Those who leave their loved ones behind know how difficult it is to find feet in an alien country, alien language, and alien culture. Only the victims can testify what kind of trauma and heartbreak people experience when they immigrate to a new country. Some may fight their way into a good position. But, once they get into a better position, they forget what they have been through or they simply keep busy with their career.

Mahbub Siraz Tuhin is a rare exception in this regard. He has been acting as a guardian for the newly arrived Bangladeshi immigrants and international students in South Australia for a decade. For the last eleven years, to be precise, he has been providing support and courage to Bangladeshi people- be it providing career advice, conducting career workshop, helping both students and immigrants with finding decent accommodation. So far, he has assisted more than 500 people in finding jobs or volunteering work.

He got different awards as a recognition of his contribution. Last 26 January, he received “Australia Day Award 2021 under Community Service category” from the City of West Torrens as the first Bangladeshi born Australian in recognition of his outstanding and highly valued services for the benefit of the community.

If we only consider the pains, he took for the sake of the community during the COVID-19, it will be crystal clear that the award found the right hands.

When people were blindsided by the pandemic, and were losing jobs, he was planning how to cope with it. Here, in Australia, getting a job without a reference is quite unreal. Knowing this, he provided reference to the job seekers, and talked to the employers out of his own generosity. He arranged workshops. Most importantly, acted a liaison between the job seekers and employers. As many as 60 people got job or voluntary work because of his reference during pandemic time.

Besides, he created "Adelaide COVID-19 emergency support group", which has 652 members now. Through this channel, he helped people educate on safety measures of COVID-19, promoted COVID-19 Marshall training. As the immigrants on temporary residence status and the international students were the worst sufferers of this pandemic, he collected fund from personal donors and distributed the amount as $50 grocery voucher among them and any one from mainstream community distressed by COVID-19. Moreover, he coordinated with restaurant owners and organised free food for COVID-19 victims. To boost immune system of community, he collected vegetables from donor farmers, travelling 200 KM from Adelaide and distributed free vegetables through grocery shops. With the help of this group, he helped prepare list of Volunteer GPs so that people get health information in their own language.

In order to stop the spread of Corona, the Australian government put in place some new regulations. Requirements for QR code is one of them. Mr Mahbub Siraz helped at least  50 Business/retail/ community events to set up QR code and COVID-19 safety plan, who were unable to do so because of linguistic and technical barrier.

Mahbub Siraz Tuhin is involved with some important organizations. He is a member of Royal Association of Justices SA Inc. for last 7 years.

He is the former president and present adviser to the South Australia Bangladeshi Community Association (SABCA). He is the founder & director general of Society for Australia Bangladesh International Business (SABIB).

Apart from these humanitarian efforts, he is part of some business endeavours as well. For instance, he is career consultant of Career Partner Australia, where people  get support to get jobs. In addition, he is the Business Development Director of Evargo.

It's not liked that Mr Tuhin only worked to serve the interest of Bangladeshi people only. He raised fund for Foodbank SA and bushfire victims.

He is one of the founders and Executive Board Member of World Bangladesh Organisation (WBO) and Coordinator of Australian Chapter. WBO head office in Paris is working to support Bangladeshi expatiate all over the world.

Awards and recognitions are not new to Mr. Tuhin. He was nominated as 100 most influential NRB Businessmen of the world by Business America Magazine in 2020.

Mr. Mahbub has enviable educational background. After earning honours and masters from Jahangirnagar University, he completed Bachelor of Law from Northern University. He didn't stop there. He did MBA from Stamford University and postgraduate from Singapore and Australia. He also has completed Leadership Course from Harvard University.

We congratulate Mahbub Siraz Tuhin on his getting the reward. When people are practicing individualism everywhere and are being driven by self-interest, he is extending his helping hands to those whose need them. We need selfless, and empathetic people like him right now in the society.

 

 

Written by Mohammad Abul Kalam Azad, Adelaide, Australia

Email: [email protected]