The Young Australian of the Year for 2012 is Akram Azimi, a refugee from Afghanistan who arrived in Australia in 1999. I was captivated by a radio interview I heard with him conducted by Ashley Hall, ABC…so much so that I’m sharing some of it below.

Read this and then tell me stories don’t have the power to change lives and change communities.

ASHLEY HALL: West Australian Akram Azimi has been named the Young Australian of the Year. He came to Australia as a refugee from Afghanistan in 1999, and has worked to give a voice to young Indigenous people.

AKRAM AZIMI: I feel that my message and the kind of work I've been doing has struck a chord not only with Indigenous Australians but with the wider community, the non-Indigenous population.

And my ideas basically are very simply. I had the chance to go out into the bush and discover this rich, beautiful culture in the Kimberley. I came back to Perth and I discovered that I knew very little about my Noongar heritage there. You know, I'd been there for about a decade and I knew so little about the land on which I was standing.

So I decided to change something about this. And us and a few university friends, including two Noongar law students, we decided to start an organisation that creates the kind of space where Indigenous and non-Indigenous students can discover each others' stories.

ASHLEY HALL: Why do you think it's so important to share those stories?

AKRAM AZIMI: Well I think it goes back to school, my school days. I remember feeling very different; I looked very different to everybody else, I had these big bushy eyebrows and this big nose and I felt my sense of being an outsider.

And I realised at one stage that, you know, I was the one who was going to have to change this and mum gave me really good advice, that your life is determined not by how others treat you but by how you treat others. And I just decided to go around and just tell my story to everyone. And that just changed everything.

AKRAM AZIMI The power of one humanising story is extraordinary, it can wash away a lifetime of prejudice. And most of the time, look, people are not bad they just don't know about your culture, your heritage, and all it takes is that one story to open their heart up and from there you can begin a beautiful friendship.

Could not have said this better myself. Congratulations Akram, I hope you continue to share your story and encourage others to do the same.