Ambassador Anil Wadhwa Former Ministry of External Affairs Government of India Author, Australia Economic Strategy Report 2020
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Ambassador Anil Wadhwa Former Ministry of External Affairs Government of India Author, Australia Economic Strategy Report 2020
Ambassador Anil Wadhwa Former Ministry of External Affairs Government of India Author, Australia Economic Strategy Report 2020
IABCA in 2014
2019 YOUNG COMMUNITY ACHIEVER OF THE YEAR FINALISTS
Gursimrat Bawa
Consultant
Deloitte Consulting Australia
Joseph F. Kolapudi
Australian Refugee and Migrant Care Services
Manu Singh
Sporting Ambassador
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Gursimrat moved from Delhi to Sydney 5 years ago to pursue his childhood dream of building an aeroplane. Just like any other immigrant student, the journey for him has posed several challenges ranging from cultural shifts to new education systems. However, he strived to overcome these challenges and graduated with a Masters in Aerospace Engineering from The University of Sydney in Sep 2016. He currently works with Deloitte Australia as a graduate technology consultant and volunteers his time at the Young Sikh Professional Australia (YSPN), a non-profit that aims to help young Australian Sikhs amplify their influence.
Joseph is a young achiever who has a passion for entrepreneurship and social action. His work within the community has gained recognition in multicultural circles and across demographics, especially in regards to his work with young people. He was recently recognised for his efforts by the World Economic Forum, as he was named as a Global Shaper for his work in and around Brisbane. He also was elected to the Board of Directors for the Australian Refugee and Migrant Care Services (ARMCare) nonprofit initiative, which provides medical care and support for migrants and refugees within the community. Additionally, he currently serves on the Statewide Youth Council for Multicultural Youth Queensland (MYQ), which is the state branch for the peak body, Multicultural Youth Advocacy Network (MYAN).
Manpreet Singh (Manu) is proudly associated with the Glenn McGrath foundation and many other charity foundations from last decade. This foundation works for raising funds and spreading awareness for breast cancer cause. He has been involved in a campaign for forgotten soldiers who served in the battle of Gallipoli and raising crowd funding for the documentary of forgotten ones after doing research on them. Additionally, He is doing a campaign on Climate change in Northern India, especially in Delhi due to increasing pollution every year where more than half a million people are killed with serious health issues.
Meghna Sanam
Founder & Artistic Director
Just Naach
Meghna is the founder and Artistic director of Just Naach Bollywood Dance School in Melbourne. Meghna’s vision is to build a physically and mentally healthy community through dance. She runs weekly Bollywood fitness classes to encourage regular exercise within the community and believes age/culture is no barrier to dancing. With students from various cultural backgrounds and ages ranging from 6 years to 65+ years, her classes are not only a fun and interactive exercise alternative, but they also allow those with a South East Asian background to feel connected to their roots through music and dance. Meghna is also currently studying a Postgraduate Diploma in Psychology and is working towards becoming a registered Psychologist specialising in Dance Therapy.
Mili Dakshin
Artist
Sand Art
Mili has a unique talent of creating stunning paintings and artworks through Sand Art in a very short span of 7 to 8 minutes. She has been using this talent to do paintings on the stage and auctioning them to raise money to help various charities and noble causes.
Along with her sister, Khushi Dakshin, she has raised more than $23,200 so far to help those in real need. Mili along with Khushi have recently started 'Painting classes' to transfer their skills to youngsters and has donated the first two months income to charity (Flood in Kerala) as well.
Niharika Hiremath
Mental Health Commissioner
Headspace National Youth Mental Health Foundation
Niharika is a young first-generation migrant who has overcome her personal struggles to become a leader and advocate in the mental health field. Initially having to overcome clinical depression and anxiety due to a number of factors, she has been working in the area since 2015 to bring awareness to important issues in the culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities. She started volunteering with headspace-Dandenong - a local youth mental health service - at the start of 2017. She joined headspace's Youth National Reference Group at the end of 2017 as one of 20 young Australians across the country giving direct input and feedback in regard to youth mental health.
