On Friday March 20th, Leadership Australia participant Pashtana Yad was asked to deliver an address to the wider non-Muslim community about the issues that Muslims (particularly youth) face in Australian Society. This was followed by a panel discussion on these issues. Panellists included Muhammad Agherdien, Sheikh of Mirrabooka Mosque, Shameema Kolia, President of Muslim Youth WA, Wajma Padshah, Welfare Coordinator of Muslim Women’s Support Service WA, Dr Gregory Acciaioli, Lecturer in Anthropology/Sociology at the University of Western Australia. The topics discussed were broad in scope and covered many issues faced by Muslims in Australian society. People also asked questions about Muslim faith, customs and practices and most people came away with more understanding.

Following on from the success of 2008, the Edmund Rice Centre Youth Leaders continued their efforts as part of the Every Human Has Rights Campaign, launched by the Global Elders in December 2007. This year, the leaders supported the campaign by hosting a stall at the Office of Multicultural Interest’s Connect Global Village at Burswood in Perth, Western Australia. Here, the leaders promoted the Elders and the Campaign and collected 101 signatures, including that of the Honourable Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Interests, John Castrilli.

This was followed up with an event hosted at the Hainsworth Centre in Girrawheen, with the Youth Leaders delivering talk about issues related to human rights. The presentation topics at this year’s event included:

• The history of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Living the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• The Universal Declaration of Human Responsibilities
• The Elders
• The achievements of the Elders
• The Every Human Has Rights Campaign and its history and achievements
• The Human Rights Council / Office for the High Commissioner of Human Rights
• The United Nations

The Leaders collected over 100 signatures as part of this event. Two local members of parliament were in attendance, the Honourable Member for Girrawheen and the Honourable Member for Nollamara, and were particularly impressed with the quality of the Leaders presentations. The atmosphere at the event was festive and many local community organisations helped out including City of Wanneroo, City of Stirling, Community Parks Project, Girradoola Lions Club, Scouts WA and Ancetrais Capoeira.

Following this event, the Leaders again promoted the signing of the Declaration at Refugee Week celebrations held at the town hall in Fremantle. Again the Leaders collected around 100 signatures and promoted the Every Human Has Rights Campaign by handing out balloons and bags, as well as information about the Elders.

The Senior Leaders from the Edmund Rice Centre Youth Leadership Program attended an Advanced Leadership Camp in May 2009. The camp was centred around the main themes taught in the Leadership Program. These included Honesty, Understanding Actions, Relationships, Non-violence and Respect, Determination, Logic and Strategy and Being a Good Leader. The Leaders watched the movie Gandhi, who embodied all of these qualities and put them into practice. The aim for these leaders was to increase their knowledge and ability to achieve the highest leadership ideals and continue to put them into practice through the Youth Leadership Program.

The Senior Leaders from the Edmund Rice Centre Youth Leadership Program attended an Advanced Leadership Camp in May 2009. The camp was centred around the main themes taught in the Leadership Program. These included Honesty, Understanding Actions, Relationships, Non-violence and Respect, Determination, Logic and Strategy and Being a Good Leader. The Leaders watched the movie Gandhi, who embodied all of these qualities and put them into practice. The aim for these leaders was to increase their knowledge and ability to achieve the highest leadership ideals and continue to put them into practice through the Youth Leadership Program.

In July and August 2009 the Youth Leadership Group ran music and documentary-making workshops to show young people that the process of producing music and movies is cheap and that with a little know-how and access to an internet connection anyone can do it. The workshops were part of the World Aware program run by Red Cross which culminated in the Proud Youth Festival, held at the Herb Graham Recreation Centre in Mirrabooka. This spawned the formation of the Youth Leadership Group Media Team, which is now responsible for all media activities performed by the Youth Leadership Group.

The Edmund Rice Centre Youth Leadership Group ran the second annual Edmund Rice Games for both the Refugee and Indigenous Sports Program participants at Keith Maine Recreation Centre in Whiteman Park. All of the activities were run entirely by the Youth Leadership group with assistance from adult helpers, who also helped to coordinate the camp. The Department of Child Protection provided the venue for the camp free of charge. The purpose of the camp was to encourage the goals of the Olympic movement “to contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practised without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play” with the ultimate aim of reinforcing these goals in the Multicultural Sports Program. To this end, we invited Athens 2004 Olympian Glen Loftus, who won a silver medal at the Games in the Men’s Lightweight Coxless Four. This proved quite successful as Glen shared his experiences at the Olympics, showed the participants his silver medal and joined in the games for the afternoon. Unfortunately, he was only able to join us for one camp. An underlying theme of the camp was to facilitate interaction between Refugee Program participants and Youth Leaders, with the aim of encouraging the concept of youth leadership amongst the current and prospective participants in the Refugee Sports Program. To this end, both camps were very successful and all who participated enjoyed themselves immensely.