Honoured Aussie citizen

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| Nick Dalton

ROTARIAN-extraordinaire Nauman

Abbasi has finally become an Australian citizen in Cairns but his journey to Australia was unusual and hardly straight forward.

Although born in Pakistan, he met his wife Susanne Rea, from Cairns, in Dubai in 2015 where she was visiting and promoting the World’s Greatest Meal Project for Rotary.

The World’s Greatest Meal project began in Cairns on Christmas Day 2013. What started as a Christmas breakfast meal between some friends has now grown to more than 8000 WG Meal events being held in over 86 countries with over $US4.5 million raised before being matched by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to total $13.4m to provide 96 million polio plus vaccines being available for the world’s most vulnerable children.

Mr Abbasi was taken by his future wife and her Rotarian causes.

“She offered me to be her Rotarian aide while she was serving as a Rotarian for the noble cause to Help End Polio,” he said.

“Susanne is a polio survivor. I left my job in Dubai when Susanne offered me to travel with her to help with the End Polio campaign and we travelled together throughout Africa and to Seoul in South Korea. I also supported her for the immunisation work throughout Pakistan.”

Mr Abbasi arrived in Australia in June 2018.

“I came here for Susanne and I started at Cairns Museum, my first volunteer job and I became part of this beautiful community,” Mr Abassi said.

“I served at Centacare as a volunteer and completed my Certificate III and Certificate IV in Disability Support and have been serving with Spinal Life Australia for three years.

“It’s an honour to serve and make a difference to people’s lives who are disabled.

“Honestly, I have learned a lot from these wonderful people”.

Mr Abassi was overjoyed to become an Australian citizen.

“I feel passionate about Australia as I feel blessed by God to send me here and, yes, all my ethics and joys have been completed in Australia and I am with my beloved Susanne living a great life and becoming an Australian citizen is an honour for me,” he said.

“I heartedly thank this community for accepting me and I am loving being an Australian.”

Mr Abassi’s work as a Rotarian has expanded.

He was recently appointed the Rotary District Polio chairman in D9560, Australia.

The area covers as far north as Timor Leste out to Darwin, Mount Isa and down to Bundaberg.

Mr Abassi also is a member of the Rotary Club of Outback Australia which is a hybrid Rotary Club.

He is integral to the #WGMeal project based on the website www. wgmeal.org and has been awarded the prestigious International Service Award for a polio-free World by Rotary International. Only three were awarded globally in 2020/21.

For more information about Rotary go to https://www.rotary.org/en

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