On 4th July 2025, we were joined by over 80 people to celebrate Refugee Week 2025 at JRS Australia.

This year’s Refugee Week theme was Finding Freedom: Diversity in Community. This is something that we see and practice every day at JRS. For our showcase event this year, we welcomed our diverse JRS Australia family – our clients, volunteers, staff and broader community together for a night of heartfelt stories and presentations, wonderful singing and delicious food. 

For the third year in a row, the Refugee Week event was hosted by our Refugee Leadership Program – celebrating refugee leaders’ strength and resilience, providing a platform for their stories to be heard, and connecting a community keen to advocate for change. 

Food, art and conversation  

Attendees were greeted at the start of the night with delicious a Persian dinner prepared by Mahboubeh and Neda, previous clients of JRS, alongside welcoming music by DJ Maggie, who also works as our Finding Safety Project’s Specialist SGBV Caseworker. Our JRS family chatted and laughed over Gheimeh (lentil and beef stew with rice), Yatimcheh (eggplant, potato and tomato stew), salad and Mastokhiar (yoghurt sauce). 

We were also proud to host artwork created by wonderful artists that are or have previously been clients at JRS. Hediyeh’s art, featuring lots of nature and earthy tones on big canvases, lined the walls of the space leading to the stage, creating a beautiful atmosphere for the event.  

We also had Elham Boutique who showcased and sold their beautiful Tatreez products and Abdulfattah Hashem with majestic and realistic paintings of iconic buildings and landscapes.  

Over the last 2 months, our Employment Program has also been running Art Classes in partnership with TAFE and the Community Migrant Resource Centre. The student artists created a beautiful banner reflecting on the refugee week theme, and we were honoured to display this on the night.

Art is such as powerful way of expressing our deepest feelings, and connecting across borders.

Thank you to all the artists that made this Refugee Leadership particularly special!

Presentations, songs and films  

With our bellies full, we settled in for the presentations for the night. Kristen, our Schools and Community Engagement Officer and our MC for the night reflected beautifully on this year’s refugee week theme:  

“Although World Refugee Day is a powerful moment to stop to reflect, advocate for and take action for a more inclusive, compassionate world – at JRS we recognize that this needs to happen not just on one day, but every day.” 

From there we heard incredibly inspiring speeches from our refugee leaders that reflected their experiences of Diversity in Community, and how engaging with diverse communities has helped them in their journey to settle and find safety and belonging.  

Zainab shared a powerful speech about her experience seeking asylum, and finding her way through the challenges of being “different” – towards a personal sense of belonging.

“To anyone who’s ever felt they didn’t belong: please know that your difference is your strength,” shared Zainab. “And your story, like mine, is needed in the tapestry of a truly diverse and compassionate world.” 

Leader Abdul also shared about how important the support from JRS Australia has been in helping him build agency and independence, while navigating a system that sought to exclude him because of his visa status, and his disability.

“Joining the JRS Refugee Leadership and Employment Programs has helped me build new skills, become more independent, and work towards building a better future, without being a burden on the government,” Abdul noted.

Leaders made a range of creative presentations.

Dindo shared a poem he composed himself, and his son Mark (Matcha Maku) also sang 3 beautiful songs.

A highlight of the night for attendees was a short film made by Batoul, one of our newest leaders, whose incredibly moving presentation was dedicated to friendship and her friends in Gaza. 

“My friends made me who I am.” Batoul shared. 

We concluded the night with Thanush, a seasoned advocate for those affected by the failed fast-track system, who reflected on the power of community in advocating for the rights of people seeking asylum:   

“Those in the community on temporary visas will not be silenced anymore,” Thanush highlighted. “This is the right time to push the government for change.”    

Something sweet to end the night

The evening was deeply moving for everyone involved. Following the presentations, attendees were treated to Sholezard (Saffron rice pudding) – something sweet and uplifting to reflect the warmth and connection we had shared together.

Thank you to our JRS Australia family for coming together and celebrating Refugee Week with us again this  year. Together, we can keep creating opportunities like this where we amplify the voices of people with lived experience, we listen intently, and then we take action to make Australia a better place! 

A special thank you to our dear friends at the Diocese of Parramatta for partnering with JRS Australia to put on this wonderful event. Your support and solidarity are both gifts that we treasure deeply and are immensely grateful for. 

Get Involved 

If you or anyone you know would like to be part of the Refugee Leadership Program, please fill out this Expression of Interest form or reach out to refugeeleadership@jrs.org.au for more information.