Rising netball player Binta Lamin has been nominated as one of three finalists for Netball Queensland’s Young Ambassador of the Year Award for the Under 18 category. A Year 12 student from the Lourdes Hill College in Hawthorne, Binta was recognized by Bulimba MP Di Farmer.
Farmer wrote on Facebook that Binta is “one of the most inspirational people I have ever met.”
Whilst studying to complete Year 12, Binta is also active in netball as a player and volunteer coach and umpire. She does a series of netball workshops to help young girls with diverse backgrounds, especially the disadvantaged, develop their sports ability.
Binta is an ambassador for Best Foot Forward from the Edmund Rice Foundation Australia. The charity helps in the education of underprivileged girls.
She’s doing all of these whilst also working in a part-time job to help her family.
Binta Lamin recognizes that she has been truly fortunate to receive opportunities in Australia after her family left war-torn Sierra Leone. She has vague memories of her family’s struggle during the war as she was only three years old but she has heard the stories and sacrifices her mother, Kadie, had to endure.
The teenager said that the recognitions from Netball Queensland and Ms Farmer are “truly humbling.” It has driven here more to give back to the country that has embraced her and her family, and provided them with quality life, as former refugees.
