Lena is afraid, alone and in pain.

Her husband, gone. Her house, ransacked by thieves. Her children, too terrified to live at home.

When Lena* arrived on the doorstep of our Southern Outreach office in Marion, she was desperate. She cautiously approached the front desk, and said one simple word, ‘housing’.

It was one of the only English words she knew. Lena was at breaking point.

Across Adelaide, refugee families like Lena’s are in desperate need of assistance. They don’t qualify for help in the ‘usual places’ – nor do they feel comfortable asking for help from people who are unfamiliar, outside their immediate community and may not understand their language or culture.

Your donation to the Emergency Support Service today will help people who don’t “tick the boxes” for urgent assistance.

Lena and her children are constantly harassed in their home. There are knocks on the door day and night, and when they open the door no one is there.

Recently, the family returned home to a devastating sight.

“Someone comes in the house, break everything in the house, even destroy the sofa, everything. I had little bit of money and gold, and they left nothing.”

This harassment and intimidation has not stopped. The family feels powerless.

“My children do not want to stay in the house, they are too scared. They stay at their grandma house. They have stress and anxiety. I don’t know if they will even go to school some days.”

Her mother-in-law makes them feel unwelcome and unwanted. “She always complain, ‘How long you stay? When you leave?’ Every time she say it, I feel stress and pain.” 

All Lena wants to do is to make her family feel whole again, in a new place. Despite the harassment and intimidation, her landlord insists Lena pay break-lease and letting fees to end her tenancy early. The stress is taking a terrible toll. Lena has severe anxiety and depression.

“I wake up, I feel like someone choking me…there’s no oxygen. I couldn’t breathe.”

That moment Lena reached out to ARA was life-changing. She finally found someone she could trust. Lena was connected with a kind, compassionate and resourceful Arabic speaking case worker – a former refugee herself – who has begun to help Lena put the pieces of her life back together.

Thanks to the Emergency Support Service, our case workers provide urgent, practical, life-changing assistance for people who don’t fit the criteria for government-funded relief.

But this is only possible with your help.

The Emergency Support Service is funded entirely by donations and ARA urgently needs to raise $30,000 to support families during the coming festive season.

Will you please give your very kind gift today, and help heal Lena’s family?

You can read Lena’s story in full HERE

*We change names to protect the privacy of our clients