Our Multicultural Marriage

Rana and Peter met and got married in Melbourne. They are both migrants from different countries. Coming from a different culture is not something new for Victorians but it should be interesting to hear people’s story of adaptation to the new cultures and the daily impacts of a multicultural life.

Rana is from Iran. She moved to Melbourne in December 2016 and joined Rotary Central Melbourne in March 2017. She is working with Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission. Through 16 years of working with UN agencies and international NGOs from various European and Asian countries, she has communicated and negotiated with high-level government authorities and diplomats. She also managed the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of more than 48 international projects in Iran to assist asylum seekers, refugees and people with vulnerability. In Australia since 2016, she has provided consultancy to the Green Party Leaders, Victoria Police, VicRoads and Scanlon Foundation on multiculturalism, diversity and inclusion and multicultural community engagement.

Peter is from Poland and has lived in Melbourne for 28 years. He has a portfolio job which means beside being an artist, he writes shorts stories. He has won several best prizes for his humorous poetry and short stories. Peter is also an ESL teacher and has a CELTA certificate. He loves teaching English to the new comers. Peter became a certified counsellor in 2007. He is specialised in couple counselling and addictions and helped many people with addictions. Beside all the jobs that Peter has, he also ran his electrical business, working with commercial clients. He is specialised in electrical computer networking and telecommunication.