I was sitting at the back of the room when Anlil began speaking about the Assyrian community he remembered. “Assyrians grew up surrounded by people they trusted: neighbours and family. You would walk around the streets and get invited for tea, for laughter, for advice,” he said.
“There was always someone there at every milestone, every meal and every hardship. That’s what our parents, grandparents and even some of us have come from. But when they all migrated to Australia, that close-knit community did not come with them.”
Anlil was one of 25 young people aged 18 to 30 who took part in NSW Global Links: Partnerships 4 Peace, a six-week program working mainly with Sydney’s Assyrian community. The initiative is funded under Multicultural NSW’s COMPACT Program and delivered by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), Shayna Humanitarian Services and Unbound Stories.
Over six weeks, participants learned about IEP’s Positive Peace framework and ethical storytelling, surveyed members of their community and developed projects to pitch to a panel of their peers, program trainers and community leaders. Among the ideas presented, Anlil’s addressed social isolation, while another participant, Venessa, focused on the lack of safe places for young people, especially women, to study after university hours.
Venessa had noticed the difference between her Western Sydney neighbourhood and other parts of Sydney. In the city she saw libraries and cafés that stayed open late. Closer to home, she struggled to find somewhere she and other young women could study without worrying about getting home safely.
She said the lack of suitable spaces also affected opportunities for networking and internships.
She ended her pitch by drawing on her Assyrian heritage. Assyrians are an ethnoreligious minority with ancestral homelands across parts of modern-day Iraq, Türkiye, Iran and Syria. Persecution and displacement have resulted in Assyrian communities settling in many parts of the world, including Sydney, with many people living in and around the Fairfield area.“Let’s rebuild our Assyrian roots. We were the birthplace of the first library in the world, so why don’t we have anything like this here? Why don’t we have late night study? It just doesn’t make any sense,” Venessa said.
“When I work with young Assyrians here in Sydney, they give me hope… I’m amazed by their commitment, their creativity and just how cool they are”.
Samah Shda Founder, Unbound Stories and coordinator of ‘Sip, Study, Shlama.’ Photo: provided.
The projects were informed by more than personal experience. Participants surveyed people in their community to test whether the issues they had identified were more widely shared concerns.
Isolation emerged as a common concern. Gambling also came up in discussions, with some young people describing it as a source of social engagement when there were few other options. Participants also heard that Western Sydney lacked the welcoming late-night public spaces they saw elsewhere in the city, particularly for young women.
At Unbound Stories, we worked with the group on ethical storytelling: how to ask people about their experiences respectfully and how to use what they heard responsibly. The surveys, which the students designed in one of the training sessions, gave participants evidence they could use to strengthen, challenge or refine their ideas. In effect, the students became junior researchers.
When the presentations finished, the room quickly turned into a debate. Participants argued passionately for the projects they believed mattered most.
Two ideas kept rising to the top: Anlil’s proposal addressing isolation and Venessa’s plan for a safe study space.
Rather than choose one, we asked the groups to work together.
The result was Sip, Study, Shlama.
The ‘sip’ was bubble tea and chai shared with friends. ‘Study’ referred to a place where students could work after university facilities closed. ‘Shlama’ means ‘peace’ in Assyrian.
In August 2026, the idea became a reality with a launch held in partnership with Fairfield Connect, a late-night study hub.
The new program will include weekly workshops for young people covering practical skills for work, study and leadership, from public speaking and storytelling to job applications and interviews. The seed funding will help pay for speakers, venue hire and, fittingly, bubble tea and food.
You would walk around the streets and get invited for tea, for laughter, for advice...when they all migrated to Australia, that close-knit community did not come with them.
Program participant Venessa and Shayna Humanitarian Services CEO Oliver holding an information stall for ‘Sip, Study, Shlama’. Photo: provided.
Program participant Venessa, and Shayna Humanitarian Services CEO Oliver Slewa, with the Governor General. Photo: provided.
Group work during 'Sip, Study, Shlama' the COMPACT project working with local Assyrian-Australian young people. Photo: provided.
Group work during 'Sip, Study, Shlama' the COMPACT project working with local Assyrian-Australian young people. Photo: provided.
CEO of Shayna Humanitarian Services, Oliver Slewa, with program participants in traditional Assyrian dress. Photo: provided.
‘Sip, Study and Shlama’ project participant Venessa, during a workshop. Photo: provided.
The work had already taken participants beyond the training room. When the Governor-General visited Fairfield for a community consultation, Venessa spoke on behalf of the young people involved in the project. We helped her shape the message she wanted to deliver.
She spoke about designing and leading the project and about what her Assyrian identity meant to her.
That identity is also personal to me. I am Assyrian, as is Oliver Slewa, CEO of Shayna Humanitarian Services. We both grew up in communities shaped by persecution, where hiding our identity could sometimes be necessary.
In Australia, Assyrians from different villages, denominations and backgrounds often find themselves brought together under one community identity. That shared experience creates strong bonds, but it can also make it harder to hear different perspectives within our own community.
Young Assyrians have a hybrid identity: they are both Assyrian and Australian. For their parents going to church was a core part of their social identity, but the Partnerships for Peace program offers another safe space.
Youth participants and community leaders at the launch of the Shayna Humanitarian Services and IEP project, ‘Sip, Study, Shlama’, at Fairfield Connect in Western Sydney. Photo: provided.
“We were the birthplace of the first library in the world, why don’t we have anything like this here?”
I first encountered peacebuilding at 16, when I took part in a program for students in Baghdad run by Iraqi Al-Amal Association and funded by UNICEF and War Child Canada.
It was the first time I sat in a room with people from different neighbourhoods and religions and debated with them.
Years later, I watched young Assyrians do something similar. They listened to their community, tested their assumptions and worked through competing ideas until they found common ground.
When I work with young Assyrian-Australians here in Sydney, they give me hope. They give me a sense that they can do something I couldn’t do when I was their age. I could not imagine taking on something like this on top of the challenges of everyday life. I’m amazed by their commitment, their creativity and just how cool they are.
For more information, please contact Shayna Humanitarian Services.
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