Human Appeal

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (16:06): Today, I would like to speak about Human Appeal, which is a worldwide non-profit Muslim organisation that has now worked for about 30 years to strengthen humanity's fight against poverty, social injustice and natural disasters. It values human life and dignity, and its work has deservedly received many acknowledgements.

Here in South Australia, Human Appeal and its volunteers have supported the community in fires and during COVID-19, and now a new initiative in conjunction with the City of Adelaide and Mitcham councils is helping more people stay at home by the donation of a thousand care packages. Donations to this really good cause can be made via the website.

Through Human Appeal's dynamic state director, Mr Ali Kadir, and PR officer, Mr Faisal Khan, I am able to place on record today details of a recent function I attended along with Minister Patterson and the members for Ramsay and Davenport. It was Human Appeal's 14^th annual year 12 Muslim achievement dinner. Last year's event was hard to beat, but, despite COVID, the 2020 results were absolutely amazing.

Students with ATARs above 90 were, at 99.9, Mr Abdullah Rizwan; Ms Raihanah Nurl Jannah Pranggono had an ATAR of 99.75; Ms Amaima Faisal had 99.6; Mr Muhammad Yahya Malick had 99.55; and Ms Kabisha Emad had 99.55. Achieving an ATAR of 97 and below, which is still a very good score, were Ms Hafsa Adnan, Ms Safa Osman, Ms Petnia Rawa Hamdan, Ms Javeria Ali, Ms Nurnatasha Liyana Noor Ismail, Ms Zuha Faisal, Mr Yahya Alim, Mr Fares Mohamed Elkordy, Ms Hend Mohammednour, Ms Rafia Devda Sajid, Ms Masanbu Conneh and Ms Qayyimah Zamri—all above 90.

It was staggering to see such a positive potential in the room and so many wonderful young people who intend to make such a big difference to their communities both here in South Australia and also nationally and internationally.

The event was sponsored by Aussie Discount Chemist Group and TWCM Cumberland. They are great supporters of the Human Appeal groups. Other sponsors were IQRA College, the Islamic Information Centre of South Australia, the Islamic Society of South Australia, Livability Australia, the Australian Islamic College and Muslim Australian Connections of South Australia (MACSA), through their wonderful president, Mr Nasir Hussain.

I cannot really put on the record too much more about how much I admire the work of Human Appeal and all they do for us here in South Australia in making sure the Muslim community is well represented in everything they do.

The work of the students through colleges such as Pinnacle College (formerly Birch College), in my area and also at Elizabeth, has produced such amazing results over so many years. It is wonderful to see the work the parents have put into these colleges to make sure their students have every opportunity. From very humble beginnings, they have grown to be very big and important schools in our area.

The work of Human Appeal will continue, I know, through the good work and donations of the Muslim community in South Australia. There were open days at mosques recently, and I hope some of the members took advantage of going to visit some of the people in the local communities who are attached to Human Appeal. The work they do is inspiring.

Through the Muslim Australian Connections of South Australia (the MACSA group) and Nasir Hussain, I have been able to learn an awful lot more about the things they are doing in the community. So it is my very great pleasure to acknowledge them today and to thank them for all they do here for us, both locally in my area in the north-east and more widely in the South Australian and Australian communities. Their work is very much appreciated and I look forward to attending the 15^th Annual Year 12 Muslim Achievement Awards later this year.