By Ann Marie Angebrandt
TWO teenage girls from the Werribee Islamic College were recognised by the United Nations for their writing about the refugee experience.
Aisha el Kurdi, 16, of Altona North, won second place in the UN Refugee Agency’s annual writing competition from nearly 200 secondary school students across Australia.
While not a refugee herself, Aisha wrote about the courage required by those having to flee their home countries.
“I watch the news and hear the stories about the hardships they go through. I closed my eyes and imagined what it would be like to be one,” she said.
The aspiring journalist, whose parents left Lebanon to settle in Australia, said many of her perceptions of refugees were negative.
They involved boat people illegally sneaking in only to be dispatched to detention camps or far-off islands.
While reading their personal accounts and stories – especially those involving young women her own age she realised how much courage they needed.
“These people’s stories had gotten to me and it wasn’t a nice feeling.”
Her fellow student, Medina Hajdarevic, 16, of St Albans, won a highly commended award for her personal story of her family’s escape from the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s to eventual acceptance in Australia.
Medina fled to Croatia with her mother from war-torn Bosnia as a two-year-old, with the hope of finding her father.
In a fortunate twist of fate, her uncle and aunt in Slovenia happened to see footage shot by the Red Cross of her mum carrying Medina, who was then suffering with severe food poison.
The aunt and uncle made their way to Croatia and were able to get Medina and her mother safely across the border to Slovenia by diverting the attention of the border soldier while he checked passports.
“Though he did not know it, this soldier played a great part in the salvation and medical attention I received in Slovenia, for which I will always be indebted,” she wrote.
Medina, who is working toward a career in law or politics, said she whipped up the 1000-word essay the day the competition was closing.
“I had been struggling to write it before then but when I wrote as a personal account, it seemed to just flow out.”
The competition was judged by several UN officials, a Time Magazine journalist, and former Australian cricket captain Ian Chapell.
