The Power of Hope

A powerful, inspiring memoir from Kon Karapanagiotidis, founder of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, which argues that by putting community, love and compassion at the centre of our lives, we have the power to change our world.

'From 18 to 28 I learned how to do the work that I do now. I spent those 10 years doing volunteer work. Outside of my mum and dad and sister - who loved me deeply - I felt so unloved in this world. I wanted to take all the hurt and pain of my childhood and say, Okay, if no one will give me that love, I need to at least find a way to give it back to the world. I've got to do something good with this, because it's going to kill me otherwise. It was poisoning me. It was going to break me. I was 18 and my first volunteer job was in a homeless drop-in centre. I found more compassion and kindness in a drop-in centre full of homeless men who had lost everything than I ever had with a bunch of middle-class kids at school or at university. And I was like, Ah. I'm home now. This is where I belong. These are my people. This is my community.'

A simple, small but powerfully inspiring memoir that tells the heartbreaking story of one migrant boy and his journey from despair to optimism; the extraordinary organization he founded; and the importance of hope, the power of community, and the value of kindness.

Kon Karapanagiotidis is widely considered one of the nation's top human rights advocates, and is the founder of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in Melbourne. This is his story - and his call to arms.