Sadly, the flow of people seeking asylum from war and from political and religious oppression seems unlikely to ease anytime soon. Even in Canberra, geographically remote as it is from most of the conflicts, people are showing up from Sudan, Myanmar, Afghanistan and Palestine to name just a few locations of conflict seeking asylum and in need of assistance while their claim for protection is assessed.
As we come to the end of the year, I want to thank all the members of CRS for your ongoing support demonstrated in generosity and compassion in giving both time and money to enable us to continue being good neigbours to a very vulnerable group of people. CRS faced a major financial crisis in the middle of this year with increasing numbers of asylum seekers and a cost of living crisis. Your exceptional response enabled us to continue to continue to meet at least some of the basic needs of asylum seekers and refugees in Canberra for the balance of the year.
Fundraising is always a major challenge for CRS. While we have assistance from members with grants writing to fund specific projects, we are still looking for some to help us with other fundraising activities to help us meet the need for funds for rent and living expenses.
What is remarkable about 2024 is that your generous support was not a once off effort. Next year CRS will be celebrating 25 years of volunteers supporting refugees and asylum seekers in Canberra. That is a remarkable achievement for a volunteer organisation that doesn’t employ anyone, doesn’t have an office, and has an administration that operates in the cloud. CRS exists whenever and wherever CRS volunteers spend time with refugees and asylum seekers helping them as the rebuild their lives and connect to the Canberra community. Compassion thankfully is not in short supply in this community.
The Committee is currently working on plans to celebrate our twenty-fifth anniversary. I’ll let you know when we have more details. If you have particular skills in public relations and event organising and are interested in contributing to planning and running some events to celebrate this occasion, please get in contact.
It has been a privilege working with you this year. I hope you all have a time of enjoyment and relaxation during the holidays.
Warm regards
Douglas Hynd
President
Canberra Refugee Support