Two young leaders working together for their community
Lily and Ajak are both youth leaders as part of CMY’s South Sudanese support program: Jamma. Jamma supports young South Sudanese people and their families in Dandenong, Casey, Cardinia, Melton and Brimbank, providing them with connection and mentorship. Lily and Ajak are a part of Jamma’s Melton/Brimbank Youth Advisory Group (YAG) and are key in influencing the program’s approach to supporting young people.
Ajak is graduating from a two-year course of the Diploma of Nursing on 5 May with the hopes of working in aged care. Lily is a fashion student at Collarts currently getting her Bachelor of Design (Fashion & Sustainability) after graduating with her Bachelor in Fashion Marketing degree on 30 April of last year. She plans to be a personal stylist.
Ajak and Lily have known each other since early high school and before joining the YAG, coached younger students in soccer.
“When we coached the year 8s, sometimes from the start, they wouldn’t really listen to us. They would like run away and just be ridiculous. It was hard,” Lily says.
Ajak discovered the YAG in 2023 through Multicultural Youth Worker, Adut, who was close friends with Ajak’s mum. Being the oldest of six younger siblings, Ajak naturally took on leadership opportunities.
Later, in 2025, Lily was recommended to join the YAG by Ajak. Lily was intrigued by a post that Ajak shared of YAG Camp and wanted to learn more.
“I was like, ‘wait, you went to camp!? What is this about?” And then she told me about it and asked if I wanted to come along, and I just went along and yeah, the rest is history,” Lily says.
Ajak was drawn to the YAG initially by wanting to find more connection with her community and to be in the room when the important discussions about her community were happening.
“I was really interested in collaborating with others and just speaking up with them and finding different ways to see what we can do about issues and just learn,” says Ajak.
“I definitely wanted to have more connection with other people and be able to talk about topics that involve us.”
The YAG meets regularly to discuss important issues in the South Sudanese community as well as plan out key events throughout the year like holiday programs.
“I really like the meetings that we’ve done,” Ajak says.
“We discussed different topics and they opened my mind up to what we’re experiencing as a culture. And also, I really, really liked the camp that we’ve done with other YAG groups (YAG Camp). It was so nice.”
Joining the YAG has influenced both of them positively, but Lily specifically highlighted the role’s influence on her own confidence. She even broke out into dance with other YAG members at the 2025 Harmony Youth Summit in a cultural exchange.
This shift in confidence was pointed out to Lily by Multicultural Youth Worker, Achol, who works closely with the Melton/Brimbank YAG.
“Achol was like, ‘I can see that you are slowly coming out of your shell. That’s really good to see!’ And I was like, really?” Lily says.
“I didn’t even notice until she pointed it out.”
Ajak and Lily are excited to continue volunteering with the YAG with a fun year planned ahead. Ajak has hopes for the future of her community and has faith in young South Sudanese people.
“I think we just want to encourage the youth,” Ajak says.
“We just want to do good things.”