Khristo Newall - Immersions Coordinator
Khristo Newall has over 15 years of experience in youth work and community development, and comes to the Institute with a passion for social justice which has shaped his life’s journey. Khristo was born in India to missionary parents and grew up in Nepal until moving to Perth at the age eleven. These early years gave him a love of travel and other cultures, but also an early impression of the wealth divide in the world and the seed of a desire to work with the marginalised and disenfranchised.
Having dreamed of travelling the world with National Geographic, Khristo studied photography but also began volunteering with accommodation projects for homeless young people. This led to further work in the youth work field, and then work in the wider context of community development.
Over the years this has included working with ‘at risk’ youth in an alternative high school, working with young offenders and their families, managing a drug rehabilitation service, setting up and coordinating a drop-in centre in Northbridge, and further work in accommodation projects. Khristo has also worked with a number of remote indigenous communities in WA, initially in the Western Desert region, and more recently in the Kimberley, including living in the community of Balgo for most of 2004.
Prior to Balgo, Khristo was recruited to join a French NGO working in Iraq immediately following the invasion of 2003. This resulted in four months working in Child Protection in Baghdad, and taking on the responsibility for setting up a number of projects for children who had ended up on the streets during the conflict. This work was halted and the team evacuated when the situation became too dangerous, but it reinforced for Khristo his desire to make a difference through long-term community development. As part of that aim Khristo is currently studying part-time for his Masters in International and Community Development through Deakin University in Melbourne.
Aside from Khristo’s paid work, he has also been involved in working with the marginalised and wider social justice issues across a range of activities, from camping programs, to politics, to grass-roots campaigning. This activism has seen Khristo get involved in a number of indigenous issues, from campaigns to preserve sacred sites, to being a Board member of the Deaths In Custody Watch Committee, and has also involved working on refugee issues, the environment, and peace. This has ranged from facilitating workshops on Non-violence and how to use these skills for social change, through to being part of the protests at the Pine Gap military base in 2002, and being a key WA organiser around the anti-war protests in 2002 and 2003 before the invasion of Iraq.
Amongst many labels, Khristo sees himself as an activist and a community development practitioner, and believes that while these things may look very different at times, they are all part of the spectrum of activity which encompasses working to create a better world. As the ERISJ Immersions Coordinator, he is looking forward to the opportunities for raising awareness of social justice issues through taking others on cross-cultural journeys, and the privileges of travelling and engaging in others’ lives.
