Hub Staff
The Oz International Students Hub (OISH) connects international students in Sydney with information, support, and community. A program of Sydney Community Forum, OISH offers workshops, mentoring, and cultural events that help students build confidence, wellbeing, and belonging in Australia.
Asha Ramzan (she/her)
Executive Officer
Sydney Community Forum
Asha Ramzan has been the Executive Officer of Sydney Community Forum since 2008. Asha has worked in a range of clinical and management roles in the Community Sector for over 30 years. Her current work focuses on community capacity building and systemic advocacy on social justice, inclusion and sustainability issues and concerns across greater metropolitan Sydney. Her work at SCF is grounded in the praxis of Community Organising – community capacity building and collective action for the common good. Prior to her current role as Executive Officer at SCF, Asha was the Executive Officer of the regional community forum in Newcastle & the Hunter for 6years (Hunter Community Council). In terms of her clinical training and practise, Asha trained in Narrative Therapy & Community Work at the Dulwich Centre in Adelaide in the 1990’s and worked as a Specialist Domestic and Family Violence Counsellor, as well as a Family Therapist and Adolescent & Family Counsellor for many years. She eventually realised that many of the clinical issues and concerns she was dealing with had their roots in systemic and generational disadvantage and structural inequality so she decided to devote her time, energy & skills to build the capacity of ordinary people in the community to change this instead of seeing a never-ending line of clients afflicted with personal pain and suffering that originated in the public arena of systemic injustice and structural inequality.
Gabriela Weiss (she/her)
Sydney Community Forum
Erika Katalbas (she/her)
Sydney Community Forum
Gabriela is a Qualified Social Worker and a former student representative of the Health Science Faculty Board at Australian Catholic University. Her upbringing in the Brazilian favelas (slums) and her almost ten years living experience in three different continents strongly impacted Gabriela’s sense of social justice, her proactive personality and developed in her a strong will to improve the lives of migrants around the world. Since the beginning of her social work degree in 2018, Gabriela has worked as a volunteer at Will2Live helping to feed homeless people and at BRACCA (Brazilian Community Council of Australia). In 2019 Gabriela joined HARDA (Horn of Africa Relief and Development Agency) as an intern and soon became the Project Coordinator of the Employment Program, a mentorship program for refugees from the Horn of Africa. In 2020 Gabriela co-founded the Coronavirus Relief Project, promoting social assistance to the Brazilian community in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic. In four months of its existence, the project had the collaboration of more than 60 volunteers and 12 partners and supported more than 1.200 Brazilians going through difficulties. In the same year, Gabriela joined the Oz International Students Hub as a student leader. Using her personal story as a former international student, she joined the team to improve the lives of international students in NSW. Gabriela currently works as community worker at the Sydney Community Forum working with communities in situation of vulnerability at the Targeted Early Intervention project funded by the Department of Community and Justice. Gabriela also works as an Intake Officer at the Intake Assessment Referral Service for international students in NSW.
Gabriela was invited to share her experiences as a social work student at the podcasts Social Work Spotlight and Migrant Women, and at the II Congress of Social Services and Human Rights to inspire students to maximise their university experience.
Erika is a Qualified Social Worker from the Australian College of Applied Psychology and a member of the Australian Association of Social Workers and the Australian Services Union. From her bachelor's degree in Psychology in the Philippines to her career in Human Resources and to her Master of Commerce in Human Resource Management from Macquarie University, Erika has always been fuelled by her passion for people and for understanding how people discover, explore, and fulfill their potential. Having worked in the corporate and the not-for-profit sector, Erika brings with her the capacity to understand the interests of the private, public, and not-for-profit sector. She completed the Sydney Alliance internship in 2021 where her organising efforts with the Oz International Students Hub for a welcoming, supportive, and just Australia for international students led to the grant of Investment NSW for the Intake Support Service for International Students. Having been an international student herself, her lived experience has enabled her to provide an empathic and a uniquely relational support in her current role as the Intake Officer for Sydney Community Forum's Intake Support Service for International Students. She continues to utilise community organising tools in enhancing her social work practice in her work with the Intake Support Service by organising for support services that are not easily accessible to international students, and in her role as a Project and Advocacy Coordinator with Churches Housing Inc. where she works collaboratively with key stakeholders in the Housing sector to advocate for a more just housing system in NSW.
