Armadale immigrant to draw on own experiences to help others as member of WA Youth Parliament

MOHAMMAD Hadi Rahimi is drawing on his own experiences as a newcomer to Australia to guide his passion for helping others.

Moving to Australia from Afghanistan five years ago, the Seville Grove resident has spent the last few years working hard to positively contribute to Australia’s multicultural community.

Through roles with the Multicultural Youth Advocacy Network, headspace Armadale, Australian Red Cross and the St John Ambulance Service among others, Mr Rahimi has helped advocate for Cultural and Linguistically Diverse (CaLD) communities, newly arrived refugees and vulnerable individuals and families.

He will take this passion to the upcoming WA YMCA Youth Parliament, where he will represent Armadale and hold a role on the Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs committee.

Mr Rahimi said he was “excited” to have such an important role.

“I will be contributing in a formal construction of our parliamentarian bill, called the Community Developmental Fund Bill (2018), which seeks to improve the situation of multicultural and Indigenous Australians by encouraging the development of their communities in both rural and metropolitan areas,” he said.

“Recently I have been chosen as a minister for presenting this bill in the Parliament.

“I am excited, and I am hoping and I would do absolute justice to the multicultural communities and Indigenous communities, as well as to my committee members.”

He said the opportunity to take part in the Youth Parliament would be a “game changing life experience”.

“I really want to stress on the point “focus on people’s strength rather their weaknesses,” he said.

“As a young person it has been four years and I am still hungry to grasp on many more opportunities like this.

“This is just a start, there are more to come.”

Mr Rahimi said he was also grateful to have received financial support from the City of Armadale to allow him to attend the event.

The WA YMCA Youth Parliament will be held during the July school holidays.

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