Beyond Refuge

About the Book

Beyond Refuge is a new way to brining resettled people and host society together to share settlement and integration lived experience that might encourage connection, understanding and relationship building. Stories of resettlement in Auckland is about sharing the collective voice of resettled people with wider New Zealand society and the world. In this storybook, new settlers from refugee backgrounds share the hardships they have faced while seeking a better life in addition to various struggles that arise throughout the resettlement. journey to Aotearoa New Zealand. The storybook was prepared by the author for Aotearoa Resettled Community Coalition as a part of his strategic advocacy leadership role to engage and connect with stakeholders. The storybook consists of 12 stories collected by ARCC volunteers who assisted individual stories authors from Aotearoa Resettled Community Coalition-a local and regional umbrella organisation founded and led by resettled community’ leaders from forced migrant backgrounds. The stories collections are truly narrated in a pattern that reflects the reality of the lived experience of resettlement journey to Aotearoa New Zealand.

About the Author

The author is the General Manager of Auckland Resettled Community Coalition, his strategic relationship role a community advocate, and educator. He has been working in the resettlement sector in Aotearoa New Zealand, Auckland for more than 15 years promoting relationship building between resettled people and service providers. He represented attends UN Submits in Geneva, Switzerland on behalf of forced migrant background communities and engages New Zealand parliamentarians in Wellington on the plight of refugee background and resettled people in Aotearoa New Zealand. Abann lived in Syria as an asylum seeker after fleeing South Sudan and Sudan’s civil war two decades ago. He came to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2005 with his nuclear family. He is a community-driven person easy to approach and he helps many individuals and groups of ethnically diverse background communities beyond the Aotearoa Resettled Community Coalition.