During 2017 our group continued to grow organic vegetables. These were given to refugees and asylum seekers living in the community and experiencing poverty and misfortune. Fresh vegetables are also delivered weekly to two emergency centres which house some indigenous women and refugees.
Some volunteers have prepared pesto and salsa verde made from garden produce. These have been sold to raise funds for the Association.
The VDSA lunch group programme is now five years old, and in 2017 the activity has continued in the format of a flexible number of people working in teams of three. We prepare and serve a monthly, generous hot lunch for refugees and asylum seekers who are clients of the Asylum Seekers’ Centre. Meals are cooked according to hygiene and cultural requirements. The group is very keen to welcome new participants.
During the last five years the number of lunch clients has remained unpredictable – thirty in average, rarely less and sometimes up to fifty. In order not to disappoint anybody our teams calculate food quantities generously. Leftovers are taken home by the refugees and asylum seekers who are very appreciative of our regular and much enjoyed lunches.
For more information on the program see the program page here.
On Friday 26 May, 2017, a FILEF (Italian Federation of Migrant Workers and their families) meeting was held at the Italian Forum Cultural Centre in Leichardt, Sydney to discuss how refugees seeking asylum in Australia could be supported. NGOs including Amnesty International, Asylum Seeker Centre, Refugee Action Coalition, Valerio Daniel De Simoni Association, People Just Like Us, Mums 4 Refugees, OneStep and Grandmothers Against Detention of Refugee Children were in attendance.
This 5th year of activity has seen a drop-off in the number of detainees visited, as some were finally released, after 5 or even 6 years in detention. Contact has continued with some of these, especially with our Sri Lankan friends. Some financial assistance has been given to those now in the community to alleviate poverty, misfortune and distress including after the birth of a baby and during illness resulting in onerous medical bills. Some members now prefer to visit released detainees who have become friends after years of visiting. There have been social activities with ex-detainees such as attending weddings and christenings, restaurant outings, visits to the zoo or tours of Sydney. We feel maintaining our special friendships with ex-detainees, when possible, is important.
Some assistance was given to a now ex-detainee in jail who was very grateful for this help, as he had no family here. He was found not guilty but in the meantime spent two months in jail and two years in detention. Help was also given to another detainee who emerged from detention after seven years.
Friends of members have donated items of furniture. Donations are occasionally received for specific purposes. These are a help as our monthly funds only just cover outlays.
Our primary activity, however, remains support for those in detention Including spending time with them in an effort to relieve their distress and helplessness. A valuable new member has recently joined our group and has become a regular visitor. Right now, we are trying to give extra support to a detainee who recently attempted suicide, oppressed by detention and the killings in his homeland where his family resides. New members are always welcome!
The VDSA Lunch Project for the ASC has been in place since 2012. Our group consists of a flexible number of people, working in teams of three each. They prepare a monthly hot and tasty lunch for the clients of the ASC. Our meals are cooked according to hygiene and cultural requirements. Lunch is served at 12.30, and around 2.30pm our volunteers complete their task, which includes clearing and tidying up the kitchen. As in previous years our teams have observed an increase in the number of clients participating in our lunches and a certain level of anxiety in the way they fill up their plates. Fresh fruit is very much appreciated and if there are leftovers they are packed and taken home.
All members of the group agree that our presence is valued and our lunches are gratefully received.
Mariella Totaro-Genevois
Coordinator, VDSA Lunch Project
On Tuesday 15, November Diego Bonetto took our Volunteers and Friends of the VDS Association on a Wild Food Workshop tour of the Bronte gully.
Diego is an Italian artist, naturalist and cultural worker. He regularly presents at conferences and symposiums on the ecological and cultural value of botanical species.
On this particular Tuesday morning he showed us the variety of edible plants that grow freely around our vegetable garden, all of which we had considered weeds and until then tried to clear out from our plots. Then we went into the gully and were shown a variety of plants that are edible or/and have medicinal applications.
We are grateful to Diego Bonetto for sharing his knowledge with us. We learned a great deal and felt inspired by his words.
-Marisa Minelle-Katis, Bronte Garden Coordinator
In 2015 members of The Valerio Daniel De Simoni Association continued to provide monthly lunches to asylum seekers who are clients of the Asylum Seekers’ Resource Centre in Newtown. This project has been running since 2012. Approximately twenty people working in teams of three cook, prepare and serve hot and tasty lunches for the clients of the ASRC. We cook food according to the hygiene and culture requirements appearing in the guidelines provided by the ASRC itself. Any leftover food is donated to the asylum seekers. After lunch we clean and tidy the kitchen.
While our commitment is to cater for a maximum of thirty people, the number of clients present is in fact unpredictable: this year we have registered a minimum of fifteen and a maximum of forty-eight.
Sincere, heartfelt gratitude is expressed on each occasion by the asylum seekers and the staff of the Asylum Seekers’ Resource Centre.
Mariella Totaro Genevois
2015 Annual Report
This year
A friend of the Association who is a member of Rotary e-club applied to Rotary for a donation of $600.00 to enable the Association to install a new watering system for the vegetable garden. This was approved.
Our organic vegetable garden is totally run by a number of members of the association who meet regularly in the garden plot.
We are growing a variety of seasonal produce to maximise variety in the food basket we donate weekly to 3 organisations
We also contribute produce to the members of our association who organize monthly lunches for refugees/asylum seekers at the Asylum Seekers Centre in Newtown.
The garden continues to be totally organic, as we believe strongly in the benefits of eating fresh organic food.
Our visits to the Villawood Immigration Detention Facility (as it is now called) continue as in past years. There have been disconcerting moments when some of those we visited were moved overnight to other parts of the country (such as Yongah Hill, Perth, from Blaxland to Christmas Island and from Blaxland, to a correctional centre in Brisbane to await trial). Whenever possible, we try to stay in contact with these distant friends, sending items not otherwise available as well as financial support to enable them to purchase necessities. Funds from the Association were combined with very generous donations from two of our members and from FILEF to enable one of our Afghani friends to win his appeal in June against the Immigration Department’s denial of refugee status. Notwithstanding this win, the Department has still not released him, despite the fact that he has served almost 7 years in detention.
There have also been moments of relief and pleasure when detainees are finally released. Recently, some of us attended a colourful and joyful Tamil wedding.
There have been a number of new people interested in visiting Villawood and some have become part of our group. We welcome them warmly. As mentioned, there are detainees now in their 7th year of detention – for such detainees in particular, the support we can bring together with our solidarity and encouragement is important in combatting despair and a sense of hopelessness but this is hard when they are shifted to remote centres such as Darwin. We also try to support as far as possible those who have been released into the community. Visiting VIDF is both time-consuming and demanding and we are always grateful for more volunteers. One of our aims for 2016 is to put together a dossier of useful information to give detainees when they are released.
