Salaam Foundation

Raising funding for 2,500 meaningful employment opportunities for refugees

Written by Dr. Sayd Farook | May 27, 2022 12:49:00 PM

oung refugees who arrive at Australia’s shores are often burdened with the responsibility of looking after their ailing parents or family members who suffer from many types of physical and mental health challenges, including lived trauma.

100% of the funds raised by the Crescent Foundation will be deployed to get as many refugees or asylum seekers into meaningful employment opportunities – so that they can earn a decent respectable living for themselves and their families.

Support Crescent Foundation’s campaign 

Tell us a little about yourself and why you do what you do?

Crescent Foundation is passionate about opening opportunities to everyone, no matter race or background. Since 2016, we’ve been supporting four causes by providing funding to catalytic initiatives in Australia. These include:

  1. Refugees and education
  2. Homes and homelessness
  3. Preserving Islamic art and culture
  4. Civics youth and democracy.

Together with our partners and sister entities – Crescent Wealth Super, Crescent Finance and Crescent Institute, we invest collective networks, resources and funds to mobilise support from a wider group of entities and individuals, towards projects and initiatives that have a catalysing impact on their target segment.

Since 2016, we have funded over 80 scholarships for refugees and countless of other high impact projects. We found that supporting refugees has been specially impactful – given that despite some level of government assistance, refugees who arrive in Australia face some of the most challenging circumstances.


What is the cause you are raising funding for today?

We are raising funds for Australian resident refugees, who face countless challenges when they land in Australia. Crescent Foundation’s RefugEEE initatiatives – Education, Empowerment and Employment, support refugees holistically transition to meaningful opportunities in their chosen profession. This includes scholarships for university study (Education), one-to-one mentoring / ‘sponsorship’ programs with senior executives in Australian companies (Empowerment), and finally opening up specific opportunities for refugees in corporate Australia (Employment).

All of these programs are run by established providers including the Western Sydney University, Deakin University and Community Corporate.

100% of funds raised will go towards programs that support the employment of refugees and asylum seekers in meaningful careers in their chosen line of work.


Why does raising funds for this matter to you and the organisation you are supporting?

Refugees are facing some of the most challenging times globally. There are over 80 million refugees in the world and that has dramatically increased by over 3 million with the war on Ukraine.

Young people are the most significantly and disproportionately affected with opportunity snatched away from them for their entire lives. 42% of refugees in the world are under the age of 18 and more than 52% of resettlement submissions in 2018 were from children. Despite the alarming statistics, Australia’s refugee intake is overall very small – with only 2% of Australia’s population being of refugee background. Yet, from the moment they arrive in Australia, refugees face significant financial, cultural, educational and employment. A vicious cycle that is extremely challenging to break.

At the Crescent Foundation, our goal is to provide pathways to prosperity for refugees seeking a new life in Australia.

Our three refugEEE initiatives are designed to break the educational, cultural and employment barriers refugees face when beginning a new life in Australia.


How will the funds you raise measurably impact lives? And how many lives?

Our objective is to get 2500 refugees employed in meaningful and dignified careers of their choosing.

Young refugees who arrive at Australia’s shores are often burdened with the responsibility of looking after their ailing parents or family members who suffer from many types of physical and mental health challenges, including lived trauma.

Our focus with the funds raised will be to deploy them to get as many refugees or asylum seekers into meaningful employment opportunities – so that they can earn a decent respectable living for themselves and their families.

The objective with the fund raised is to focus on getting 50 Australian companies open up specific employment opportunities for refugees or asylum seekers. For every company that opens up employment opportunities for refugees, there is a likelihood that anywhere between 10 and 50 individuals from refugee or asylum seeker backgrounds on average will be employed – that’s between 500 and 2500 employment opportunities opened up for refugees.


What’s distinct about the organisation’s work?

Crescent Foundation is unique in its holistic well designed approach to solving the challenges faced by young refugees when they arrive in Australia – the refugEEE initiatives focus on the pain points faced by young refugees – from access to funding while studying, to access to mentorship in a new land to access to job opportunities specifically catered to them.


Why should we support this cause as opposed to all the other important causes that the world is suffering from now?

Refugees are facing the most challenging times all over the world. In Australia, there are many of our overlooked members of the refugee community who are suffering silently. They are here, living amongst us, yet we haven’t been able to support them. Here’s a tremendous opportunity to be there for them.

Support Crescent Foundation’s campaign