Former Bathurst local Ali Abbas Haidari has faced significant challenges throughout his young life so far as a refugee forging a new life for himself in Australia.
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But the 24-year-old has risen beyond the challenge to make an impressive start to his career as a registered nurse in Sydney.
Mr Haidari recently received a staff recognition award from the South Eastern Sydney Local Health District [SESLHD] for his outstanding work with mental health and dementia patients at Sutherland Hospital.
He is the first ever newly graduated nurse in the SESLHD to win the award, which honours health care workers across multiple disciplines, including senior nurses, managers, clinical nurses, doctors and physios.
"It was a very big surprise, I certainly wasn't expecting it," Mr Haidari said.
"There's certainly a lot of pressure on health care workers at the moment with COVID-19, but I'm making sure to give 110 per cent and support people in need."
Born in Afghanistan, Mr Haidari fled to Pakistan with his family when he was four years old to avoid persecution from Taliban insurgents.
Mr Haidairi faced further difficulties in Pakistan as an unwanted refugee who couldn't pursue his educational dreams, which resulted in him and his family emigrating to Australia in 2012.
He said Australia proved to be the perfect restart after several years of adversity.
"I was in a detention centre for five months before being transferred to Sydney, where everything was new: the people, the culture, the environment," Mr Haidari said.
"It took a while to settle in, but I received a lot of support from Marist Youth Care to get through high school."
During his high schooling, Mr Haidari developed a key interest in the health sector before coming to Charles Sturt University [CSU] to study a bachelor of nursing, graduating last year.
"I did my Assistants in Nursing [AIN] training during high school and from there, nursing became my career of choice," he said.
"CSU supported me immensely, as did the Bathurst Refugee Support Group, and I wouldn't have successfully completed my degree without them."
The Bathurst Refugee Support Group provided Mr Haidari with financial and accommodation support through the Kath Knowles House of Welcome.
Refugee Support Group chair Brian Mowbray praised Mr Haidairi as a "lovely, highly motivated person who gave everything he has to his studies."
"He really wanted to give back to what Australia has done for him," Mr Mowbray said.
"Mr Haidari did placement at St Catherine's Aged Care Facility, and the staff and residents absolutely loved him."
Mr Haidari also did work placement at Bathurst, Orange, and Lithgow hospitals.
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Sam Bolt
"I'm not in the business of telling people what to do. I'm much more in the business of describing things, situations and stuff like that and leaving them out there, and you can make up your minds about them." -Nick Cave
"I'm not in the business of telling people what to do. I'm much more in the business of describing things, situations and stuff like that and leaving them out there, and you can make up your minds about them." -Nick Cave
