Dorothy Scott, Victoria Regional Meeting

Plight of Afghan Families

Providing support for the families in Afghanistan of refugees in PNG and Nauru is now an urgent priority. Many of the families are in dire need due to their refugee relative’s absence and opposition to the fundamentalist rule of the Taliban, and/or their Hazara ethnicity. These families are now in hiding and in fear for their lives, their plight compounded by the famine and economic collapse affecting the entire country. To provide direct assistance to these families, Jan Trewhella, a MLM volunteer, established Our Afghan Families (OAF), and two families have been assisted to escape Afghanistan, a perilous process. Jan Trewhella describes the Afghan refugees in offshore detention as

physically and mentally damaged and broken men … they have lost all hope of a future for themselves and their families and with that, some have also lost their sanity and their will to live. Meanwhile their families, continue to be at serious risk of persecution, torture and death with the return of the Taliban to power.

At the first steering committee meeting of the Keeping Connected, Sustaining Hope project this year, $2,000 of the Thanksgiving Fund grant to MLM was allocated to supporting these Afghan families. To date, individual Friends have matched that amount, but it remains a major struggle to secure the $3,400 in total required each month to sustain eight families in Afghanistan. I pray for the day when these families can be reunited in Canada.

 Observations and Reflections

As a retired social worker, my involvement with Manus Lives Matter leads me to offer three observations.

1. The organic process by which Manus Lives Matter arose from an individual’s “leading” into an inter-faith network, and gave rise to new groups, is inspiring yet being outside the formal charitable sector (without “deductible gift recipient status” etc) leaves its 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.
3. Large NGOs (e.g. RCOA, MOSAIC) are essential to developing and “scaling up” game-changing initiatives such as Canadian sponsorship, but these NGOs need the “natural helping networks” that only small groups of committed volunteers can provide to individual refugees.

As a Quaker, my involvement with Manus Lives Matter leads me to offer three reflections which I believe have implications for Quaker grant making and Quaker service more generally.

1. We can be most effective when we are part of a larger inter-faith network, thus harnessing a diverse set of skills and resources.
2. Our 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.
3. Concerns and leadings of Friends, after being “tested” by discernment in Local and Regional Meetings, need to be prioritised and supported by Quaker funding bodies.

 Friends wishing to support the Afghan families of refugees awaiting resettlement in Canada can make donations (not tax deductible) to:

Brigidine Sisters          BSB  062904   Account Number 1060 2969

Please add the words “Quaker” and “Afghan” to your banking reference.

 If Friends would like more information, please contact Dorothy Scott (dorothy@avonsfield.com.au) or Alan Clayton (alan@avonsfield.com.au)