“Year ten I was ready to give up,” recalls Hamdi Mohamed, a vivacious 22-year-old who moved to Melbourne from Somalia in 2011.

“I had no clue. My English was zero. And I thought ‘I’m not coming to school anymore’.  But then I came to the Huddle, and everything changed.”

Now, Mohamed is animated, cheerful, constantly laughing, and seems to know everyone walking through the corridors of North Melbourne’s Arden Street facilities.

Seeing her now, you would never imagine that when she arrived, she only knew one word of English (“thanks”) and her only social connections were her five siblings.

“I came to high school and everybody was speaking English … no one wanted to talk to me. They would laugh if I said the wrong word, or if I my pronunciation was bad. And all I could think was that I wanted to give up.”

Luckily, a teacher noticed that Mohamed was struggling and suggested that she visit the Huddle, North Melbourne’s award winning not-for-profit, to get help with school work. 

“I was really shy when I first started at the Huddle, but people were so welcoming. The first day my English was so bad, I was just standing there and [one of the Huddle employees] started chatting with me… and you know when you meet someone and they talk to you and you start feeling more confident? That happened to me at the Huddle. After that first day, I’ve just kept coming.” 

Mohamed’s first two years saw her visiting four days a week without fail. But school continued to be difficult as she struggled to fit in. 

“At school I didn’t have any friends” she recalls. 

“I used to sit at the back with my computer, because the students didn’t want to talk to me because of my English and I wouldn’t talk to them.” 

But through it all, Mohamed’s tutor at The Huddle told her to ‘never give up’. 

“He would always say ‘You can do this, Hamdi. You are so enthusiastic’.  That word, enthusiastic, was a hard one for me as I was learning English. I had to look it up. But I like the word. When I understood what it meant, I was like, ‘cool’”. 

Mohamed smiled while reflecting on her experiences and proclaimed, “I learnt English at the Huddle”. 

After a couple of years as a Huddle participant, Mohamed began to volunteer.  Besides being happy to have the opportunity to give back (“If you get help, then you should also help other people”), Mohamed also credits her time as a volunteer with teaching her to be “more open minded”. 

“Before”, she observed, “I watched the news and thought everyone was bad.

“Sometimes when I walk someone yells, ‘go back to where you come from’; I would think that everyone is the same, I’m the only one different.  But when I moved to the Huddle I realized everybody is different.”

After gaining confidence in her English at the Huddle, spending time with tutors, and with a huge amount of resilience, determination, and strength, Mohamed finished year 12 and gained her certificate three in health assistance.

But just as importantly, it was through the Huddle that Mohamed discovered the AFL.  

“The first day I got into footy was August 2014,” she recalled. 

“It was North Melbourne and the Bulldogs. I initially thought ‘what a bunch of idiots, why are they hitting each other?’, and I had no clue what was happening.  Then I saw Andrew Swallow, and thought, ‘he plays well’.

“Now I’m always thinking, ‘when is the footy on?’. I always have to watch.”

More recently, Mohamed started her search for employment. 

“It was really hard,” she said. 

“I would apply but I would always get the response, ‘unfortunately no’. I hate those words.” 

But after emailing Noura Hachem, The Huddle’s Youth Recruitment and Field Officer, it wasn’t long before she’d landed a role as a kitchen assistant.  

Mohamed started the job last week.

“Work is really good, and I get to see the guys at the Huddle,” she added. 

“The Huddle makes you feel like you belong. It’s just like home. For me, it is home.”