Aldergham had come to Australia from Jordan, in the Middle East, a few years earlier – as an international student – to complete his master’s degree in marketing management at Brisbane’s Griffith University.

And, while he had arrived in Australia as a 24-year-old with great enthusiasm for what he considered to be an “exciting adventure”, he hadn’t realised just how hard it would be to be away from his family and friends and to establish his life and career in a new country where he barely spoke the language.

In Jordan, Aldergham had grown up in a middle class family as the eldest of five children and completed a bachelor degree in business management before kicking off a successful career in hospitality and tourism, first as a reservations manager in a hotel and then as a sales manager for a thriving tourism company.

But, in Brisbane, Aldergham found himself working in a string of odd jobs to survive – as a labourer, house cleaner, convenience store cashier, furniture removalist and bread factory worker – while struggling to pass English exams so he could officially start his master’s degree.

Even once he finished his studies, Aldergham still found life wasn’t panning out the way he had imagined. He struggled to find a job despite his two degrees and sound work history in Jordan. Aldergham felt he was wasting precious time and money as he wasn’t living up to his own potential.

“I didn’t have to leave Jordan. I wasn’t running away from anything, I had a very comfortable life and a very supportive family and a strong support network,’’ Aldergham recalls.

“I’d call a friend (in Jordan) and they’d say, ‘How lucky are you!’ but they had no idea. These were people I’d graduated with, and I was hearing that someone is a bank manager or someone is a pilot. They were all forging their successful careers and lives … and here I was driving a taxi at 4am. To me that was demoralising, to be honest with you – it was pretty tough.’’

Fast forward to today and 45-year-old Aldergham is now a familiar face in Tasmania, as the CEO of children’s charity Variety Tasmania. He is married with two young children, he speaks passionately about his work and his life in Tasmania – where he has lived for the past 15 years – and proudly calls Hobart home.

Aldergham says he is eternally grateful to Tasmania for giving him a chance when he was at such a low point in his life, because a job offer at Strahan Village gave him renewed hope for the future and led him to where he is today.

The idea to come to Australia had been a bit of a joke initially, he says. At the time, he was in a business partnership with his cousin, running an internet cafe in the days before smartphones, home internet and social media became mainstream. And that cousin had a friend who was living in Australia.

“It was back in the day when people used chat rooms, before Facebook and all of those sorts of things,’’ Aldergham says.

“My cousin had a friend living in Brisbane and one evening we were sitting in those chat rooms, and my cousin was talking to his friend. I jokingly said, ‘Maybe we should go and visit your friend in Australia.’”

Aldergham says as a young male in the Middle East, it was not as simple as going to the embassy to apply for a tourist visa. So, his comment was just a lighthearted quip.

But, a few weeks later, a parcel arrived from his cousin’s friend in Australia. He was excited to see what was inside, and to his surprise it contained a conditional enrolment letter from Griffith University.

“I was very disappointed,’’ Aldergham admits. “I didn’t think I wanted to look into a book ever again.’’

But, when Aldergham’s dad heard about the study offer, he made his son an attractive offer.

“My dad came to me one day and said, ‘If you commit to going to Australia to study, I’ll fund your trip.’’’

It was a proposition too good for a 24-year-old to refuse, and soon Aldergham had applied for a student visa and was waiting for approval to start his big adventure.

However, that adventure was almost over before it began – it was March 2003 and the US had just invaded Iraq, which meant embassies in Jordan had closed and all visa applications had been moved offshore for processing. Aldergham wasn’t confident his trip would go ahead, particularly as he had to be in Australia by the middle of June to comply with the conditions of his university enrolment.

But, a week before his intended departure date, his visa was finalised, so he farewelled his family and landed in Sydney.

He remembers walking up to the airport taxi rank and giving a driver the address of Griffith’s Nathan campus in Brisbane, which raised a few eyebrows. Aldergham had no idea he was in the wrong city, much less the wrong state, nor any concept of the distance between capital cities in his new-found homeland.

Fortunately, the taxi driver sent him back inside the airport terminal and he soon boarded a plane to Brisbane.

“English wasn’t my first language, so it was quite hard for me,’’ Aldergham recalls of those early days in Australia.

“I had a few moments at uni where I was sitting in the classroom, listening to the lecturer and I’d just have these blackouts to be honest, I’d think, ‘What is he saying?’… it was almost surreal at times. The first six months, I questioned everything. It was a challenge, but I felt I had committed (to studying in Australia), I couldn’t turn around and go back to Jordan.

