Local advocacy group launches drive to assist asylum seekers

THE Queenscliff Rural Australians for Refugees (QRAR) advocacy group has launched a gift card drive to support asylum seekers living across the Geelong region.

The initiative calls for the donation of supermarket gift cards for either Woolworths, Coles or Aldi, to assist vulnerable community members, many of whom have been living here for more than 10 years and have still not been granted permanency or visa stability, to access nutritious food through periods of unemployment, underemployment or illness.

All gift card donations will be delivered to the Wesley Asylum Seeker Welcome Place Foodbank, a drop-in centre for people who are seeking asylum or have been granted temporary refugee protection.

The volunteer-run centre is an initiative of the Wesley Uniting Church Geelong and provides emergency relief, job-seeking support, English language practice and a variety of other support services in addition to its foodbank.

Its foodbank has been operating since 2015 and provides a weekly opportunity for asylum seekers to collect a variety of non-perishable pantry essentials.

This assistance is further supplemented by the foodbank with gift cards of a certain denomination depending on the size of family, allowing them to purchase perishable goods and other personal items as required.

QRAR’s Sandra Nowland-Foreman said she was eager to see the local community throw their support behind the gift card drive.

“Winter’s coming on. It’s a difficult time. It’s an even more difficult time if you don’t have extended family, if you don’t have security with your employment, if you haven’t got government support.

“These people are working in challenging, low-skilled places, so the vulnerability really is amplified.

“I’m hoping that we can deliver to the Welcome Centre a really significant gift and that that will really affirm the Welcome Centre and the people that are at the centre, that they are valued, that they are part of our community, that we care about them.

“It’s that hand of welcome and the hand of support, the practical help that comes behind it, that can really affirm them as part of our community.”

She said the Bellarine community had “a heart of compassion”, which opened up when exposed to the lived experience of those who have endured hardship.

“I trust the generosity and compassion of this community. I’ve seen it expressed in many ways,” she said.

“Even [after learning] the story of one lived experience of a refugee and the challenges that they’ve had to deal with, their perception opens.

“They can really see how difficult and challenging, and how courageous people have been to come through the experience that they have, and how challenging it is to still be vulnerable in a society where most people have a backstop.”

The drive will coincide with Refugee Week (June 16-22), with the gift card collection period ending on June 22.

Gift card donations can be dropped off at three locations on the Bellarine:

• Wirrng Wirrng (also known as the Queenscliffe Hub), at 49-55 Hesse Street, Queenscliff
• Springdale Neighbourhood Centre, at 17-21 High Street, Drysdale, and
• Bellarine Training and Community Hub, at 1 John Dory Drive, Ocean Grove

Ms Nowland-Foreman encouraged those wanting to contribute to the drive to only purchase supermarket gift cards, rather than donating other types of gift cards, and to ensure the value of each gift card was written on the back.