Mohammed Almousawy stands tall and his confident yet considered tone relays his tale, one no family should have to suffer.
He fled Iraq with his parents after dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime killed some of his family members and ongoing turmoil forced them to leave.
His immediate family members travelled across the Pacific by boat, before Australian Border Force intercepted them and sent them to Christmas Island. They arrived on Australian soil in 2000.
They spent a year in Shepparton before making their way to Cobram, his father working his way from labouring on farms to owning an orchard, while his mum cared for the children at home.
Now, speaking at a Refugee Week morning tea at Cobram Community House, the 22-year-old shares his local yet relatable story with the attendees.
“It was pretty difficult (growing up in Cobram), we had to learn the language, which was difficult because I didn’t have the support of my parents to go back home and them teaching me,” he said.
His voice has dropped, words slower and more considered, different from the way his voice quickens and his eyes brighten as he speaks on his aspirations and future.
“It was pretty abnormal for the students because they didn’t understand my culture. As we came in, there wasn’t that many ethnic people from Iraq, so it was difficult for (the school students) to understand my perspective,” Mohammed said.
“It took time for them to understand our culture, our perspective. And then the generation that came in integrated the Australian culture with the Iraqi culture, it ended up really well with this community.”
Over time, Mohammed and his family settled in and slotted into Cobram’s social landscape, but they were not the only people to benefit from increasingly multicultural society.
“I think multiculturalism educates you, it enriches your personality... I reckon it gives you that deeper understanding of other people and how to understand them,” he said.
”(Seeing people from different cultures in town) it makes me even more wanting to support those people and do what I can to make them feel like they are welcomed into the community.“
Mohammed said welcoming and supporting newly arrived migrants and refugees in social, mental and financial ways helped ensure they felt secure in their new home.
“I think maybe having a monthly event where you come in and discuss the daily things ... simple things I found a problem for my parents, like they struggled to fill out forms and sometimes when you don’t have family to support you, you can’t figure that out.”
Now, Mohammed is on the way to becoming a doctor after his parents suffered severe injuries in a house fire and had a low chance of survival.
“I felt vulnerable, I felt like I couldn’t do stuff. And I want to be that support for someone who is in need. I want to make them feel like they’re not alone,” he said.
While he is soon to finish his biomedical science degree at Victoria University, Mohammed hopes to specialise as a cardiologist and bring his expertise back to Cobram.
Mohammed said his background could bring another facet of expertise to many others in the medical field, not just himself.
“I think me bringing that (culture) into the medical field, I can educate a lot more people about the differences in culture,” he said.
“When you do tell them (about a cultural custom), they do respect it, it just needs to be more awareness, like when you see it you just instantly know.
“I reckon it gives you that deeper understanding of other people, to me as a doctor, me understanding different cultures is going to be very beneficial for you.”