By Fiona Smith
Hashi Kaar’s story is both uplifting and sad. A refugee from war-torn Somalia, he arrived in Australia as a 17-year-old boy without English, much schooling or an understanding of what the internet was.
Just five years later, he was in his third year of university and employed as a junior application developer at pharmaceutical valuation company Medici Capital.
Now, 13 years since he arrived in Melbourne with his five siblings and mother as part of the family reunion program, he is the founder of three tech companies and employs 15 people. This is the miracle of opportunity. When people are given a chance to make something of themselves, they can overcome immense disadvantages.
But Kaar’s success is also a depressing reminder of what the 10 million people in Somalia could be achieving if only they had some of Australia’s blessings.
“Things we take for granted here, they don’t have there,” he says. “I never went to high school or any formal school in my life.”
Once in Australia, after 10 years living as a refugee in Kenya, Kaar was able to take advantage of a number of government programs to learn English and study at TAFE and Swinburne University of Technology. These gave him the skills he needed to get started in a career that earned him a six-figure salary before he left to become an entrepreneur.
Help from strangers
But it was an act of kindness that may have made the greatest impact. On only his second day in Australia, a librarian took the time to help the young Kaar get started on the library’s computer.
“A lady asked me if I wanted to use the internet and send emails,” he recalls.
“I was very confused because I didn’t know what the internet was, or email, or how you use it. I thought it was something you buy from the shop.
“It became a fascination and, within a week, I was googling African music and things like that.”
Kaar needed to set up a Hotmail account but he didn’t know anyone to send emails to except the librarian, who worked at a Noble Park centre to help migrants.
“She was very nice. I’ve been trying to find her, any way I could, just to say thank you very much.”
Nine months after his arrival, he got a job, bought a computer and connected it to the internet. “From there, it was lift-off,” he says.
He spent his days stacking shelves at work, studying, playing soccer and writing computer programs.“Even though I didn’t go to school, later I realised I was actually a quick learner.”
Read more : From Refugee to Entrepreneur
Source: brw.com