“When Dad said goodbye to me, he said ‘You’re now on your own son, make me proud.’ Dad is a man of very few words, so it was his way of saying ‘I love you, son – I trust you and I believe in you, and off you go into the world.’’’

After completing his studies, Aldergham managed to find a job in a three-star hotel in Brisbane, although he says it seemed less about his skill set and more about the fact they were “extremely desperate”.

He started as a front office supervisor, progressing to guest services manager, then assistant general manager.

As the general manager was absent a lot, Aldergham was effectively running the business and, when the general manager resigned, he confidently applied for the role but was disappointed to discover he didn’t get the job.

“They said, ‘We’d love to keep you, but we’ve found someone with more experience.’And I thought ‘Goodness, this is going absolutely nowhere.’’’

He quit that job soon after, despite having no other prospects on the horizon. He felt like he’d wasted the past six years of his life.

“I sat down in a cafe just down the road from the hotel and thought, ‘Oh, right, now what?’’’ Aldergham recalls. “I had no money to go back (to Jordan). And apart from a bit of cardboard – my master’s degree – I had nothing to show for where I had been for the last six years.’’

He rang a friend in Perth, Western Australia, and went to visit, enjoying an impromptu roadtrip which helped provide clarity.

“It was a good time for me to reflect,’’ Aldergham says. “I didn’t have answers or leads or pathways, I just knew I couldn’t go back to Jordan. Then, lo and behold, an opportunity came up in Strahan.’’

Aldergham had never been to Tasmania and knew little about the state, but he applied for a job as front office manager at Strahan Village.

He completed a phone interview and was invited to meet in person with the Federal Group operations manager, who happened to be holidaying on the Gold Coast.

And soon Aldergham and his girlfriend Meghan – who would become his wife – were on their way to Tasmania for what they expected to be a 12-month sea change.

It was January 2009 when they got picked up in Launceston and driven to Strahan, and Aldergham laughs as he recalls a conversation he had with Meghan when their vehicle stopped for fuel in the small mining town of Rosebery.

“Meghan leant over the seat and said, ‘We’re not moving here, just letting you know,’’’ Aldergham grins.

But the coastal town of Strahan was more visually enticing and Meghan soon had a change of heart.

They ended up staying in Strahan for four years and, while it was tough at times being in a remote West Coast town, especially during the depths of winter, Aldergham formed strong community relationships and his career progressed well – he felt he was finally moving forward.

“For me it was just a whole new chapter in my life story,’’ Aldergham says. “I can’t begin to explain what it means to me now. What was going to be a 12-month sea change reset my direction. Things changed in a very positive way. The people I worked with were amazing. My career progressed very quickly and in four years I went from managing 142 rooms as front office manager to the hotel manager managing the whole $10 million operation.’’

Aldergham became an Australian citizen in a ceremony on Strahan’s Ocean Beach in early 2010, and also began organising community events.

He’d noticed the town was buzzing during the summer months – when days were long, spirits were high and tourists flocked to the region. But spirits fell dramatically after Easter, when the weather cooled and business slowed.

So, Aldergham launched initiatives to get locals physically active, including a 9km Beach to Bay fun run.

There were plenty of doubters, but he forged ahead and the first event was a huge success, raising $45,000 to support the local primary school.

The school had only 14 students at that time, so each student was provided with a laptop, and the school’s unreliable internet connection was upgraded and a new playground was installed.

The event continued annually for three more years, raising vital funds for the community to cover the cost of outdoor exercise equipment on the foreshore and interpretative signs detailing the town’s mining and pining history.

“It was pretty rewarding and it ignited the fire in me,’’ Aldergham says. “I’ve always been interested in bigger causes … that was the first time I think I realised I could put things into action and see the results.’’

He later worked in Hobart as general manager of Mantra Hotel (One Sandy Bay Rd), then as assistant hotel manager at Wrest Point, where he spent four years before being made redundant.

A tough 13 months followed – Aldergham struggled to secure employment and by then he and Meghan had a house and had welcomed their first child to the world.

During this time, Aldergham joined the board of Variety Tasmania, keen to be part of a cause-driven organisation and develop skills that hopefully would allow him to move into the field of community development.

