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B.A. (Legal Studies) Dip.Community Social
Justice
Michael arrived in Australia as a refugee in 1996,
after living in Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya and has been working with
the New Hope Foundation since 2002. He has worked on New Hope’s
Integrated Humanitarian Settlement Services program and is
currently working in its Employment Program with its focus on
refugees settling in the Western suburbs. Michael has been actively
involved in fostering partnerships between New Hope and community
refugee youth groups, whilst maintaining a keen interest in
community development activities with African refugees generally.
His longstanding contributions to refugee issues saw Michael
receive the Victorian Multicultural Commission’s Youth Ambassador
Award in 2002 and his selection as Victorian delegate to the
National Youth Roundtable in 2003. Michael is an accredited
interpreter in Dinka and Sudanese Arabic.
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B.S.W.
May Farah has worked as a Community Settlement Worker with the
New Hope Foundation since 2003. She has many years experience
working with refugees, migrants and displaced people both in
Australia and overseas having lengthy experience working with
displaced people in Lebanon before arriving in Australia in 1994.
Since then, May has worked with newly arrived migrants and refugees
from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds both in client case
work services and community development projects. She is a
registered migration agent, a qualified social worker, a member of
the Australian Association of Social Workers and a board member of
the Immigrant Women’s Domestic Violence Service.
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B.A. (Hons) Dip.Ed. Dip.Interpreting/Translating
Kass commenced working for the New Hope Foundation in the Aged
Care Access & Equity Program in 2004 and currently manages the
Employment Program targeting refugees settling in the Western
Suburbs. She has qualifications in language studies with experience
in teaching in adult language centres, translation research,
community broadcasting and managed language services at the Royal
Melbourne Hospital from 1997 till 2003. Kass has also been actively
involved in publicly promoting the provision of professional
language services through the Australian Institute of Interpreters
and Translators. She is a professionally accredited interpreter and
translator, has taught in the RMIT Diploma in Interpreting and has
served as a board member of Fronditha Care aged services.
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B.S.W. LLB
Pamela Kosij is the Settlement Services Team Leader at the New
Hope Foundation with over 15 years working in the sector. Her
professional experience spans direct client service delivery, group
work, community development and capacity building as well as the
management of settlement services provisioning. Pamela also manages
the Peer to Peer Professional Development Program for new and
isolated Community Settlement Workers across Melbourne and regional
Victoria, providing specialised training and mentoring to
workers. Immediately prior to her current role Pamela worked
as the New Hope Foundation’s Community Planning & Research
Officer and previously with the Ecumenical Migration Centre and
South Eastern Region MRC. Her community capacity building work with
new and emerging communities is characterised by a commitment to
community empowerment and ownership and the fostering of
partnership approaches with all stakeholders.
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Diploma in Community Services (Welfare Studies)
Mary Riek arrived in Australia in 1995, a refugee from South
Sudan and one of the first South Sudanese to settle in Victoria. As
a former UNHCR worker at refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya,
she understands the hurdles that many refugees face in resettlement
and the importance of Australia’s settlement services. Mary has
worked as an interpreter with TIS and other private translation and
interpreting agencies whilst completing her Diploma in Community
Services. She also worked with the Victorian Co-operative on
Children Services (VICSEG) for two years before joining the
settlement team at the New Hope Foundation in 2003 as a Community
Settlement Worker. Her current employment encompasses casework,
community work and the extensive delivery of cross cultural
training programs. Mary is currently undertaking a Bachelor
of Social Work degree at Victoria University.
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B. Business
Michelle has worked with the New Hope Foundation as a Community
Development Worker since 2004. She has provided support and
direction for a range of community development initiatives and has
worked closely with newly arrived refugees, in particular the South
Sudanese Community in the southern region. Michelle completed
a Bachelor of Business in 1994 and then travelled the globe for a
few years working abroad in various countries, among them teaching
English in South America. Upon her return to Australia she
has worked in both voluntary and paid positions assisting asylum
seekers and the unemployed. Michelle holds a Certificate IV
in Assessment and Workplace Training and has delivered a range of
cross cultural training and employment related programs to
individuals, and both corporate and community based
organisations.
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B.Arts B.S.W. (Hons)
Heidi Zwick has been a Settlement and Community Development
social worker with the New Hope Foundation since 2004 with many
years of prior experience working with people from culturally and
linguistically diverse backgrounds both in Australia and overseas.
Heidi received her Honours Degree in Social Work from Monash
University in 1991 and following this managed various projects
focussing on disadvantaged children in Albania, Georgia (Former
USSR) and then Sierra Leone with international NGO’s until 2003.
Upon her return to Australia she initially worked for the Northern
Migrant Resource Centre, before accepting a position with the New
Hope Foundation where she has been engaged in a range of community
development projects with the Horn of Africa, Sudanese and Burmese
communities, as well as providing case work services to refugees
and migrants entering Australia under the humanitarian and family
migration programs.
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