As a western suburbs councillor, Mohamed Semra gets invited to plenty of functions.
But one he attended for earlier this year for the Les Twentyman Foundation provided the first-term councillor with much more than just a free meal.
“I attended their fundraising gala earlier this year and I saw (footage of) myself training when I was a kid,” recalled Cr Semra.
“When I saw it it was definitely a full circle moment.”
The footage showed a young Mohamed Semra playing basketball for the Braybrook 96ers, a youth basketball club established by the Les Twentyman Foundation to provide access to sport for disadvantaged youth in the inner-west.
Born in Sudan and arriving Australia as a refugee in the early 2000’s, Cr Semra certainly qualified as that.
Growing up in Braybrook, the now 26-year-old began playing basketball with the 96ers in under-10’s and both the game and the program soon became an obsession.
“When I think of my childhood I think of basketball at Rec West in Brayrook and the 96ers,’ he said
Basketball not only gave Cr Semra something to do, but friendships, connections, confidence and self-worth.
It also helped him avoid the pitfalls many of his contemporaries fell into.
“I have people that I grew up with that unfortunately have been in contact with the justice system,” said Cr Semra who believes that without the Les Twentyman Foundation’s basketball program, he could easily have joined them.
“I only saw the impact of basketball on my journey because of seeing (what happened to) others who didn’t attend the programs.”
Cr Semra’s journey took him onto Maribyrnong council at last October’s municipal elections and now gets him invites to gala dinners held by youth foundations and featured in promotional material as a success story.
Through his day job running his own foundation, Endeavour Youth Australia, Cr Semra helps today’s youth forge their own journey’s, doing for them what Les Twentyman did for him.
“The support I got when I was younger (from the Les Twentyman Foundation) has acted as a catalyst for me to identify and invest in the potential of other young people,” he said.
Full circle indeed.
