Hemyar arrived in Hong Kong three years ago due to rising unrest in his country in the Middle East. He hopes to work towards a future where the city he lives in and loves gives refugees and asylum seekers the freedom to gain employment and travel, and a life of freedom.

Hemyar is one of five co-founders and Chief Financial Officer of Learning Together, an organisation committed to educating asylum seekers and refugees running since 2015. Despite arriving in Hong Kong with no English fluency, he strove to learn the language, was able to communicate effectively with others within 6 months from arrival and now also teaches English classes on Saturdays and Sundays. He has helped organise a number of activities for the benefit of marginalised communities through Learning Together. For instance, having noted that many females from this community have not had basic schooling in their home country, he developed a basic literacy program and taught 50 adults, primarily women, how to read and write. He also secured an internship at PricewaterhouseCooper Hong Kong as an intern of the Shine Project – a job-based capacity building programme. Currently pursuing his business degree, Hemyar is also enrolled in a part-time Accountancy programme at HKU SPACE. He hopes to work towards a Hong Kong where every individual has access to their basic rights and is able to progress in life. In his free time, Hemyar is fond of studying, and taking part in physical activities such as track and field events.

In Hemyar’s words:

“I believe Hong Kong is the best city in the world. It should be a leader and an example for other places because of the diversity of its people and how international it is. I do not want people here to live as animals anymore and I will work to help refugees and asylum seekers because of this.”