Port Hedland’s Kohbi Barrow nominated for 7NEWS young achiever award for volunteering, anti-bully message

Kohbi Barrow, 12, has lived in many towns and attended many schools across Australia and has seen and experienced firsthand what bullying can do to a person. But rather than sitting back, Kohbi is standing up and doing all he can to help spread kindness and eradicate bullying for good. Kohbi’s advocacy against bullying, as well as his extensive volunteering and fundraising efforts have earned him a nomination for the 7NEWS Young Achiever Awards. He said his parents encouraged him and his brother to give back to the community from a young age, and that has inspired him to keep going. “I get excited about helping people and brightening up their day,” he said. Kohbi’s mum Ree Barrow said even she didn’t know how Khobi fitted in the amount of community work he undertook. “I’ve actually had to tell Kohbi to start asking people if he can ask his mum before he commits to things now, just so I can make sure he physically has the time for it, she said. “He is very driven once he starts something to give it everything he’s got.” Ms Barrow said. Among many other things, Kohbi has written and delivered R U OK? speeches to hundreds of adults at Rio Tinto and FMG mine sites and raised money for the Hedland Cancer Support Group. In 2020, he started operation school stationery swap, where he collects end-of-year school stationery and shares his collections with people who need it. He is also heavily involved in the Containers for Change program and donates to SAFE Hedland. However, “getting rid of bullying” is what drives Kohbi most, and fittingly he has become an ambassador for Dolly’s Dream. The Dolly’s Dream initiative aims to prevent bullying and raise awareness of the impacts following the death of 14-year-old Dolly Everett by suicide in 2018. To raise money for Dolly’s Dream, Kohbi ran a successful coffee lid project which he hopes to continue with in 2022, as well as two new projects coming in March. Kohbi’s first new project is his kindness cards, where he will sell various postcards and handwrite messages of kindness on behalf of purchasers and send them onto their loved ones. He is also launching a podcast called kindness and thanks. “I’ll be talking about the effects of bullying, and interviewing guests,” he said. “I’m inviting some NRL players to talk about how bad bullying is.” Kohbi said bullying affected people differently. “Some people just get over it, others take it another way and can feel really bad about themselves, if it’s serious, some people take their own lives,” Kohbi said. “If we didn’t have bullying, we wouldn’t have bullies, so I think it’s also really important to help the bullies as well as help the people who are bullied.” When Kohbi grows up, he wants to be a scientist. “I want to be a biologist and find a cure for cancer, because my Poppy died from it,” he said. Although that may keep Kohbi busy enough in years to come, he said he would “definitely” continue to find time to help the community. The young achiever awards began in 2016, with the aim to acknowledge, encourage and most importantly promote the positive achievements of all young people up to and including 29 years of age. The awards showcase the achievements of young Western Australians, and pays tribute to their vision, innovation and commitment. Kohbi’s new podcast and kindness cards are set to launch in March.