up to assist elderly people reconnect with their community. A drop-in centre was built in the local shopping centre at Roxburgh Park, and anyone could pop in to have a cup of coffee, play cards or simply have a chat.

As numbers grew, Mohammed's team provided staff who could, in language, answer questions about available health services in the area or anything else that impacted on the lives of our constituents. As numbers grew, formal social activities were developed to include fortnightly day trips, religious celebrations and education sessions. Advice and assistance were also given with AEC enrolment processes or even with completing a tax return. The group now has hundreds and hundreds of members, with thousands more engaged.

In 2024, a beloved group was established in Sydney, with groups planned for other cities in the coming years. These initiatives form an extension of Mohammed's primary business, which is People First Healthcare, which helps support the activities of the Beloved Community Group. People First Healthcare is a Commonwealth approved care service for people who are elderly and disabled. Many of its clients are indeed refugees and immigrants who were born in the Middle East and who face significant barriers to accessing health services.

Mohammed started this business in the northern suburbs of Melbourne in 2019 and expanded it into the south-western suburbs of Sydney in 2022. Today the business services almost 1,000 clients and has almost 300 members of staff. Ninety per cent of the staff were formally trained by the company and now have recognised qualifications in the aged-care and disability sectors.

People First Healthcare has plans in the coming years to expand into other areas of Victoria and New South Wales, as well as other capital cities, servicing multicultural communities. In congratulating the team, I want to quote Mohammed, who says:

As a child my parents instilled into me the importance of giving back to my community and improving the lives of others who were less fortunate. I was given an opportunity to do this in Australia and I do so with immense pride and sense of satisfaction. There is no end to this journey.

Last Saturday, I also had opportunity to attend the annual Teej festival celebration. This is a female oriented festival organised by my wonderful Craigieburn Nepalese community at the Craigieburn global learning centre. Teej is celebrated around the months of July to September, during the monsoon season. It is special because it is celebrated by women in Nepal as well as in India, with a three-day festival where all of the women and young girls prepare for the occasion by wearing stunning red saris, beautiful jewellery and red tika, and it involves singing and dancing to traditional folk songs.

During the Teej festival in Nepal, women will fast to honour lord Shiva and pray for a happy marriage, with rituals that offer celebration both for the personal and for the bounty that nature has to offer. Certainly, the women in my local Craigieburn Nepalese community created a sea of vibrant red and glittering jewels as they celebrated this beautiful festival on Saturday afternoon. It was, as they told me, an occasion for the women to pamper themselves, beautify themselves and come together for shared enjoyment, good food and dancing. I want to thank Susan Gautam, the secretary of the Craigieburn Nepalese Community, for her warm welcome. I also want to thank Kusum Magar, the president of the Craigieburn Nepalese Community, and all those wonderful women who helped put this event together.

I'd also like to give a shout-out to Madhuri Maskey, an executive member of the CNC, for her leadership in this space and for her friendship. Madhuri has always been a source of knowledge on issues in relation to international development, gender equality, the prevention of gender based violence, the safeguarding of the rights of women, children and youth, and their engagement for social change. It was, as our lovely hosts said, an opportunity to preserve cultural traditions, to teach younger people the value of these traditions and, above all, to share them with the rest of the community. Indeed, the emerging Nepalese community in my electorate has now become a significant part of our local community landscape.