Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Australia and the St Vincent de Paul Society NSW invite your school to join other schools across Australia in a calling for people seeking asylum to have the support they need during COVID-19. The National Week of Solidarity will take place from 6 – 12 September 2020.

Context:

There are currently around 16,000 children and young people seeking asylum in Australia, and their families have been significantly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic – economically, socially and emotionally. Many people seeking asylum work in highly precarious, service-oriented sectors, and we have seen huge job losses among this group. Despite this, they remain ineligible for any substantive government support – JobSeeker, JobKeeper and some don’t even have access to Medicare. As such there is a huge need in our community, as people are forced into destitution, including being unable to buy food, medicines or pay rent.

Families seeking asylum are embedded into the communities they live in, particularly through children attending local schools. Teachers, principals and parents are seeing the direct impacts of the government’s policies in their schools with some of their students becoming completely destitute.

If you or your school are interested in taking part, please use this resource kit and register your participation with this form.