About
Sumaya Harare is a motivational speaker for hire in Melbourne, VIC.
Sumaya Harare arrived in Australia with her family as refugees from Somalia, started at a Melbourne primary school knowing only a handful of English words, and got bullied for being different. She drew her way through it. Now she is a children's author and illustrator who tells that story to school assemblies, International Women's Day events and corporate audiences, with humour in it and enough space to let the hard parts land. St Bede's College had her in front of more than 200 students, teachers, parents and locals. Her talks cover resilience, inclusion and creativity. She holds a Working with Children check. A handheld or lapel mic and a projector cover the requirements.
On the day
A microphone, either handheld or a lapel one, whichever your room is already set up for. And a projector with a computer to run her presentation from, since the talk leans on the illustrations. Nothing else needed.
Performance options
Two sessions. From Struggle to Success is the keynote, tracing Sumaya's journey from Somalia to an Australian classroom where she understood almost nothing that was said to her, and what she built out of that. It's delivered with illustrated slides, which holds a student audience far better than talking alone, and includes a Q&A. The second is a storytelling session for Prep to Grade 3, where she reads her book I Don't Understand to the class, about the language barrier she hit at school, then takes questions. Both include a consultation call about a week beforehand.
Insurance and paperwork
Working with Children Check
