Australian of the Day Kon Karapanagiotidis strives to give refugees a fair go
INSPIRED by the struggles of his parents and his own experiences with racism, Kon Karapanagiotidis used his drive for justice and equality to help people rebuild broken lives.
AS founder and CEO of the Melbourne-based Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, Kon Karapanagiotidis has dedicated the past 15 years helping people restart broken lives.
“The refugees who come through the door are the most courageous, resilient entrepreneurial people I’ve ever come across,” says Kon. “The best part is watching as their kids become the dux of the school or go on to university. The hard part is seeing people suffer.”
A lawyer and teacher, Kon started the ASRC in 2001 as a project for a TAFE class he was teaching. Today it’s grown into $10 million not-for-profit organisation that is committed to upholding the human rights of all refugees.
“We’ve helped about 12,000 seeking asylum in Australia,” says Kon, 43. “We have 84 staff, 1300 volunteers and we provide over 250,000 hours a year of free assistance to people seeking asylum, worth about $40 million. I don’t know how many lives we’ve saved but it would be thousands.”
Kon says his sense of social justice had its origin during his childhood.
“My grandparents were refugees in Europe,” he says. “My parents came to Australia in the 1960s as migrants with nothing. They worked horrible, exploitative jobs so my sister and I might have an education. But they always taught us the importance of thinking about your community and caring for people outside of your own family. They taught us compassion.”
Taking this to heart, today’s Australian of the Day started volunteering in a homeless men’s shelters at 18 and spent the next 25 years volunteering and working for people as a lawyer, teacher and advocate.
“To play a small part in saving thousands of people lives and to enable them to come here, integrate and thrive here and make Australia even greater — that’s the most beautiful part of my job,” he says.
CommBank has partnered with News Corp Australia for the Australian of the Day initiative in 2016 that celebrates Australians who make a real contribution to their communities. Go to the australianoftheday.com.au website where you can read all about these amazing Australians and perhaps even nominate someone you know.
Originally published as Australian of the Day Kon Karapanagiotidis strives to give refugees a fair go
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