Political upheaval, persecution, war and poverty mean that refugees and asylum seekers often suffer great personal loss and trauma whilst fleeing from their homelands. Children who have experienced such environments can grow up feeling distressed and overwhelmed by extreme fear, sadness, guilt and anger; frequently resulting in long term social isolation and mental illness.
At Australian Refugee Volunteers (ARV), we organise 100% volunteer run, not for profit holiday camps which empower children from these traumatic backgrounds in an exciting, positive and relaxed environment. Peer support activities, team sports, creative craft and drama performance workshops encourage every child to develop self-confidence and make long lasting friendships in a safe, fun filled environment which fosters laughter and endless smiles. In order to continue to run our camps, we need your help.
We are aiming to raise $5000 in order to fund 5 camps in January, February, April, June and September of 2016. This cost will cover all accommodation, food, equipment and activities for around 20 children and 20 volunteer mentors per camp. Each of these children is paired up with their own volunteer buddy for 3-5 days during school holidays to mentor them through the program and provide support and guidance. Any additional funds we raise will go towards our camps in 2017.
Please see our website www.arvolunteers.org for more information about us, or click the link above to donate to our campaign. We really appreciate every bit of support we get – it will make a huge difference to the lives of refugee children in Sydney.
Our team of executive committee members who run these programs are a group of committed professionals with backgrounds’ in teaching, community development, childcare services and refugee casework. All our volunteers are equipped with the NSW Working With Children Check and extensive training to make sure the children they mentor have the best possible experience.
A big thank you to Laura Marii, the amazing photographer who took the photos and put together the video above and Ryan Papa of Complete Sound Studio, the sound engineer who recorded the voiceover. These incredible people volunteered their time and skills to help ARV help more refugee children , please check out more of their fantastic work here:
Laura Marii: www.lauramarii.net
Ryan Papa: www.completesoundstudio.com