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Everybody deserves to have a better life.

Mariam

By MARIAM MAZ HAKIM

Over 40 million people around the world today are refugees. Refugee week is a celebration of the resilience, strength and courage that refugees face every single day of their lives. Most of them are so far away from civilisation, that they don’t even realise that there is a week specially dedicated to them.

Refugees are dreamers. Dreamers of a better life and a better future. And everybody deserves to have a better life.

My parents were dreamers too. They seeked a better life. They escaped Afghanistan during the Russian invasion, on horseback with three children aged 6 months, 7 years and 9 years old.  I was later born in a refugee camp in Pakistan.

Had they not escaped, my life would be very different today. I would most likely be living in a refugee camp and certainly would not be working in radio.

As a refugee week Ambassador, I made this video to raise awareness that refugees are individuals. They’re people, not numbers or just refugees. Every refugee has a story. Being stripped of your homeland and your rights is not something anybody should have to go through:

Mariam Maz Hakim is an Afghan Australian and a refugee week Ambassador. She is an announcer at 104.7 in Canberra.  Her passions are radio, refugees and she loves Bollywood.  Website: www.mazhakim.com