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The Anglican Church in Tasmania Search |
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a healthy church...transformingLIFE |
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Run for their lives |
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Mabek and Fidele are recently arrived refugees from
the Sudan. To escape extreme persecution they needed to run
and walk hundreds of kilometres from Sudan to the safety of
a UNHCR refugee camp in Kenya.
Parishioners from St Paul's Church, Glenorchy,
have taken to walking and running laps around Risdon Brook
dam to raise funds to assist these young men with university
studies. When the two young men arrived in early February the
priority of St Paul's Community Support for Refugees group
was to help them settle, and to introduce them gradually to
living in Australia. The boys' priority was to enrol
straight away at university and to waste no time in
achieving goals which had been on hold for many years. So by
the start of the academic year they were both enrolled in
the B.Sc course, were comfortably housed in a flat furnished
by the parish and the Migrant Resource Centre, and were
ready to tackle the challenges of their new life. In the first few weeks after arrival members of the
support group have daily contact with the refugees to help
them with the required formalities of CentreLink, Tax File
Number, banking, Medicare and health assessment. Also help
has been given to budget for food and clothing shopping, and
with the practicalities of living in a new culture. Groups commit to give support and friendship for six
months, but the close association forms a bond that is
lasting. The group has had the joy of sharing with the
refugees their achievements and milestones, and have now
assisted 13 people. For St Paul's, working with the government in the
Integrated Humanitarian Support Service program is one way
of living out the parish mission 'To reach out into the
community with God's love'. |
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