Who Gives: Gwenyth Graham

WHO? Gwenyth Graham, 82

WHERE? Perth, WA

WHAT? Volunteer with the Coalition for Asylum Seekers, Refugees and Detainees (CARAD)

WHY?

In 2001, an Iraqi woman – an asylum seeker whose husband was being detained at the Perth Airport Detention Centre – and her three children required temporary accommodation. Unfortunately, there were no beds available in any of the transit houses affiliated with the Coalition for Asylum Seekers, Refugees and Detainees (CARAD).

So Gwenyth Graham offered the flat attached to her home as a temporary solution. The family lived with her for four years. She organised three visits a week to the husband and assisted the family with all their settlement needs, Centrelink applications, study applications and job searches.

Gwenyth says witnessing the hardship that many endured in detention fuelled her commitment to the work. Some detainees had been beaten or had harmed themselves. Many felt they had had their identity taken away, their name replaced with a number.

Gwenyth is no stranger to volunteer work, having served some 15 years with Amnesty International in Perth as well as accompanying her doctor husband on many visits to Aboriginal communities offering diagnosis and treatment of eye conditions.

She says the work she does with asylum seekers has changed since the Rudd Government’s decision to end the Temporary Protection Visa.

“We don’t have transit houses anymore but we have found people that have fallen between the cracks and they have come back to us for help,” she says.

One such person is the 26-year-old man from Barundi who is currently living with Gwenyth .

“You wouldn’t stay in anything if you didn’t get some rewards,” she says. “The real rewards are in the friendships and widening our experience. Loving more people and more people loving you.”

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