One of the most difficult parts of coming to Australia for Rufta Gebrehit and Diana Obeid was finding their place in a new and confronting community.
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When the first touched down in the country neither of them could speak English and everything they once knew was a world away, but the difficulties they first faced are being slide tackled by a newly launched Multicultural Youth Tasmania program.
The project is called "My Community Champions" and offers people from diverse backgrounds the chance to be the voice for sport for their community and attempt to bring down barriers for participation in those sports that women and young people from refugee backgrounds face.
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Twenty-two-year-old Ms Obeid came to Tasmania from Sudan as a child in 2007 and said she struggled to find a mould for herself in Tasmania and instead retreated, isolating herself from others.
She said she was not even able to read English and could not even do something like search on the internet for a club to join, or people to meet.
"I was a refugee, I had no English, I literally knew nothing of the culture - so the culture shock was huge," she said.
"It was extremely alienating, especially because I couldn't play with other kids, I couldn't go anywhere because I didn't know where to go or what was around me or why houses were so close together so I just stayed at home and I kept to myself."
Ms Obeid said it made her feel socially isolated and lonely before a person from her community stepped in and offered her a helping hand. The assistance offered to her back then also inspired her to start the South Sudanese Youth Association.
Now, as part of the Community Champions program, she is continuing to bridge the gap to others from diverse background such as hers.
For 17-year-old Ms Gebrehiet the story was the same. She came to Australia from Eritrea almost six years ago and immediately felt isolated.
"When I first came it was actually really bad. I didn't know the language and I was not comfortable with it," she said.
"I felt like I didn't belong with the community."
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But getting involved with sport at school and then with her local soccer team gave her the chance to spread her wings and meet people. Ms Gebreheit said playing sport offered her a mutual, unspoken language.
"It helped me to communicate, to get to know the language, to make friends and to feel comfortable," she said.
Her involvement with the program is inspired by wanting to offer people in a similar situation to her find a way to blossom into the community.
Multicultural Youth Tasmania program coordinator Sally Thompson said the project, which is run by Migrant Resource Centre Tasmania, employed nine peer workers from across Hobart and Launceston who would help to spread sport to diverse communities.
"The aim is to breakdown barriers to inclusion for young women and children from diverse communities and to also train up these guys as leaders in their community to get young women active and involved," she said.
"Sport really helps with sense of belonging and inclusion in the broader community so we're going to lose that as a vessel for settlement.
"It's a huge part of Australian culture and sporting teams and we know that there are networks and communities attached to sporting organisations. Sports is so important, it's an amazing vehicle to get involved early and help to build a sense of belonging in Tasmania."
The program is open to women and young people from a multicultural background aged between 14 and 25-years-old.
More information about the program can be found here.
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