“This was the best trip I have ever had” said Omid as he collected his bag and headed for a good sleep in his own bed. 11 students and 1 teacher travelled to Canberra from the 9/9/2024 to 12/9/2024. The group won ‘The Heart of Tafe’ Tasmanian competition with this photo and they were invited to attend the National Tafe Day celebrations and the Australia wide competition winner announcement on Tuesday 10/9/2024 at Parliament House in Canberra.
The week was a sitting week for both houses of the federal parliament, so Canberra was busy and expensive. We received a grant from 2A4 and some extra donations from politicians. flights and accommodation were expensive. This grant helped us take all the students who wanted to attend and not just send one representative of the group. We stayed in accommodation where we could cook ourselves and worked hard on keeping costs down. The group worked as a team, used independent living skills and helped plan and organise all the activities.
The trip was very successful with everyone learning a lot about democracy, the rights and responsibilities of citizens and how government works. All the students who attended, came to Australia through the refugee/ migration program and are either citizens already or soon will be. We met with several politicians including:
- Andrew Wilkie who met our group, spoke to us about how he got into politics and what he does now and then took us into the House of Representatives where he sat with us and explained what was happening.
- Minister Andrew Giles who spent time with the group listening to their stories at the award ceremony. Komail Rezayi told Andrew Giles his family’s story about his father coming to Australia 12 years ago with the hope of finding a safe place where his family could settle. He was an asylum seeker and went through the detention centre system and was then given a TPV. He built a care wrecking business in Hobart but was unable to sponsor his family for 12 years. When the 19,000 people on TPVs were finally granted refugee status, Komail, his 3 siblings and his mother were able to come to Australia. They arrived in April this year. Komail said, “For me going to Canberra was one of the best things in my life. I spent 12 years waiting in Afghanistan to come to Australia and I finally came to Hobart 5 months ago. Coming to Canberra was incredible because I walked into Parliament House and I talked to some politicians. All people can go into Parliament House in Australia. I saw politicians from different backgrounds, ages and there were men and women. Meeting them was a great honour. I learnt about the system of making laws and how all people can give ideas to Parliament. I am so happy to live in Australia.”
- Senator Mehreen Saeed Faruqi, who spoke to the students about her life and was very interested to hear the stories and ideas of the students.
- Senator Nick McKim who invited us to meet him in his parliamentary office which was very interesting
- Dr Mike Kelly, who we met at the Jewish Cultural Centre. He talked about his life as a soldier and politician and told us about what he has learned from living in the middle east. It was a great presentation, and the students asked excellent questions. The group has just finished a unit on human rights, and we read the Diary of Anne Frank, learnt about the Holocaust and researched the Civil Rights Movement in the USA.
For most of the students it was their first trip out of Tasmania and was an incredible experience. Everyone we met was impressed with this confident, humble and curious group of young people who want to learn more about Australia. It was one of the best trips I have ever organised, and we all thank 2A4 for the support.
Well done to our partners Students Against Racism!
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