The voice of a community largely unheard in Australia is being beamed into homes around the world.
Cousins Ror Akot and Michael Deng have teamed up with Washington-based broadcaster the Voice of America to share stories about Melbourne's growing South Sudanese community. 
Working as volunteer journalists on the international network's South Sudan in Focus program, the pair file stories about the city's African-Australian community that are aired on radio stations throughout their war-torn homeland.
"It's to show people back home that we are still connected to our motherland, that we care about what is happening there," Akot said. "And to show them that there's a better way, there's opportunity, that people here are achieving things."
Since   June, the two Victoria University arts students have produced a handful of segments for the US government-funded news agency, which also publishes their podcasts to its vast international following.
Their interviews with fellow migrants and community leaders tell the stories of the South Sudanese diaspora in Australia to a global audience.
The program's managing editor and co-host, John Tanza, met the young men on a recent trip to Melbourne and said he was struck by their ambition. He said their stories gave African people a rare glimpse of life in Australia.
"They add a voice from 'down under'," he said. "Their contributions make our show unique because few international media speak to the South Sudanese who have resettled in Australia after leaving their country because of a long history of civil unrest."
"The stories they file are important to our listeners because South Sudanese at home are curious about what is happening to their relatives in the diaspora."
Akot and Deng's first piece was about a volunteer-run homework club in Sunshine that helped them when they arrived in Melbourne as child refugees, having fled the civil war in southern Sudan.
They have also recorded interviews with South Sudanese people on the anniversary of the country's 2011 independence and plan to dedicate a segment to campaigning against domestic violence in their community.  
For this week's show the duo asked African elders about the messages that were passed down to them from their grandparents.
Akot, who last year was named Yarra Council's Young Citizen of the Year, said a big part of what they hope to achieve through the partnership is wider understanding among their community about the divisions caused by tribal conflict.
"That conflict is what is driving the wars at home. And people here think the same," he said. "But we're trying to get the message across that even though we're different tribes, we're all the same."
"We are trying to get them to understand that if we're going to change we have to look at ourselves as individuals and change our perspectives."
Leader of Victoria's South Sudanese community, Kot Manoah, praised Akot and Deng for inspiring African youth and addressing concerns about ethnic tensions. 
"Educating people to remain neutral here in Australia or overseas is a remarkable discourse to undertake," he said.