Kon Karapanagiotidis had a nickname growing up. The boy with the unpronounceable surname was dubbed “Mr Alphabet”. As the child of Greek immigrants, the now CEO and founder of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre thus grew up with an acute appreciation of the otherness experienced by refugees, and the need to wrap your arms around such people.

“You understand the importance of what we call ‘philoxenia’ in Greek culture, which is to welcome and accept the stranger,” he says. “Everything I do comes from an understanding of where I come from, what I’ve been through, and how lucky I am to be here," he tells Konrad Marshall, senior writer for Good Weekend Magazine. 

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