Nomination for translating help

A young woman who grew up in a Kurdish refugee camp and stepped up to help her community during the Christchurch mosque attacks is a finalist in the University of Canterbury Young New Zealander of the Year.

On March 15, 2019 Dr Zhiyan Basharati was visiting her brother at Christchurch Hospital.

When she heard local mosques had been attacked, she quickly introduced herself to hospital staff and began organising translators who spoke Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, Somali or Kurdish to help victims and their family members.

“I saw from the window police and armed forces surrounding the hospital. I saw after 10 minutes cars were coming into the hospital with wounded people and that’s when I got the call from my sister that there was a shooting at the mosque. “I was crying, and very worried about our friends and family whom we hadn’t heard from.”

Basharati immediately made herself known at the hospital’s front desk, saying she was a member of the Muslim community.

She received a call shortly after asking for her help.

“I asked if they could put calls through to people in our community who speak different languages so we are getting the right information out to our community. Young people like myself who I knew spoke their native language came to the hospital.”

“Our translator volunteers were up all night taking calls, and getting information from victims’ families.”

She said her nomination as a finalist, which has come as a total surprise, is recognition of the importance of grassroots work.

“I’m not used to being recognised, it makes me feel very uncomfortable. But I do want people to know that refugees and migrants are giving back to their community and they do good work.”