Highlights
- Cameron McLeod, CEO of The Huddle, says he put himself "in the shoes" of local Muslim community during Ramadan fast
- The Huddle is North Melbourne club's community outreach and employment wing
- Danny Pearson, Victoria's assistant treasurer, joins iftar, praises club's effort
As millions of Muslims prepare for Eid marking the end of Ramadan later this week, food, faith and sports brought people of various cultures together in North Melbourne during many iftar dinners.
The Huddle, the community arm of the North Melbourne AFL club hosted an iftar dinner with nearly 150 members of the local community to celebrate the month of Ramadan.
Cameron McLeod, CEO of The Huddle took this message of social cohesion a step further as he joined the Muslim community in their daylong fast before hosting the iftar.
“Well, I’ve got a number of members in my team who are Muslim, and I can see that they’re helping to educate us," he tells SBS Somali.
Iftar dinner at North Melbourne AFL club headquarters Credit: SBS Somali
A big part of our work is around understanding other communities and for me, it’s about putting myself in their shoes.CAMERON MCLEOD, CEO, THE HUDDLE
Many attendees of the iftar hail from Somali families living in North Melbourne and the club employs many of them to connect with the community.
Mr McCleod says an event like this help build social cohesion and different communities learn from each other.
Today, I fasted. I got to experience firsthand both the reasons why Ramadan is important, but also found it very challenging.CAMERON MCLEOD
“So, I learned a lot just by observing and fasting. And now my experiences have kind of shown me how difficult it is, but how important it is.
“I learnt a lot more tonight. It’s not just simply about withholding and withstanding food and drink, it’s also about cleansing, it’s about forgiveness, it’s about celebration.
“It’s really about people coming together. And it’s a very deeply personal and religious month,” he said at the iftar dinner.
“While tonight’s iftar was about food and faith, The Huddle’s work with the community goes above and beyond, providing them the support that the community needs particularly young people aged eight to 25, to make sure that they have every opportunity to prosper, to grow and to flourish.
“We’ve worked with over 120,000 young people from over 160 different cultures in the last 12 years. And we help them with their science, their technology, their engineering and their maths,” Mr McLeod added.
Salah Diriye, a member of the local community attended the iftar.
“Any organisation or service provider should always respect their employees’ culture and beliefs.
It’s great to see the CEO of Huddle helping with handing out the food, welcoming the community and showing humility without ego or self-importance.SALAH DIRIYE, SOMALI COMMUNITY MEMBER
"This is positive — something we can learn from," he tells SBS Somali.
"So, I felt it was really important," he said.
This is the second year that I’ve done that, and I’ve only been able to do it once at a time, so one day at a time.CAMERON MCLEOD
“But I have really enjoyed it. It’s been challenging, but it’s also very rewarding and I feel, if anything, it’s going to help me connect with them,” he says.
Danny Pearson, Assistant Treasurer of Victoria and Member for Essendon, praised the club for supporting the local community and highlighted the importance of such events.
It’s wonderful to have that level of respect and diversity and to have such a large number of people come out to break the fast tonight.DANNY PEARSON, ASSISTANT TREASURER, VICTORIA
“Something really important, something I was really pleased to be a part of and be invited to.
“Because it’s a great honour to be able to celebrate Ramadan with the community, the community I serve, and to be able to have that level of respect and acknowledgement and celebrate the diversity, the beauty and the diversity that is our community,” he said.
Jennifer Watt, the CEO of North Melbourne Football Club also attended the event and said she was pleased to be holding an iftar dinner, connecting with the community via The Huddle.
“We’ve been going since 2010, and over that time, we’ve connected with 160,000 community members in North Melbourne.
“And so having these meaningful connection points, whether it’s homework club for the kids, education programmes, employment programmes, being able to have lots of different touch points with the community is terrific for us.
"And tonight’s an example of that,” she added.
The Huddle employees from the local community Credit: SBS Somali
“So, the programmes that we work with, essentially our purpose is [to] use the power of sport to get positive employment and education outcomes. So, it’s ready for work programmes, to teach young people ways that they might get jobs,” she says.
“That might be how to participate in a job interview. So, really practical advice for young people, building their resumes, helping them find jobs that they’re passionate about.
"And we love to employ people at the club and in The Huddle that have been through our programs as well,” Ms Watt added.
