Beny Bol OAM

Beny Bol OAM is among the first to see the potential in young people, no matter where they’ve come from or how they came before him.

“Our future individually and collectively as a community depends on young people, and how much we invest in the future leadership through young people,” Beny said.

“Everything that we enjoy as a society is a result of previous generations’ investment in us and the future will be dependent on how the current generation of leaders, organisations and community’s investment in young people, and if we don’t do that, we will fail ourselves.”

A refugee from South Sudan, Beny moved to Australia in 2007. He spent two years picking fruit on farms before settling in Brisbane to study, joining the local African community and working his way up through the ranks of the Queensland African Communities Council.

“When I came to the leadership of the Queensland African Communities Council, issues I identified with young people were around crime, disengagement and issues around parenting and engagement with the schools and the system in general,” he said.

“I realised most of our young people in the African community are going through an identity crisis, because they probably were born in Australia, or came here when they were relatively younger but have a different cultural background, so in order to come up with a strategy to solve these problems, you have to think of something that is different from what you would deliver with a mainstream service program.

“I feel like, if you want a solution to the problem, then it has to be the person going through the problem, to actually find the solution.”

Last year Beny established the African Youth Support Council, which has already grown to employ 15 mentors across Brisbane, Ipswich and Logan and runs early intervention programs in schools, as well as rehabilitation strategies at juvenile detention centres.

“I believe to solve some of these problems we must empower young people and put them into leadership positions,” he said.

“I identified some leading young people in our community and I challenged them. I said, ‘This is your problem, so you must take the lead, and I will advocate for you, support you and help you look for the resources’.

“We observed young people would listen to other young people, so the best way to turn things around and engage them was to empower them in these leadership roles.”

He said the changes he has seen in many youth council participants were remarkable.

“One of the young people who attended an event at the first African youth centre that we established, had been in and out of the criminal justice system for many years,” Beny said.

“He came to me recently and I could not even recognise him. He came to me and called, ‘Uncle, uncle! I want to help others on their journey, so let me know how I can help and be part of what you do.’

“Those are the sorts of messages that motivate me and encourage me to do the things that I need to do.

“I'm seeing a huge impact everywhere, but there is also still a lot of work that needs to be done.”

It is a rare day when Beny doesn’t have any engagements in his calendar, but that’s the way he likes it. If he’s not working with young people in Logan, he is attending multicultural events, on the tongs at weekly barbecues with the African community, sitting on various committees, or meeting with police and academics in search of solutions to youth delinquency.

“I believe in the importance of living a life with a purpose,” Beny said.

“You never know how long you're going to live in this world, so it’s very important to make the most of the time you have.

“The choices that you make every day by going out there and trying to help out where you can, will definitely determine the impact you will have and how you will be remembered, from your family to the community level.

“All the opportunities that I have managed to get is all through the generosity of others.

“I believe the only way I can help is to give back to the community in whatever way I can.

“I want to be able to make some meaningful impact in everything that I do.”

So he might one day work for the United Nations or similar international organisations, Beny enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts majoring in International Relations and Asian Studies at Griffith in 2009. He later returned to study a Master of International Law.

“Griffith is such a global place,” he said.

“I feel like it brings the whole world together with people from all different cultural and religious backgrounds coming together, regardless of their upbringing.

“Griffith has opened my eyes to the world and the importance of using multicultural values and the core values of humanity – respect, dignity and equality - to deal with people, based on the fact that they are human in the first place.

“You've got to empower people, regardless of where they came from.”