Charity Haynes for Alison Raco
Much of this year has been dominated by the Coronavirus and its impact on vulnerable people like asylum seekers highlights the importance of VDSA in their lives. All those asylum seekers and refugees living without visa or on welfare are not eligible for the government’s special benefits like JobSeeker. So, if they lost their job they were without support, and even for those that might have been eligible the process of applying was very complex. In addition, many do not have Medicare, which leaves them very vulnerable during a pandemic.
The support from VDSA to this group has taken many forms and often had unexpected benefits, such as providing Day Care support to their children. This enables the child to learn English, and so become more integrated and able to respond to visitors, and for the parent(s) it enables them to spend time on other activities, such as going to classes at TAFE (English, sewing etc.), driving lessons or taking part time work, or being able to focus on the new baby – thus a win/win for everyone. Such generosity is life changing.
Some refugees have needed ongoing support for many years while they look for work, but when they do finally get employment and are able to cope on their own, their gratefulness for having been believed in and helped to survive those difficult years is wonderful and very rewarding.
For many refugees with ill health, Coronavirus has been especially frightening, since often they do not have Medicare, so the fear of getting Covid is exacerbated. Sensible advice like not taking public transport means that essential activities like going to the Foodbank at ASRC (Newtown) or to LWB (Parramatta) becomes an added burden, if advised not to travel.
One of the big changes this year has been that visiting Villawood Detention Centre was banned since March, for fear that Covid could be spread there. This has meant that the only contact is by mobile phone. The government tried to introduce a bill banning mobile phones in detention centres. Luckily the campaign against this bill was successful, with a deciding vote from Jacqui Lambie defeating it. Many people in detention have been there several years, have partners and children in the community or back in their country of origin. So this potential cruelty to already deprived people was extremely distressing and puts our Lock Down experience in perspective.
There are however highlights even in this area, with one of the refugees in detention for 10 years being released and now living with his brother, who was more fortunate and had only stayed in detention about 5 years. It is lovely to see them reunited and able to share a couple of rooms in a rented house.
The appreciation of VDSA by therefugees is enormous but it is a two-way process, since the members of VDSA benefit and are enriched by having the opportunity of friendship with them. Celebrations of weddings, birth of babies, birthdays, picnics, and casual meetings have enabled members of VDSA to get to know them and we have benefited enormously from this.
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