Muslim Leaders Recognised for Family Violence Prevention

A celebration to acknowledge the role of Muslim men who work in family violence prevention and support the rights of Muslim women was recently held as part of Islam Awareness Week. 

Hosted by Auckland Council, the Ministry of Social Development’s Settling-in Family and Community Services and the New Zealand Police, four Muslim leaders were presented with awards to acknowledge their family violence prevention work in the community.

All four recipients have been involved in initiatives for early intervention family violence programmes for ethnic, Muslim and refugee communities for more than 10 years. 

They also work in areas of health promotion, youth issues, education, employment, positive parenting and other settlement issues in the refugee sector.

Epsom resident Hashem Slaimankhel trained as a doctor in Afghanistan and works for the Auckland District Health Board as a refugee health worker. He is currently chairman of the Umma Trust and the Afghan Association of New Zealand.

Blockhouse Bay resident Mahad Warsame is from Somalia and also works as a refugee health worker for Auckland District Health Board. He is chair of the Auckland Somali Community Association.

Hassan Hosseini, who lives in Kelston, is from Iran and manages the New Zealand Ethnic Social Services organisation, based in Te Atatu.

Arif Saeid resides in Lynfield and trained as a doctor in Afghanistan. He works as the community link manager for Refugees as Survivors New Zealand. 

The event was held on Friday 4 November at the former Waitakere Council Chamber in Henderson. 

You can read more about the event via the Auckland City Council website here. 

Photo credit:  Istock photo