January 2020 Trip: Recap
A small team from Westgate Refugee Support spent a few weeks volunteering in our partner schools and other refugee services over January in Kuala Lumpur. Three experienced teachers, one of whom came to Australia as a refugee from Myanmar, taught in each of the schools we support. The schools had just started their new academic year so there were teething problems, for example not enough space for the newly enrolled students, but the children and teachers are always pleased to see us.
We donated funds raised in Australia and much needed teaching resources. On weekends and after school we ran teacher training programs and delivered child safeguarding training. Unfortunately the child protection policy we helped the refugee agency develop is being used all too often. We have felt privileged to be asked to advise on a number of challenging situations.
We were overwhelmed by the refugees‘ concern for Australia at the height of the bushfire crisis. Their compassion for bushfire victims was inspiring, because life in Malaysia is very tough with no legal protection and resettlement options have reduced. There is a trickle of people we have heard of recently heading off to New Zealand, Australia, or Sweden but they are the lucky ones!