An open letter to Our Lady of Mercy College

In September the ASRC received a donation of stationary from the wonderful students of Our Lady of Mercy College, as part of their Social Justice Program. This gift had a profound impact on one particular member seeking asylum. Cameron Gilbey, our Continuing Care Coordinator shares an open letter of thanks, and how this simple gesture enabled a member to feel love and kindness for the first time in his life in seven years since being separated from his family and home country.

14 September

My name is Cameron Gilbey and I am the Continuing Care Coordinator here at the ASRC. I work with a cohort of clients who present as highly complex and have multiple needs, who require intensive support.

I wanted to write to you to and personally thank you for your very considerate donation of stationary to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. We are incredibly grateful, not only of your generosity, but we are particularly delighted to know of the existence of the Social Justice Program and the work you are all involved in throughout the community.

It is absolutely refreshing to know of such an insightful and socially aware group of young people, supporting those who find themselves in less fortunate circumstances. This really is the type of work that fosters community support, social inclusion and more broadly a society that is selfless of those who are for one reason or another stuck in a period of hopelessness and helplessness.

You mentioned that you wanted to support some of the clients we work with here and they will be immensely appreciative of your kindness and reminded that there are people such as yourselves who care for the well-being of people seeking asylum.

Often the people we work have lost hope or are close to losing hope due to the perilous sequence of events that have occurred prior to coming to Australia. Even when clients arrive, they remain in limbo while they await the determination of their visa status in a country they are not familiar with, a language they don’t speak, a culture that is foreign to them without any or much access to the supports we often take advantage of like receiving a hug from a loved one, or a sense of ‘I’m okay and the world’s okay’. For these people their world is not okay, and they are not okay.

With seemingly modest gestures like the donations from you all, clients whom we work with are reminded that there are compassionate, considerate and caring communities in Australia who want the best for these people’s lives. The impact of this message is invaluable for our client’s to experience and words are unable to explain the depth of this impact.

I wanted to share a brief story of the kind of ways in which your donation will contribute to. Recently I was working with an elderly man from Iran. He fled his home country due to the sociopolitical and religious conflict, leaving him no choice to escape, or be killed.

This man has lived through unfathomable torture and remains to struggle with the complex nature of trauma in his life. This man struggles with severe experiences of PTSD and regularly finds himself being taken back to his trauma, which means he re-experiences his past torture, in the present at any moment he might be triggered (loud noises, certain visual stimuli, smells, etc).

We had a counselling session where I was teaching him how to start to learn how to regulate himself and become more equipped and resourced in moments where he feels stuck in a panic.

We spent 1.5 hours learning about how stress/trauma lives inside of as an implicit memory in our body (out of our awareness).

Towards the end of the session we began talking about mindfulness and the power of art therapy. As we began exploring what this meant, he began to be interested in some of the concepts of art therapy, and began reciting some ancient Persian poetry. As he began to recite the poetry he was flooded with nurturing memories of his mother and life as child when he was happy and safe in the world. He began to cry and told me that he had not thought of his mother for very long-time as he had been distracted by his own mental health and negative experiences of trauma.

After spending some time sharing these precious memories with me he told me that thinking about his mother was a gift, a gift which he could access any time. This was something sacred to him who allowed him to self sooth and reach a state of ‘I’m okay, and the world is okay’, something profoundly cultivating that I was honoured to share with him.

I asked if he would be interested in being given some art supplies and stationary which had been provided by you all. I explained a little about OLMC Social Justice program and expressed they were donated specifically for people such as him.

He began to cry in astonishment at the incredibly lovely gesture from you…

I provided him with some stationary and other art supplies to write poetry and practice mindful-colouring after our session was over. This will support him to get in touch with his sense of self when he needs it the most.

The look in his eyes as I handed him the stationary was almost like he’d been able to feel gratitude, love and kindness for the first time in seven years since being separated from his family and home country.

This story articulates the power of a simple gesture on someone who has little in life to hope for. In this case, this man was reminded of something he had not been able to experience and had forgotten what it was like to experience. We can never truly know the positive impact we have on someone, but we can continue to show our kindness and care for those who need it most.

Thank you deeply.

Warm regards,

Cameron Gilbey
Continuing Care Coordinator

If you would like to donate food or material items to the ASRC, please visit this page for the updated list of things we need and drop-off locations.

About the Client Services program

The Client Services program assists people seeking asylum to maximise their own physical and mental well- being through holistic, integrated and responsive services. These services include casework, counselling, continuing care, housing and access to wider ASRC programs to ensure they receive essential services.

In the last 12 months, the volunteer casework team, made of up to 47 people, provided continuity and individual support to 352 people seeking asylum, assisting them through an uncertain and often complex refugee determination process. The counselling program also provides therapy and supported to 200 people this year, over 1,472 appointments by 12 volunteers. The continuing care program also supported 45 vulnerable clients to receive intensive support.

The team works within a strengths based, empowerment framework that acknowledges the resilience and ingenuity of the people we work with and enhances their abilities to be agents of change in their own life throughout the refugee determination process. The team works in collaboration with other programs within the ASRC to ensure meaningful outcomes and a respectful experience for all people seeking asylum.