When the organisation’s CEO resigned in 2018, Aldergham stepped in temporarily, but ultimately was appointed permanent CEO, a role he has proudly held for six years.

In that time, Aldergham and his Variety team have made huge strides in boosting the organisation’s profile, raising greater public awareness about what the charity does and taking existing fundraising events to new heights, while also implementing a range of new programs supporting sick and disadvantaged children and their families.

Aldergham says he could see huge potential for the organisation and was keen to help maximise it. He started by building the organisation’s events portfolio, making events like Variety of Gins and The Variety Monster Book Fair more attractive, by offering greater value for money for the public and the business partners supporting the events.

The financial results speak for themselves. The Variety of Chefs gala event, which brings together top chefs to take diners on a unique culinary journey, raised $17,000 net profit in 2019, while this year’s event raised $151,000. The TasBash rally had been making a net profit of $50,000 a year, and this year – with the main event not due to get under way until next month – it has already raised $160,000.

Similar results have been seen across other Variety events, and that gives the organisation – which doesn’t receive government funding – a steady revenue stream that enables more programs to be put in place.

Variety Kids Sports Days are now providing sporting opportunities for Tasmanian kids living with a disability, while the Game Changer initiative rehomes good-quality preloved sports equipment with children in disadvantaged communities. There’s also a Starfish program, funded by Variety and run by Surf Life Saving Tasmania, which provides a modified Nippers program for children with a disability.

Meanwhile, Motor Mouth camps have been supporting families of children with limited speech, who rely on a communication system/talker to express themselves, while Art Therapy programs in schools are helping kids overcome trauma.

Variety has also taken over the management of the Archie’s 100 fund, raising money for better equipment and patient care at the Royal Hobart Hospital’s neonatal and paediatric intensive care unit, with plans under way to upgrade the courtyard areas in the children’s ward. Ten pallets of Lego have also been delivered this year to the Royal Hobart Hospital, Launceston General Hospital and North West Regional Hospital to help make the hospital experience less traumatic for Tassie children.

Wigs for Kids provides wigs for children who have lost their hair due to a medical condition. And the Variety School Breakfast Club enables 25 schools across the state to deliver a nutritious breakfast to all students five days a week.

The program began last year but already the results are being seen – teachers report a 20 per cent decrease in anti-social behaviour during the morning learning block as well as better behaviour in the playground. More children are arriving at school on time and there’s a higher level of engagement from parents within the school community,

Aldergham, the father of sons aged 8 and 10, says many Tasmanians take food for granted and don’t realise there are kids in the state who don’t get to eat before school. He would love to see the program rolled out across all Tassie schools, and hopes the success of the existing program will help build a strong case for that.

His overarching goal for Variety, and all its programs and events, is to not just address an immediate need but also create long-term change for future generations.

“I love it,” Aldergham says of his work.

“For me, the driving force of me being behind an organisation is whether I can make a difference. I am that type of person who is energised by outcomes and by a challenge. All of Variety for me is a challenge, and will continue to be a challenge, and I love that.’’

While financially the organisation is in a much better position than when Aldergham first became involved, he says it is the success stories he hears from parents and children that provide the biggest reward.

“If one child turns around and says ‘that program made a difference to me’ then it’s worth it,’’ Aldergham says.

“I am extremely privileged in my work. The reward I get every time we grant a family, launch a program or instigate a project that we know will make a difference to those kids is something I cherish every day.”

It was this same desire to help others that led Aldergham to run as a Liberal candidate for Clark this year, as he felt the platform would enable him to do what he does now, but on a bigger scale. His campaign was unsuccessful, but Aldergham remains passionate about Tasmania and the state’s future.

“I don’t want to sound like I’m being cheesy here, but Tassie to me is a very, very special place and I genuinely believe Tassie has a lot of potential … Tassie is an unpolished gem,’’ he says. “I really don’t think we as Tasmanians realise what we have, we don’t realise our possibility and potential.’’

He cringes when he thinks back to his “superficial” decision to come to Australia for a “free holiday” thanks to his father’s generosity.

But he’s glad he took the opportunity – despite it being challenging at times – as it ultimately brought him to Tasmania, where he has created a life he loves.

“Opportunities come our way all the time and it is our job to embrace every opportunity because you never know which opportunity is the one for you until you try all of them,’’ Aldergham says.

For information about Variety Tasmania programs and events, including the TasBash community rally which runs from October 19-24, visit variety.org.au/tas