About Rosemary

Rosemary Kariuki is the Multicultural Community Liaison Officer for the Campbelltown
Police Local Area Command. She specialises in helping migrants who are facing domestic
violence, language barriers and financial distress. Connecting and building trust between the
Police and the CALD Communities.
Fleeing Kenya alone in 1999 to escape family abuse and tribal clashes, her early years in
Australia were terribly lonely. Her experience helped Rosemary recognise that isolation is a
huge issue for many migrant women. Many aren’t used to going out alone, have no
transport and speak little or no English. So, Rosemary devised ways to help women leave
their house and meet women in similar circumstances.
In partnership with the African Women’s Group, she helped start the African Women’s
Dinner Dance. Now in its 18th year, more than 400 women attend the annual event. She also
started the African Village Market – a program to help migrants and refugees start their own
businesses – which ran for four years.
Rosemary’s warmth, courage and kindness inspires all who meet her. Her work was the
subject of the documentary, ‘Rosemary’s Way’ and has featured in Baulkham Hills African
Ladies Troupe. She is an author of A Joyful Life
Rosemary has been described as a ‘charismatic changemaker’, ‘on a mission to empower
migrant women’.
As a child, she survived the first of many predators in her home. As a teen, she survived the
first of three infant losses. In her twenties, she survived years of domestic violence. In her
thirties, she survived political unrest and tribal clashes that brought a hammer crashing
down on her head.
But what makes Rosemary’s journey so remarkable is not just how she survived, but also
how she came to find joy: an infectious joy that she has gone on to share with countless
others. From her tough childhood in Kenya, taking care of her fifteen siblings, to becoming
the 2021 Australian of the Year Local Hero and OAM in 2022 among other awards.