With Refugee Week in June, Peninsula Living speaks to two locals who reveal their inspirational stories of surf, sand and survival – and how the local community has embraced them
From Gaza to the Beaches
Until 7 October 2023, Palestinian surf lifesavers Mohammed Saleh and Hasan Alhabil were running Gaza’s first-ever nippers program.
Kids laughed on the beach. Hope shimmered across the water. Then the unthinkable happened; the laughter stopped and was replaced with death and despair.
Mohammed’s home was reduced to rubble by the constant Israeli airstrikes and he fled the war-torn region with his wife Faten, son Guevara, 12, and eight-year-old twins Adam and Sham.
They sought shelter under unimaginable conditions for seven months praying for a way out.
Thousands of kilometres away, locals swung into action on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, led by Caroline Graham at the Northern Beaches Committee for Palestine (NBCP).
It was a full-circle moment. Five years earlier, Mohammed and Hasan had undergone six weeks of intensive training on the Northern Beaches with Jack Watts, captain at North Steyne Surf Life Saving Club.
Hasan achieved the bronze medallion, while Mohammed achieved the surf rescue certificate. They returned home and launched the Gaza Surf Project to reduce avoidable beach drownings.
The first nippers open day was held in January 2022 and the kids enthusiastically participated every Saturday for the next 10 months – until Hamas attacked Israel.
“When you see Gaza beach now … nothing will ever be like it was before 7 October,” says Mohammed quietly.
During this time, Gaza nipper Maha Al Burare’e, 11, sent a video to her Manly peers, saying: “I would like to tell Australian children our age, we want to live a life as yours, without wars and escalation.”
Heartbreakingly, she was killed just months later in December 2023.
Her video became a rallying cry, and NBCP, North Steyne, surf lifesavers, volunteers and Warringah Independent MP Zali Steggall led a herculean campaign to get the Salehs to safety.
Donations topped $20,000 and Zali personally secured visas with the immigration minister.
“Amidst the horror, it’s been heartening to help a family start again,” says Ms Steggall.
They arrived safely in July 2024 but, tragically, several of the Gaza Surf Project team, including four nippers, have been lost in the conflict.
“War leaves its imprint on everyone, no matter the side.”
An Ngo Lang
“They had dreams,” adds Mohammed, who is now a qualified nippers age manager at North Steyne. “One, aged nine, wanted to be a robot engineer.
“But he and his sister were killed with their entire family. They’re suffering. All of us are suffering.”
Meanwhile, Hasan and his family remain trapped in Gaza, where borders remain indefinitely closed. Alarmingly, contact has been lost.
“We’re so worried. We’ve not been able to reach them in weeks,” says NBCP’s Caroline, who knitted a mohair beanie, scarf, jumper and socks for Hasan’s children before winter.
They remain undelivered as the postal service doesn’t recognise Palestine as a country now.
“The Gaza SLS Project was borne out of a shared desire to bring joy, hope and safety to its waters,” adds Caroline. “We remain hopeful we can help save them and others.”
“We remain hopeful we can help save Hasan and his family.” Caroline Graham, Northern Beaches Committee for Palestine
From Saigon to Sydney
Vietnamese-born An Ngo Lang spent her early years in Vietnam. She was only four when rockets lit up the skies of Saigon, but remembers it vividly.
“I thought monsters were attacking us,” says An, now 54 and living at Frenchs Forest. “How else could I explain the terror etched into my parents’ faces, or why we were forced to leave the only home I had ever known? But it wasn’t monsters. It was war.”
An, who has lived in five countries over the last two decades with husband Geoffrey and their four sons, aged 15 to 25, says: “My refugee experience gave me the resilience to move through the world like a nomad – flexible and unafraid to begin again.
“In Rome, I picked up Italian. I gave birth to my fourth son in Munich. In Singapore, we built a life we loved close to Vietnam, allowing us to explore Southeast Asia. Every move taught me how to start again with openness, resilience, and curiosity.”
North Steyne SLSC captain, centre, says supervising Hasan and Mohammed’s intensive lifesaver training was ‘the most moving experience of my life.’
The Salehs have been welcomed by the Northern Beaches community
They moved to Australia in 2014 to give their children a sense of stability and security.
Writer, model and actor An – who has appeared in over 80 film, TV and commercial productions including Peter Rabbit 2, adds: “This is the first place where I’ve been able to raise my kids and build a life that feels grounded – where safety, purpose and community all come together.”
She is also an intercultural community leader through Northern Beaches Council’s We Belong program, advocating for inclusion, cultural understanding and community connection.
Her team’s initiative, Our Cultural Tapestries, shares cultural stories inspiring people to explore, nurture and document their heritage and identity through poetry, art and dance.
An’s moving story, The Best Pieces Not from Me, about her paternal grandmother, was shortlisted for the global literary 2024 Hope Prize.
She also delivered a keynote address at the 2024 Manly Vietnam veterans day memorial event, paying tribute to the courage and sacrifice of Australian Vietnam veterans.
“It reminded me that war leaves its imprint on everyone, no matter the side. It also made An rethink her view of ‘home.’ “I used to think home was four walls and a roof. (Now I think) it’s where you feel held and the ache in your heart is soothed. For me, it’s here in Sydney, and the USA, where my mum and brothers are. Home isn’t one place – it’s the tapestry of family, memory, and belonging that crosses borders.”
LOCAL HEROES HELPING REFUGEES
Refugee Week is Sunday 15 June to Saturday 21 June. Local groups working tirelessly to help refugees include:
• Northern Beaches Committee for Palestine (NBCP) • Community Northern Beaches • Manly Gees • Northern Beaches Refugee Sanctuary (NBRS) • Local Kind • Sydney Multicultural Services