EDITHVALE Life Saving Club has scored another first in its mission to integrate refugees and new arrivals into Australian life.
The club has welcomed the first female Afghan lifesaver in Victoria to its volunteer ranks. Elaha Naziri, 16, passed a training course in January to become a qualified lifesaver at Edithvale and has already been out on patrol.
Imtiyaz ‘Minty’ Saberi was the first Afghanistan-born male lifesaver to earn his lifesaving stripes in 2013 and Elaha’s achievement has put Edithvale Life Saving Club at the forefront of Life Saving Victoria’s multicultural water safety and settlement project.
“We had Minty who was the first male and now we’ve got the first female,” club president Dianne Montalto said.
“Edithvale has become known as the leader in the multicultural program.”
Elaha arrived in Australia two years ago after joining her refugee father and three brothers here.
Two girls from Tibet joined Elaha in passing the lifesaving course with flying colours.
Tenzin- Cheosang, 18, and Tsering- Kyi, 17, whose families were refugees in India, are the first Tibetan female surf lifesavers in Victoria.
LSV multicultural project manager David Holland said this is the fifth year of the multicultural program and more than 30 people from a culturally and linguistically diverse background have qualified as lifesavers in this time.
“These inspiring role models pave the way for others to get involved with lifesaving and aquatics raising both water safety knowledge and inclusion amongst newly arrived Australians,” Mr Holland said.
“It is a great story that so soon after arriving in their new country these young men and women are volunteering their time to protect the wider Australian community.”
Ms Montalto said potential lifesavers have swimming lessons for 12 months if they cannot swim before tackling the lifesaving course.
Club members are rallying round to make Elaha, Tenzin- Cheosang and Tsering- Kyi feel part of Australian beach life.
“One of our ladies who does the sewing has designed a headpiece for Elaha to wear that will be red and yellow,” Ms Montalto said.
“When she puts her patrol cap on she’s been wearing her normal scarf so we said we’d make a special head scarf that’s red and yellow so that’ll be your uniform and you’ll be recognised as a patrolling member.”
First published in the Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News – 2 March 2016
