A multicultural leader from Footscray is stepping onto the national stage to provide a voice for her generation.
Salma Sumar has been elected youth chairwoman of the Federation of Ethnic Communities Council Australia, the peak national body representing Australians from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds.
Ms Sumar, 27, said FECCA worked to fight against discrimination and racism.
Her role will be to advocate and promote issues on behalf of the nation’s young people to all levels of government, business and the broader community.
“I will work hard to promote joint action and co-operation between ethnic communities on issues of common concern,” she said.
Ms Sumar became involved in multicultural issues while living in Tasmania and has continued her activism since arriving in Melbourne about eight years ago.
“I did a lot of work with the CALD, refugee and migrant community down in Tasmania,” she said. “I started when I was quite young, about 13 or 14, organising International Women’s Day and other community events and some workshops.”
Ms Sumar was born in India and lived in Dubai and Britain before migrating to Australia. She has a masters of public health degree and is researching health issues that affect CALD youth. She sees education as the key to ensuring young people feel part of Australian history and culture.
Ms Sumar’s first goal as youth chairwoman is to develop a “toolkit” to help young jobseekers find work. “Many young people from CALD backgrounds face difficulties with language acquisition,” she said.
“This has a significant impact on their ability to understand and benefit from the formal Australian education system and seek out employment opportunities.”
Ms Sumar said she also looks forward to working with FECCA’s youth advisory committee, which is undertaking a join project with the University of Technology in Sydney focused on cyber-racism.
“The aim of the project is to explore the extent to which social media can be used positively to build community resilience in the face of cyber-racism.”
