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Three people, two of them are students one of them are a teacher, sitting together, conversing

Community Liaison Officers helping students to achieve

19 June 2023

Community Liaison Officers (CLOs), who work in the department’s Bilingual and Cultural Support team (EALD), support the settlement, wellbeing, inclusion and learning of students from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds.

The CLOs positive contributions enable children and young people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities to achieve educational success.

For National Refugee Week, held from 18 to 24 June, the department has released 3 new videos featuring stories of the CLOs, adding to 3 videos that were released last year.

In the ‘My home, my heart, my story’ video series, each of the CLOs share their healing personal stories of migrating to Australia and the rewarding experiences of working in the Department for Education to assist children and young people to settle into school life in South Australia.

CLOs can support all cultural groups – however, we have CLOs specialised in the following communities:

  • African communities – Andre Ntibesha
  • Bosnian, Croatian, Albanian, Serbian communities – Mirsada Fenn
  • Middle Eastern communities: Arabic, Kurdish, Turkish – Bushra Rasheed
  • Afghan Community: Farsi, Dari, Hazaragi – Fariba Ahmadi
  • Nepalese, Bhutanese, Indian communities – Bala Bhattarai
  • Burmese communities – Aye Sandar Sein 

    This team was the recipient of the 2020 Governor’s Multicultural Award, which recognises organisations who have made an outstanding contribution to multiculturalism in South Australia.

    If you think your family would benefit from connecting with one of the department’s CLOs, please speak to your child’s teacher.

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