A group of concerned Australians living in a regional area outside Sydney
To encourage positive attitudes to refugees in the community and at all levels of government.
To welcome, befriend and assist refugees facing uncertain futures, in detention and in the community.
Practical, emotional and financial assistance for refugees and to encourage positive attitudes to refugees in the community and at all levels of government
Vigil for the Victims of the Christchurch Tragedy – Katoomba 12.30 Friday 22 March.
Sydney Town Hall Square 5.30 Thursday 21 March
DVDs of the 2017 Australian documentary The Staging Post have been distributed to 30 high schools in the Hawkesbury, Nepean, Blue Mountains and Lithgow areas. The film was purchased by the Blue Mountains Refugee Support Group using money donated by the Nancy Shelley Bequest
Fund and the Blue Mountains Quakers.
The Staging Post follows a small group of Afghan Hazara refugees stranded in Cisarua, Indonesia, since Australia
instigated boat turn backs under Operation Sovereign Borders in 2013. Cisarua, a village just south of Jakarta, is knows as the staging post for boats embarking for Christmas Island in Australia.
History was made Friday morning when the Tibetan flag was raised outside Blue Mountains Council chambers at Katoomba.
It is the first time in Australia a Tibetan flag has been flown outside a local council chamber.
The small but vocal Tibetan community cheered and sang their national song as Dhongdue Kyinzom, a member of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile and Cr Kerry Brown did the honours.
After the latest suicide attempt at Villawood I rang Susan Templeman’s Office to let her know that we were all deeply concerned at the mounting number of suicides and attempted suicides caused by indefinite detention policies. Through her office manager she expressed her deep concern but said that, as an opposition MP and a known supported of refugees, her voice makes little difference without direct calls from the public to the Ministers concerned. BCC her in emails.
Read more to get addresses and see sample letters.
“There is so much we
take for granted in this country” “We are just so ignorant of what people have been through” were just some of the responses to the conversations with Refugees hosted by Sydney Alliance, the churches of the lower Mountains and BMRSG on the last weekend in February.
The Springwood Presbyterian Hall was filled with around 100 people for each of the separate sessions (around 200 in all) as people came to listen to refugees telling their stories, talk together about what they had heard and ask questions of professionals working in the area.
Read more
A young man who came to Australia seeking asylum, but who has been detained in different facilities across the country, has become a very inventive gardener. He has devised an irrigation system from plastic bin liners, plastic milk bottles, polystyrene cups, plastic straws all sourced from the garbage bin. He has cut chux wipes into
Read more
