Our Previous Projects

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The Australia Afghanistan Initiative hosted the first Multicultural Remembrance Day in Officer, Victoria, bringing together diverse community members, civic leaders, and local organisations to honour Australia’s servicemen and women.

The event was delivered in partnership with RSL Pakenham, whose president highlighted the importance of remembrance and the vital role multicultural communities play in upholding national traditions. Messages of support were also shared by Jason Wood MP, a Victorian Multicultural Commission commissioner, and a local councillor.

Captain Ramzia Islmazadah of the Australian Army addressed the gathering on behalf of the Australian Defence Force, encouraging multicultural communities—especially young people—to explore opportunities to serve Australia.

To ensure inclusivity, key information and resources were provided in multiple languages, supported by volunteers, translators, and interpreters.

The program concluded with a community consultation involving nearly 100 participants. Attendees shared reflections on cultural heritage, belonging, and Australian commemorative traditions, helping shape future multicultural remembrance events that are respectful, inclusive, and community-driven.

AAI has been active in promoting Afghan arts and literature through the Afghan Children’s Storybook project. This project collects children’s stories in Afghan languages to publish them as illustrated Children’s Books. We have planning this project from some time, and since July 2017 have undertaken some key steps, including consulting with community members and developing a short film outlining our project goals.

This film is complete and of a professional standard. We will now be sending it to funding bodies, including various federal and state based government departments, which support multicultural communities. The project has a number of components to be focused upon in 2018-19, including: Consulting with Afghan storytellers and writers of children’s fiction, working with Afghan artists and book illustrators, working with Afghan language interpreters and translators, seeking advice and collaboration from children’s book publishers, authors and illustrators in the broader community.

Identifying hidden talent within the Afghan Australian arts community is a core step. There has been a lack of opportunity and support for these artists to get involved in culturally relevant projects. Our project aims to engage Afghan Australian artists to showcase their talents, which have been largely hidden from view. Every community has emerging artists, but within the Afghan community there have been a large number of social and political challenges, which have created barriers for artists (including authors and illustrators). Many have been in unstable migration situations for lengthy periods and have not had the resources to devote to their arts practice, nor support from arts institutions of any kind.

This project, funded by South East Water, was conducted from 18 August to 13 October

2025 at the Bala Bala Community Centre in Clyde (City of Casey).

The main goal of the program was to empower participants with the practical skills and

knowledge needed to start and manage their own home-based catering businesses.

Throughout the training, participants learned about:

• Cooking techniques and basic food preparation
• Food handling, hygiene, and safety practices
• Food packaging and presentation
• Business setup and registration processes
• Council rules and regulatory requirements
• Using social media to promote their business
• Simple bookkeeping and financial management

This initiative helped community members build confidence, gain valuable entrepreneurial

skills, and take the first steps toward running successful small businesses from home.

Three one-day student forum was held at Beaconsfield and Berwick Campus of St Francis Xavier College bringing together the students from migrant and established communities.

The students were challenged with provocations and critical questions ranging from global issues to the complexity of 'change begins with me.'

The key aims of the forum were to learn what it means to be a global citizen, to teach non-violence as a choice, to learn anger management strategies, and to become inspired and motivated to step up to build their own more positive future.

These conferences were in partnership with The Gandhi Experiment, a social enterprise.

This project was initiated by AAI to bridge between the Afghan community and the local government in order to transfer the community’s concerns, proposals and solutions in relation to radicalisations to the local government. 

Around 50 people from the Afghan community including the leaders, religious scholars, business holders, women and youth participated in three separate workshops. They consulted and talked specific topics of social cohesion, youth disengagement and cynical behaviours and the role that inter-faith associations can play. The speakers included State MP Gabrielle Williams, Dandenong Mayor Heang Tak and Councillor Mathew Kirwan.

This project provided 24 women and girls with 5 hours of driving lessons for each by a professional driver instructor to help them prepare for their P license. The participants were on Centrelink support, and as we can assume their income is barely enough for their regular living expenses. Therefore, the purpose of this project was to assist these women to prepare them for their P plate test. Many of these participants were looking for work and not having a license was one of the main barriers to get employment. We thank the Victorian Government for funding this project.

This project was conducted during July 2017 - Feb 2018 and was funded by Department of Premier and Cabinet. The project was for the Australia Afghanistan Initiative to engage with qualified expert (s) or consulting firm to undertake a 16 week to 24 weeks Feasibility Study for an Afghan Australian Cultural House in appropriate sites.

This project aimed to enhance social cohesion and understanding among women from migrant backgrounds and those of the established community. There were 7 sessions held altogether and each session last for 3 hours with a class of 10-15 in attendance. There was a theme/topic for each class and attendees discussed this together as they cooked.

Around 200 people from a variety of cultural backgrounds participated in this Iftar/dinner. The Mayor of City of Greater Dandenong at that time, Cr Sean O'Reilly, and a Member of the Legislative Council in the Victorian Parliament, Ms Nina Springle, were among the speakers. The aim of this event was to develop a stronger and more positive relationship between our Afghan community and the wider Australian community as well as the state and local governments. 

This project was funded by the Victorian Government to be delivered to Afghan Community in Victoria. Our aim was to make our community more aware to understand and follow properly health guidelines and pandemic as well as health values and standards in Australia and what does it mean to be a good Australian in time of crises like this. We reached to over 300 people around Victoria in particular in Melbourne, Geelong and Shepperton by organising zoom and in face-to-face sessions between Nov 2020 to February 2021.

At each session, a health professional talked to participants about the Covid-19 pandemic, existed restrictions, and vaccines importance. 

All our sessions were recorded and shared with community at large via our facebook page.