‘Welcome to Nillumbik’ members (top) Gillian Essex, George Beissbarth and Vicki Fitzgerald and (bottom) Jacqui Ward and Meg L’Estrange were overwhelmed by the Diamond Valley Uniting Church’s offer of the church’s manse to house a refugee family.
By Vicki Fitzgerald
‘Welcome to Nillumbik’, a group of six volunteers, signed a deed with the Community Refugee Integration and Settlement Program (CRISP) to partner with the Federal Government to support a refugee family for 12 months.
To ensure the family we were paired with was supported and able to survive in their brave new move, we had to have arrival forms and Centrelink forms ready on the day they arrived, as well as food, warm clothing and furnished accommodation for six weeks, with the understanding that we would assist them to find long-term rental accommodation by the end of that six weeks.
As a group, we had many training sessions to ensure that we understood CRISP rules, boundaries, ideals and the level of support required.
We soon realised that we needed to reach out beyond our small group to meet the needs of the family.
The sense of community and kindness we experienced through this was truly astounding.
We asked for donations of food, clothing, toys, books, bikes, furniture, whitegoods, crockery, cutlery, kitchenware, kitchen implements, bedding, towels and phones.
We were overwhelmed by the extent to which people felt a deep need to participate and help the refugees.
It was a way for all of us to feel we were helping to stabilise and enrich our own community and personal lives by showing that we can be generous and fill our lives with purpose by giving to others.
The most overwhelming kindness was shown by the Diamond Valley Uniting Church, which consists of two churches in Hurstbridge and Diamond Creek.
We spoke to the Church Council, the two congregations and many individuals at both churches and were offered the use of their vacant manse to help our refugee family, which had waited 12 years in a refugee camp in Jordan to be selected for resettlement in our safe country.
At the Church Council meeting, people spoke of their commitment to justice, and of their wish to help refugees.
The manse was offered to the family rent-free for six weeks, with no strings attached, as part of the six-week initial accommodation stipulated by CRISP.
The refugee family quickly embraced life in the manse.
We were overwhelmed and I wish the Church Council members could have seen the way the family’s eyes lit up when they saw the house.
The children ran from room to room, excited that they were to have their own bedrooms with proper beds, and a place to play.
After the treasurer Graham Ford first offered the manse, I realised that I had forgotten to tell him that the family were Muslim.
I wondered if it would make a difference, but I need not have worried.
Graham stunned me by simply replying, “they are human, Vicki”.
We hear so much negativity in some quarters about refugees, particularly those from very different social contexts, that it is very easy to expect judgment, even within churches.
I feel proud to repeat Graham’s response, in the knowledge that these church members did not blink from what they saw as their responsibility for those less fortunate, who knocked on their door lightly.
I know, as well, that the family has been moved by the kindness shown to them by a Christian church, having come from a country where, sadly, Christians and Muslims are fighting each other.
We hope that if there are other Uniting Churches in Melbourne which have vacant manses, they too will fill them with those who are very much in need of short-time stays.
We again thank the Uniting Church for its vision and action.
Our group of six and our refugee family of eight will not forget this great gift.
Vicki Fitzgerald is a member of refugee resettlement group ‘Welcome to Nillumbik’
