ASPYA Foundation has released its first Impact Report, covering January 2020 to January 2026, documenting the organisation’s growth from a grassroots response to tragedy into one of Melbourne’s most trusted youth-led community organisations.
The report highlights the breadth of ASPYA’s work, from the Girl Chat and Faithful Coalition annual camps, to the Nile Warriors Basketball Club’s run to the finals of the South Sudanese Basketball Association competition, to the Reclaimed Voices documentary, which has now screened more than 1,200 times across Victoria, Queensland and the United Kingdom and was featured on ABC Breakfast News. The report also reveals that ASPYA has reached more than 6,000 young people through over 25 programmes across its four impact areas of education, justice, advocacy, and health and wellbeing. Through its consortium model, which brings together youth-led groups including Girl Chat, Home Court and Faithful Coalition under one organisational umbrella, ASPYA now engages more than 300 young people each year.
ASPYA was founded in 2020 in response to the death of Machar Kot, a friend and relative of the organisation’s founders, who lost his life to knife crime. What began as an effort to make sense of that loss, led by co-founders Robiel Abraham, Aken Angok, Sobur Dhieu, Abak Dhieu and Malou Lueth, grew into the African Youth Initiative and later into ASPYA Foundation, now a registered charity with DGR-1 status.
In her message opening the report, CEO and Chair Chelsea Marangu reflected on the personal significance of the organisation’s journey.
“I view myself as extremely privileged to lead the organisation which changed my own life and now help steward it into the future,”
Chelsea notes that the work ahead focuses on strengthening ASPYA’s evidence base, deepening its presence in Melbourne’s western suburbs, and building leadership pathways for the young people the organisation supports today.
The future depends on what we choose to support today. You can discover our full report at www.aspyafoundation.org.au/impact.