Visiting refugees has continued this past year despite the Omicron variant of Covid being present. The first event in 2021 was a picnic for a group living in the Auburn area, which was dominated by the youngest taking his first steps! A feature of our visits is seeing the progress of the children and the pleasure that a small gift like a book can give, plus the enormous help it is for parents to receive nappies, formula & other essentials, even a pram and school uniform as the children grow up.
A feature of last year has been the relocation of several families to new ac-commodation. This has often meant extra expenses, such as help with the bond or the need of a vacuum cleaner, since the new house has a carpet! One refugee has progressed from living in a garage, to a women’s shelter, to finally renting an apartment. Her joy has been overwhelming! Other activi-ties this year have ranged from help with translation of court documents into English, payment of car registration and TAFE fees. Nathan, who wrote a letter to us last year, has just completed a car mechanics course at TAFE and now has full time work spray painting cars. He has recently been able to move from a tiny upstairs apartment to a ground floor one with a garden and is close to a park. This has greatly benefited his wife and their two-year-old daughter.
We are still unable to visit Villawood Detention Centre, for fear of spreading Covid. This has been extremely disappointing, since a lot of the refugees have been there for many years. Phone recharge vouchers have been a great way to enable them to keep in touch with their families, lawyers, etc. One has a five-year-old son, who was only two months old when he was detained. He is very upset that his son doesn’t call him daddy but only uses his given name. He has won his court case but has not been released….no ex-planation given. Others, after ten years in detention, have been returned to their country of origin.
VDSA has an important role in supporting refugees and asylum seekers not just financially but emotionally, such as when they have accidents here or are going through difficult times, or when tragedies happen to close family members that they have left behind in their country of origin