Flinders public health academic Dr Lillian Mwanri (pictured) has received a Champions Award at the inaugural African Australian Awards ceremony held at the Sydney Opera House on August 25.
The awards showcased the most influential African Australians and acknowledged the contributions they have made to Australia.
One hundred awards were presented at the event, representing areas including medicine, the arts, sports, business and law.
“It was a fantastic celebration with over 1000 people attending, and I was honoured to receive such an award. It was great to be recognized for the work I do within the community,” Dr Mwanri said.
“We know there are many more African Australians who contribute positively to their communities; they may not have been identified at this stage, but this celebration was about them too.”
Dr Mwanri is the course coordinator for the Masters of Health and International Development within the Discipline of Public Health at Flinders, and is a Fellow of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine (FAFPHM).
Her research focuses on public health and social issues, particularly relating to CALD (Culturally and Linguistically Diverse) migrants.
Dr Mwanri is also the Public Health Consultant to the African Communities Council of South Australia and works extensively on settlement programs as well as bidding for grants to deliver public health programs specifically for African Australians, many of whom are refugees.
Dear Dr Lillian, I was delighted to read your Weekend Story at Flinders webpage that you are among the few African Australia being congratulated by The Hon. Senator Kate Lundy, Representative of the Australian Prime Minister and Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Hon Theresa Gambaro, Representative of the Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship and Settlement and Hon Lyn Breuer MP, Speaker of the SA House of Assembly. The African Communities Council of SA would like also to congratulate you for your sterling work and been nominated for the prestigious awards for 2012.
Congratulations on receiving this prestigious and much-deserved award! We are enormously proud of you and of the great honor you have brought to the University of Flinders and African community in South Australia by your achievements.
Dr Joseph Masika
Commissioner-SAMEAC-State Government
Chairperson, ACCSA
It is a great achivement and we are pround of you, keep the good work for the entire Australian, not only African. I belived you deserved that an Award and i encourage others who are contributing to the setttlement of the African communties in Australia to pursue the same in the few years to come. I also appreciated the work John is doing to promote African members achievement, keep that spirit going would encourage our young ones to be delivering the same services to the community. Regards
Akoi Guong
Director
Seed of Hope Foundation Inc
Dear Dr Lillian,
On behalf of the Australian-Tanzanian Services Foundation I would like to congratulate you on achieving this award.
Well done, from all of us.
Dr Derrick Selby, Chair, ATSFI
Congratulations!
It’s such a great honour to see a fellow African woman impacting their world through services such as the ones you engage in. I am so proud.
Mayeso
Dear Dr. Mwanri,
Congratulations for winning the award. You are now ‘inspiring achievement’ among African Australians. Your calm composure and hard work are source of inspiration for many African women too. You are unique. I have no doubt that your husband and children are proud of you.
Dear Lilian,
Hongera sana mpenzi wangu, kwa kweli unatuwakilisha vizuri
wakina mama wa Tanzania, we are proud of you.
Keep it up, Mungu aendelee kukufanikisha ili uweze kuwa inspire
kina mama na mabinti zetu wanaochipukia. wanawake tunaweza
Dr Lillian is a great teacher as well as a good researcher. I would like to congratulate Dr Lillian on behalf of all students of Flinders. Aung
well done sister, done us proud, i’m a close friend of Doreen, actually working together.
Hay sister. Hongera sana.It is a great achivement and Iam pround of you.Nakutakia mafanikio zaidi.Mungu akupe maisha marefu na ya furaha na familia yako.
Congratulations Lillian! I feel very fortunate to be working with such an inspiring, passionate person 🙂
Congratulations!
This is a great honour to see a fellow African who is gender female impacting the others world through your incredible services such as the ones you engaged in. In such I am so proud we can have other Obama’s within our fellow blacks.
Congratulation for your highly achievements that resulted awards presented by high dignitaries from Our Great land of AUSTRALIA which we are proud to be part of it.
MOHAMED
FROM MELBOURNE,
Congratulations Dr Mwanri. I am truly inspired by your work. You have really done all of us African Australians proud, I really feel motivated to pursue a PHd in Public Health at Flinders University.