A part of Kareem El-Ansary's new role as Australia's UN Youth Representative for 2019 is to show other young Arab Australians that "something like this is possible".
The 23-year-old told SBS Arabic24 that the role is unique and it essentially gives all young people of Australia a platform to speak up about the issues they care about.
A young Australian is selected for the role of UN Youth Representative annually.
The representative travels across Australia on a listening tour to hear young Australians' views on the issues facing them.
Mr El-Ansary said at present, young Australians are “actually quite disengaged with politics and there is a lot of distrust between sort of political leaders and young people in not seeing that values and our ideas are reflected in decision making".
The position, which is in its 20th year, ensures that young Australians are broadly represented at all levels of government, locally and on a global stage.
Mr El-Ansary emphasises the importance of this role in Australia in bridging the divide and showing that “young people and our leaders can work collaboratively together".
He also has an eye for the future.
“I want to focus this year program on a future and I want to focus on what kind of a future young people want to build together and what that future looks like,” he said.
Being an Australian of Egyptian heritage did not deter him from following his dream to be a UN Youth Representative.
“Don’t ever let your ethnic background get you away from achieving what you want to do," he said.
"There are some wonderful people who will help you along the way.”
The program is run by UN Youth Australia and supported by the Federal Government through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
