Each weekend, Amar Singh and five other volunteers from western Sydney’s Indian community meet in local halls to pack grocery hampers.
It’s a community effort to support those left vulnerable by the economic downturn. Most recipients have been international students, without jobs or access to JobSeeker.
Volunteer drivers for relief group Turbans 4 Australia have so far distributed five tonnes of non-perishable food items to students in the Parramatta area, western and south-west Sydney, the CBD and Epping.
“International students are being left out and are very vulnerable,” Mr Singh said.
Redfern Legal Centre’s international student service has reported an increase in cases of financial hardship, employment issues, evictions, homelessness, health issues and psychological trauma since the pandemic began.
“Many international students are telling us that they cannot afford to pay bills or buy food,” international student solicitor Sean Stimson said.
Universities have offered their own financial aid, but cannot support the more than 310,000 students who have lost part-time jobs and face financial hardship.
Peak NSW business group and union leaders have called on the state and federal governments to provide further relief for international students, after other states and territories announced their own assistance packages.
Mr Singh said he believed the lack of assistance in NSW “falls short of Australian values”. “Right now we are failing as a society,” he said.
Read the full article here (The Sydney Morning Herald, 7 May 2020)