Nikhil Autar
Founder & CEO
Get to Sleep Easy
Nikhil was diagnosed with Leukemia at just 17 and given a 10-20% chance of surviving. Somehow he got through all that and managed to accomplish his dream of becoming a doctor by getting admitted into medicine the next year. But it was only after Nikhil started studying medicine, after he looked at the literature, and after he lost 2 friends to preventable complications like falls and pneumonias that he knew he had to do something about this pernicious issue. These 2 issues, along with pressure sores, are the most common causes of hospitalisation. They take tens of thousands of lives/year, and cost billions too. In just a year, he partnered with Australia's largest nursing homes, won Australian Student Startup of the Year, received numerous government grants, made it to national (and also international) news numerous times, generated pre-sales and is designing a subsidised, complication-reducing bed alternative for developing countries.
Prerna Pahwa
Simply Human Inc.
Superheroes Without Capes
Prerna was a finalist in the Young Community Achiever category for the IABCA Awards in 2017. In 2018 Prerna was the proud Youth Ambassador of IABCA.In January 2019, Prerna has become the first Australian of Indian Orirgin to receive the prestigious Lord Mayor's Australia Day ‘Achievement’ Award in recognition for her community service. Prerna is a reflection of selfless service, to provide relief to others. An IT professional, Prerna is committed to creating an inclusive environment for all through her selfless contributions towards humanity. Prerna also helps people battling depression, that helps improve the welfare of humankind, by educating & empowering youth.
Sanskriti Mehta
Executive Director
Guftugu
Guftugu is an educational initiative based in the lower socio-economic regions of Jaipur, operating in locally established schools as third party educators. They tackle educational disparity and constricted opportunity resulting from the economic ability and social perceptions pertaining to those in poverty. Too often, we see those without access to basic human necessities facing even more barriers to their learning. Families in Jaipur grapple with familial dispute, unattended mental health, domestic violence and lack of hygiene and health services. Faced with such circumstances, and more, only 25% of those from families living in extreme poverty will have the chance to attend school. Even given that opportunity, a student will, on average, be 2 years behind in their learning by the time they complete primary school.
Shyamla Eswaran
Artist
Shyamla Dance
Shyamla is a 34-year-old full time female Performing Artist, Choreographer & Educator of South Indian heritage. Born in Sydney 1984, Shyamla was raised in the Sutherland Shire where she was racially bullied from Kindergarten onwards. After years of working in social justice, including roles at the Australian Human Rights Commission (Public Affairs Officer & Media Advisor), NSW Aboriginal Land Council (Associate Publisher of Aboriginal rights magazine "Tracker") and Barnardos Australia (Public Relations & Media Manager), she realised one of the best ways to effect social change is through the arts and working with children.
Tarang Chawla
Not One More Niki
Tarang is the founder of the Not One More Niki campaign to end violence against women, following the murder of his 23-year-old sister, Nikita, in 2015. Tarang advises the government, corporate and community sectors on human-centred responses to men’s violence against women. His work has increased Australia’s understanding of the judicial shortcomings, policy failings and cultural attitudes that have led to male violence being a leading cause of death and disability for Australian women under 45.. Tarang is a 2017 Young Australian of the Year Finalist, recipient of the University of Melbourne Rising Star Award for young alumni and named in the Top 25 Most Influential People working for social change by Pro Bono Australia. Tarang is a regular commentator on gender equality, racism, discrimination, Australia-India relations and political affairs.
Yatha Jain
Sydney University & Stryker Medical Technology
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Yatha has demonstrated leadership and initiative in a wide array of experiences, particularly within the non-profit and health sectors. She has undertaken various volunteering projects to assist clients in the not-for-profit sector, including projects in South Africa and Nepal and is also an advocate for gender equality, especially for young, culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) females, demonstrated through her work with NSW Council of Social Services and as the Vice President of the Sydney University Women in Engineering Society. She has also won the Vice Chancellor’s Global Mobility Scholarship – University of Sydney 2018. The Global Women’s Summit Scholarship – Federal Office for Women 2018 and was highly Commended – Engineers Without Borders First Year Challenge 2015