Dr Melika Yassin Sheikh-Eldin

Dr Melika Yassin Sheikh-Eldin has turned her experience as a refugee into world-leading models for community integration and social cohesion.

She disrupts gender stereotypes and challenges the public perception of what refugees can achieve. She has helped thousands of new arrivals to Australia settle successfully.

Melika fled war in Eritrea in the late 1970s and volunteered in Sudanese refugee camps and in Cairo. Organisations Melika volunteered for include United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Red Cross and Save the Children. She resettled in Australia in 1992.

Since 2001, she has been a pivotal leader at AMES Australia, serving as the Manager of Settlement Support Services since 2006.

Since 2007, she has sat on the board of the Refugee Council of Australia and represented the nation as a 'Refugee Voice' at annual UNHCR consultations in Geneva. She advocates for policy shifts that recognise refugees as stakeholders rather than recipients of aid.

Melika's world-leading projects at AMES include:

• Nhill rural settlement project, which settled Karen refugees in western Victoria. It revitalised the town's economy and is now considered a global blueprint for rural settlement.
• A Werribee Park program engaging isolated Karen women in gardening. It addressed critical issues of isolation and mental wellbeing. The model has been adopted by other organisations.
• The Community Guides Program, which recruits former refugees to use their lived experience to assist new arrivals.

Melika has travelled to Sweden, New Zealand, and Japan to help international organisations establish programs based on the AMES Community Guides model.

Melika also completed a PhD in aquatic science while raising three children as a refugee in a small Australian town. She promotes 'two-sided education', which shows that both host communities and new arrivals must learn about one another to enable a true integration into Australian culture. This helps mitigate the fear of the unknown.