With help from ECCQ, the Afar Community of Queensland recently lodged the final paperwork required to become an incorporated association to the Office of Fair Trading QLD. Before getting in touch with ECCQ, they did not know where to go or who to approach and felt a bit lost. They had been thinking of forming a community association for about a year, but they did not know how to start this process.
Once they got in touch with Community Sector Development Officer Claudia Diaz Amayo, they were able to receive help with sorting out paper work and finding out the steps needed to become an incorporated organisation. This included organising their community and delegating roles to fill a committee, writing up a constitution, sorting out liability insurance and filling out forms online.
Mohammed Salih is the president of the Afar Community of Queensland. He arrived to Australia about two years ago after living as a refugee in Ethiopia for six years. He has worked as a community facilitator and interpreter working with refugees. Mohammed said he appreciated how Claudia came to meet with them and help them refine the objectives of their organisation.
The Afar community is an emerging community in Australia. Mohammed says four years is the longest a community association member has been here. They are originally from Eritrea and have lived as refugees for many years. Some of them lived in refugee camps for more than ten years before being granted entry as refugees by the Australian government.
Many have all settled in the Brisbane and Ipswich area. Once they arrived they found people with similar backgrounds and culture to integrate with and as more families arrived they decided to form a community association sharing the same culture, backgrounds and religion. This would enable them to then more easily integrate further into Australian society and with other communities.
Mohammed says his community is delighted with the opportunity to become a recognised community in Australia where they look forward to living in harmony with other communities.
There are about six Afar families with children in the QLD community. Mohammed says most of these families are female headed as the male heads of the families have usually been lost due to persecution. The Afar community consists largely of young members between the ages of 18 – 25.
He says ECCQ has made the process easy for them and he is happy to feel that his community is recognised in Australia. Thank you very much on the behalf of the Afar Community.
