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http://www.podcast.tv/video-episodes/kon-karapanagiotidis-why-so-frightened-15322301.html
I can't embed the video. But I want to let you know it's worth clicking on. Kon Karapanagiotidis is the inspirational gentle man that started The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in 2001.
The centre now has over 700 volunteers who have cared for some 7000 people and provided one million hours of free help worth over 100 million dollars. It has never turned away anyone in need.
Kon Karapanagiotidis' parents arrived from Greece in the 1960s with a suitcase, a few dollars and not a word of English. He says that it was only through his parents' extraordinary sacrifices that 'I have the honour and joy of spending the last seventeen years doing what I love. Fighting for the oppressed and invisible people of our country, my people, my community, the true unsung heroes: refugees, the homeless, women and the poor'.
Check out his inspiration talk he talks about his experience in the nine years since he started the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.
"I have sat face to face with thousands of asylum seekers, trying to provide them with support and legal advice. There is a lot I notice in those moments: the look of fear, despair and uncertainty on people’s faces; the weariness of a life lived on the run from persecution; and the slump of bodies overwhelmed with experiences of loss and grief.
Never in those moments do I look at the person as someone to fear, or someone whose plight should be politicised. I look and think how easily that could be me, my mum or my sister. I remind myself that life is a human lottery; that I could have been born anywhere and it could so easily be me fleeing for my life on a leaky boat, begging for Australia to show me some compassion and care about my human rights." He says.
Check out the video. It's 25 minutes you will not regret. And grab a tissue, you might need one.
I can't embed the video. But I want to let you know it's worth clicking on. Kon Karapanagiotidis is the inspirational gentle man that started The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in 2001.
The centre now has over 700 volunteers who have cared for some 7000 people and provided one million hours of free help worth over 100 million dollars. It has never turned away anyone in need.
Kon Karapanagiotidis' parents arrived from Greece in the 1960s with a suitcase, a few dollars and not a word of English. He says that it was only through his parents' extraordinary sacrifices that 'I have the honour and joy of spending the last seventeen years doing what I love. Fighting for the oppressed and invisible people of our country, my people, my community, the true unsung heroes: refugees, the homeless, women and the poor'.
Check out his inspiration talk he talks about his experience in the nine years since he started the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.
"I have sat face to face with thousands of asylum seekers, trying to provide them with support and legal advice. There is a lot I notice in those moments: the look of fear, despair and uncertainty on people’s faces; the weariness of a life lived on the run from persecution; and the slump of bodies overwhelmed with experiences of loss and grief.
Never in those moments do I look at the person as someone to fear, or someone whose plight should be politicised. I look and think how easily that could be me, my mum or my sister. I remind myself that life is a human lottery; that I could have been born anywhere and it could so easily be me fleeing for my life on a leaky boat, begging for Australia to show me some compassion and care about my human rights." He says.
Check out the video. It's 25 minutes you will not regret. And grab a tissue, you might need one.
