by Luke Voogt
A refugee who fled Afghanistan in 2007 and recently opened an orphanage in his former homeland has become Deakin Univerity’s Young Alumni of the Year.
Grovedale student Khyber Alam arrived in Australia as a 13-year-old unable to speak a word of English.
About a year before he survived a bombing at his grandfather’s funeral in east Afghanistan.
“All I could see is people covered in blood and my dad’s closest friend had something stuck in his head – I can’t get that image out of my mind,” he said.
Despite the relative sanctuary of Australia, Khyber felt like a “stranger” at high school in Noble Park as he hit puberty.
“That’s the time … you try to find your place in the world,” he said.
“I really wanted to learn but the fact that I couldn’t understand the language was making it really hard for me.”
But with “lovely” teachers and English classes outside school Khyber knuckled down and excelled, eventually getting into optometry at Deakin.
“What better (way to help others) than giving them good vision,” he said.
Khyber has raised more than $75,000 for charities including groups supporting children in developing countries.
“They would write you letters and tell you how much they appreciate your help,” he said.
He has also helped local homeless people and volunteered as an optometrist in rural clinics in Australia, Bangladesh and India.
Mr Alam opened an orphanage in east Afghanistan with his own savings recently, which he hopes to visit when the country is safer.
He is now studying a PhD in medicine and working as an academic at Deakin.
