Celebrating Refugee Leadership: Honouring Refugee-Led Organisations on World Refugee Day

On World Refugee Day, 20 June, the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) proudly made five $5,000 donations to refugee-led organisations working at the grassroots level to support, uplift, and advocate for refugee communities across Australia.

This initiative reflects our mission to amplify refugee voices and celebrate leadership from within communities with lived experience. These inspiring organisations joined our World Refugee Day Telethon livestream to share their powerful work and stories.

Meet the five recipients in these interviews from the Telethon and read more about their incredible work below.

Africause Youth and Community Services 

Founded by former refugee Dr Berhan Ahmed, Africause supports African Australian and other refugee-background communities in Melbourne’s West through a wide range of services, including youth mentoring, school engagement programs, digital literacy training, English classes, employment support and anti-racism advocacy, particularly addressing the over-policing and criminalisation of African youth.

Africause also assists individuals and families in navigating complex systems such as Centrelink, housing, and immigration. The organisation provides support to young people in contact with the youth justice system and offers tailored assistance to women and children affected by domestic and family violence, including help with waiving fines, little financial support and accessing critical services. Support is also extended to disengaged youth and single mothers, with a focus on restoring dignity, safety, and social inclusion.

Africause’s holistic approach fosters healing through intergenerational dialogue, community connection, and culturally safe advocacy.

Speaking at the ASRC Telethon, Dr Ahmed said: “For me helping refugees/asylum seekers is not a choice. I grew up as a refugee; humanity has helped me, and I carry a debt I need to repay. I see people suffer just for being who they are, and that’s not humanity. Humanity is about sharing, supporting, and caring.”

Hazara Cultural Association

Also recognised was the Hazara Cultural Association (VIC), a community-based association that promotes Hazaragi culture and raises awareness of the Hazara community’s ongoing persecution and displacement. Hundreds of Hazara refugees in Australia continue to live in limbo as a result of Australia’s harsh immigration policies, and thousands more remain in Indonesia, with no viable pathway to resettlement due to the Australian government’s 2014 ban on the resettling refugees stranded in Indonesia.

Liaquat Ali, representing the association, shared a stark reality: ” We are advocating for the government to lift the ban on the resettlement of refugees who have been stuck in limbo in Indonesia for over a decade. These refugees have no right to work, no financial support, and no access to healthcare or education. They are experiencing the hardest days of their lives, and they deserve a fair go.”

Melkite Charitable Foundation 

The Melkite Charitable Foundation is a refugee-led organisation that provides settlement support, legal assistance, employment pathways, youth engagement, and mental health support to refugees from the Middle East. The Foundation’s refugee-led team brings cultural understanding and lived experience to their work, creating a safe and welcoming environment where people seeking asylum can rebuild their lives.

Their mission goes beyond service provision; they aim to shift narratives, break down misconceptions, and promote a more inclusive Australia – rooted in the belief that those closest to the issues must be central to the solutions.

Monica Chahoud of the Melkite Charitable Foundation explained just how big their work is: “We work with newly arrived refugees from the Middle East. About seven years ago, when the 12,000 refugees were brought in under the humanitarian settlement program, we had a very huge group come through our settlement system, who unfortunately, once they arrive here, often aren’t quite as advantaged as we are.”

Palestinian Christians in Australia 

Palestinian Christians in Australia (PCIA) is a non-profit organisation focused on supporting and preserving Palestinian Christian heritage and supporting Palestinians arriving from Gaza, regardless of faith. Their community-led efforts include mental health support, educational courses, support for women-led businesses, as well as mental health programs and traditional arts and crafts sessions.

PCIA President Suzan Wahhab recalled their community’s rapid response to the Gaza crisis: “When we founded this organisation it was more to provide advocacy for our community. But when the Gaza crisis happened… our organisation turned our work to housing the refugees and to charity work. The community chipped in, we raised money from the wider Australian community, who have been very generous and very supportive, to house and pay rent for 79 families.”

Australia Rohingya Women’s Development Organisation 

The Australia Rohingya Women’s Development Organisation (ARWDO), founded by and for Rohingya women from refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds, works to support Rohingya women, girls, and families across Australia through advocacy, culturally responsive wellbeing support, community education, and storytelling.

Their work addresses the multiple layers of marginalisation faced by stateless Rohingya women, including gender-based violence, limited access to services, language barriers, and intergenerational trauma. 

ARWDO co-founder and youth leader Asma Nayim Ullah spoke of the challenges her community faces: “The main issue is the persecution – back in our home country a lot of us have become displaced, in refugee camps, seeking asylum in different countries. Australia has a really big community of Rohingya people. The issues that we face are based on visa status, cultural differences, discrimination, and a lot of stigma and stereotypes in the community.”

See the representatives of these five incredible organisations describe their work at the World Refugee Day Telethon.