TRUGANINA resident Mohammed Isah has been given this year’s Young Achiever Award, and for good reason.

For the past four years, the 19-year-old has worked steadily towards helping disadvantaged young people settle into community.

“It started when I was about 16, and I was doing volunteer work at Box Hill Whitehorse City Council,” Mr Isah said.

“A young person came up to me and told me a story about their life. And because of the experience I’ve had previously as well, I felt miserable because I wasn’t able to do anything for that person. At that time, I didn’t know anything, I wasn’t qualified,” he said.

It spurred him to action.

“So next time if something like that happens, I’ll actually know what I’m going to talk about and how I’m going to deal with it,” Mr Isah said.

Since then, he has worked with a range of organisations on a number of projects, such as establishing a homework club for migrants and refugees, a multicultural holiday program, recreational and fund-raising events.

In 2007, Mr Isah addressed delegates at the National Youth Affairs Conference, highlighting the difficulties newly arrived refugees faced and ways of dealing with the issues.

“It’s really hard for people to come into a new country without having any support or guidance,” he said.

He moved from Nigeria to Australia in 2002.

“I remember quite well, when I first came here, I could speak English quite well. But because I have an accent, I couldn’t really understand what people were saying,” Mr Isah said.

“The government provides a few hours of support but that’s not quite enough, you sort of need an ongoing thing for a while,” he said.

He is studying social welfare at Victoria University, “so that I can give back to community and work with a lot of disadvantaged young people”, Mr Isah said.

“Because I’ve been in the same situation, I can understand where people are coming from,” he said.

But the award has come as a pleasant surprise for Mr Isah.

“I don’t expect to be paid back, you know. But when I won the award, it was like ‘wow’, it makes me want to give back to the community even more,” he said.