Keeping Connected, Sustaining Hope

When I asked Sister Jane Keogh in 2020 how Quakers might help Manus Lives Matter, she said there was a need to support those applying to go to Canada over the two years their applications were being processed. Delays caused by Covid have meant that for many this period is now closer to three years.

That is how the Quaker-funded Keeping Connected, Sustaining Hope project came into being. In the first year, 2021, it received a $10,000 grant from the Victorian Quaker Fund and $7,500 in personal donations from Friends. In 2022 the AYM Thanksgiving Fund Committee approved a grant of $20,000 for the second year of the project. In 2023 Quaker Service Australia made a grant of $25,000, and an additional $25,000 was given by the Jan de Voogd Peace Fund for supporting a group of Afghan families in Afghanistan whose husbands and fathers are still stranded in PNG. Manus Lives Matter is grateful for the generosity of these Quaker bodies and Friends, and Alan Clayton and I are grateful for the opportunity to work with the extraordinary people from Manus Lives Matter.

Both practical and emotional support is offered through close relationships with volunteers. The practical support includes: mobile phones and phone credits; living expenses, including food; medical treatment and medication; legal expenses; gym membership in Port Moresby (for depressed refugees fearful of physical assault in the streets); driving lessons to secure employment for a refugee transferred to the mainland; and significantly, support for families in Afghanistan of those still in PNG.

Support for eight families still in Afghanistan, whose husbands/fathers have remained offshore, became a priority after the Taliban returned to power in 2021. The Afghan refugees were deeply distressed about their families whom they could not protect, with the refugees’ opposition to the Taliban, and/or their Hazara ethnicity putting their families at risk. Their plight is compounded by the economic collapse affecting the entire country, causing the families to be without the means to purchase food, fuel for heating and cooking or medical supplies.

Where to From Here?

It is hoped that the majority of those awaiting resettlement in Canada will arrive there by the end of 2023. In early August Robyn Fetter reported that 43 of the refugees had arrived in Canada, 11 having completed their first year of settlement (although still having access to support), and 32 in the process of being settled. All have jobs and most continue to work on their English. There are 92 refugees still waiting to go to Canada.

Many remain deeply traumatised by their past experiences in detention on Nauru and Manus Island. There is also a group of refugees and asylum seekers who are ineligible for Canadian sponsorship or have been rejected, and some who are too despairing to even attempt this pathway, and they all remain extremely vulnerable. Some are still in PNG in precarious circumstances, while others are in Australia on six monthly Bridging Visas, with no social security entitlement and no prospect of being allowed to settle in our country. Manus Lives Matters is committed to continuing to support them and advocate for them.

 Reflections

My involvement with Manus Lives Matter through Keeping Connected, Sustaining Hope has been a privilege and has led me to make several observations which may be of interest to Friends and Quaker funding bodies.

1. The organic process by which Manus Lives Matter arose from Sister Jane Keogh’s “leading” into an inter-faith network, giving rise to new, totally volunteer-based groups such as Our Afghan Families, is truly inspiring, but being outside the formal charitable sector (without “deductible gift recipient status”) leaves such vital work badly underfunded.
2. Small groups of committed volunteers can adapt and individualise responses to refugees and offer the precious gift of friendship, so different from a “service provider-service user” relationship typical of large, formal organisations. This can complement the work of large NGOs which have the capacity to develop and “scale up” initiatives such as Operation Not Forgotten.
3. Quakers can be most effective when we are part of a broader inter-faith humanitarian initiative, thus harnessing a diverse set of skills and resources.
4. Our Quaker notions of “concern” (“a weighty matter that disturbs the conscience and impels the concerned person or Meeting towards action”) and “leading” (acting on a concern) are profoundly important and are rightfully given salience by Quaker funding bodies.