Caring for our neighbours
The need for Baptcare’s ‘Sanctuary’ asylum seeker project continues to be demonstrated. From its beginnings as a collaboration with the Hotham Mission Asylum Seeker Project, we now regularly receive referrals to accommodate asylum seekers at risk of homelessness from the Australian Red Cross and the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. In response to this demand, we will shortly increase the amount of accommodation available by a further nine places. We will incur extra costs in the operation of those new places, none of which is funded by any level of government; the program is wholly funded from grants and distributions from trusts and foundations, from donations from our supporters and from funds procured from Baptcare’s own resources. In recognition of the unique nature and vital role of the program, the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Fund recently granted a second major, annual grant to Baptcare for the program.
This is the second time we have emphasised Sanctuary in our quarterly fundraising efforts. The first appeal we directed toward Sanctuary received the lowest level of support from our loyal supporters of any appeal run in recent years.
On the one hand, it seems major grant-making bodies recognise the worth of the program and are prepared to go to unusual lengths to support it. On the other, it seems we have difficulty securing the engagement of those who have otherwise been vitally interested in our work.
The issues related to asylum seekers are complex and have become highly politicised. Many people in Australian society appear to associate the term ‘asylum seekers’ with invading hordes arriving on disease-infested boats. For others, there is a link between asylum seekers and a fear of terrorism; they see such arrivals as a means by which malevolent individuals can enter our society. However, many of the facts about asylum seekers do not support these fears. These include, for example, that 97% of asylum seekers arriving in Australia do so by overseas air-travel, not via boats. Similarly, overseas intelligence from major terrorist incidents suggests terrorist cells tend to germinate within groups of highly-educated – often university enrolled – students or second or third generation immigrants, not from those who have recently arrived as asylum seekers.
In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus tells the story of a man who crosses cultural boundaries to care for another in obvious need, and does not let the cost to himself stop him from doing so. In recounting this incident, Jesus paints a picture of a true neighbour and of God’s values.
We can leave it to the authorities to determine the validity of asylum seekers’ claims. To a large extent, we have left it to others to advocate for changes to the system whereby asylum seekers can be left in our midst without any rights to work, receive Centrelink benefits or subsidised health care. What we cannot do is walk by on the other side of the road and leave a fellow human being without shelter, warmth and the other basic necessities of life. Please help us be good neighbours in this way by supporting Sanctuary.
Kind regards,
Jeff Davey
Chief Executive
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