Rallying for refugees

AS the United Israel Appeal and Joint Australia continue their fundraising efforts to help the Jews of Ukraine, a Melbourne Jewish charity has launched an online campaign to help Ukrainian refugees find shelter in Australia.

Sarah Bendetsky, founder and director of Souper Kitchen, which provides free meals and grocery hampers to those in need, is working with other volunteers to engage community and government organisations to support thousands of refugees from the war-ravaged country.

Bendetsky began an urgent fundraising project on GoFundMe to raise money for Australian visa applications, as well as airline tickets, food and medical supplies “to provide a soft landing for those who suffered so much”.

She told The AJN that, as yet, Australia has not announced the type of refugee support that will be offered to Ukrainians but official advice at present is to apply for three-month tourist visas, then apply for refugee status after arriving in Australia.

Immigration agents have told Bendetsky some 5000 Ukrainian refugees will arrive in the next week, with more to follow.

“Right now, people who are in a very difficult situation are spending their last savings to get out. Some people don’t have enough money even to apply for a tourist visa which is about $145 per person. And then they have to pay for commercial flights, about $2000. Then they will end up in Australia without any Medicare or any proper accommodation if they don’t have family here, or friends,” she said.

Bendetsky coordinated with Caulfield MP and deputy state Liberal leader David Southwick to organise approaches at federal level.

“We’re also organising meetings with leaders of the Ukrainian diaspora in Australia who will have further connections that we don’t have, and we’re trying to involve local businesses and individuals to help across various aspects of running this project,” she said.

“We want to run it as a collaboration because we’re under-resourced to run it fully. We have our own emergency relief program, a fortnightly grocer hamper project that will be heavily involved in supporting the refugees, but at this stage we need as many people as possible to help with that.”

Volunteers are ready to assist applicants with paperwork, airline tickets and accommodation. Working with the Helping Ukrainian Refugees group, the volunteers are scouting spare rooms in the Jewish community to accommodate the arrivals, or helping them with temporary rental.

Bendetsky is also hoping for goodwill initiatives with airlines and the hospitality industry.

Meanwhile, food assistance will be offered through Souper Kitchen, which Bendetsky founded in 2015. The charity provides free kosher meals to people in need in Melbourne, including Holocaust survivors, Russian-speaking residents of public housing, family violence victims, and those with illness or financial stress.

Bendetsky said many of her volunteers are predominantly of Soviet background and “we understand the needs … their cultural, emotional and other needs”.

“I have friends there and our head chef’s family is under the bombings. We’re equipped to help the Ukrainian refugees because most of them speak Russian and don’t speak English,” she added.

“But we need further support to grow … We’ve been approached by others in the Jewish community who want to do something … we need to collaborate.”

Bendetsky reflected on the exemplary work of the late Avram and Masha Zeleznikow, Melbourne communal volunteers who in another era helped settle Holocaust refugees in Australia. “This community in Melbourne is well equipped to help. We have good hearts.”

To support Souper Kitchen’s Ukrainian assistance project, visit gofund.me/5992721e or email help@souper.org.au