Between her business degree, her job at IKEA and pitching in with the peak body for volunteers in Australia, Shikofa Anguri is flat-out.
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The 30-year-old Hazara refugee came to Adelaide from Pakistan six years ago with her mother to join her father, who had been granted a humanitarian visa.
She had spent two decades in the bustling city of Quetta enduring instability and protracted violence by the Taliban against her minority community.
Hazaras have been targeted for their ethnicity and religious affiliation as Shi'a Muslims.
"When I first came here I wanted to improve my English and get a job ... which was very hard with no local experience," she told AAP.
It wasn't until she started volunteering at the Australian Migrant Resource Centre and the Rotaract Club in Adelaide that opportunities started coming her way.
"Volunteering is more than money for me," she explained.
"I didn't have any income but I learnt so many things, gained so many experiences and have been connected to a wider community."
National Volunteer Week, which honours local heroes such as Ms Anguri participating in invaluable community building, is marked yearly between May 20-26.
Alongside her IKEA job, she now works at Volunteering SA-NT, the main organisation for South Australia and the Northern Territory, helping other refugees to enter the voluntary sector to give back to their local communities and upskill.
She provides information sessions for new arrivals who are keen on making an immediate contribution but don't know the lay of the land, where a lack of fluency in English is a major stumbling block to securing a job.
Ms Anguri credits her own volunteer experience with helping her to secure a scholarship to study at the University of South Australia, where she is a third-year student.
Recently, she has been able to help other Afghans.
One of her clients, who sought information about volunteering, was an Afghan man in his 40s who had a thriving business and arrived about six months ago after fleeing the Taliban.
The Australian government has provided more than 12,000 permanent humanitarian visas to Afghans since the fall of Kabul in August 2021, when US troops withdrew.
"He has good English and goes to TAFE but he really doesn't have community connections, so he was happy I was able to provide him with information because we can speak the same language," Ms Anguri said.
Ms Anguri is a passionate advocate of being proactive in a tight labour market through volunteering.
"There are many opportunities here in Australia where you can start with a different role such as a cook, or volunteer at a hospital or do some gardening for the elderly, because sometimes we don't know what our hidden talents are until we try them," she said.
"If they were a teacher in their countries before, it doesn't mean it has to be the only role they can have for their whole lives."
Australian Associated Press
