Urgent Help to Reunite this Mother & Her Children

My name is Queenie van de Zandt. A few years ago, through my association with the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC), my partner Jonny, our daughter Billie and I met a remarkable refugee aptly called - Faith. I was immediately drawn to Faith’s beautiful heart, lovely smile and the warm tenderness she showered upon us all. Faith became a family friend and eventually told me her story. I could not believe, with all she had been through, this woman still had such a big heart and so much love and warmth to give. I immediately wanted to help her as much as I could and with the help of our wonderful community of family and friends, we helped Faith get settled into a decent flat and get work.

Over the past year, I’ve been working with Faith to try to help her, through various refugee legal aid organisations, to be reunited with the children she was forced to leave behind in Papua New Guinea when she fled for her life to Australia. Unfortunately, these organisations are so overwhelmed with cases that all our efforts have come to nothing.

Until now, Faith’s children have been safe (she would never have left them if they weren't), but in the past month, amidst ongoing election-related violence and tribal warfare, the situation has escalated dramatically and the children’s father has now become violent with Faith’s daughters. Faith is utterly bereft and losing hope. We can’t wait any longer to start the process of immigration, so we’ve met with a commercial immigration lawyer and now need to raise big bucks to get these children to safety and reunite them with their desperate mother.

As a parent myself, my heart breaks to see this wonderful woman in such anguish over the safety of her children. I want to do everything in my power to help her get them to Australia and to the safety of their mother’s arms, and I’m hoping you will too.

This is Faith’s story...

"My name is Fungke Popna, but everyone calls me Faith. I am originally from Papua New Guinea.

I arrived in Australia in early 2017, fleeing life-threatening domestic violence. Living with violence in a home was painful, traumatic, and full of anxiety. Through the years, I have suffered extreme violence, both physically and verbally, by my husband and his family while living in Papua New Guinea, in a society that classifies men as superior and women to be inferior.

Thankfully my husband was never violent with my children. However, they were always vulnerable to the pain and agony that I was going through. I tried my best to seek help with my family, the local leaders and the police, but each time I tried, I got no solution as my husband was a leader in the community and had the money to bribe people to make decisions in his favour. He would promise that it will never happen again, but it always would. All the while, he continued to have multiple relationships with other women while accusing me of adultery and would then use this to justify his domestic violence.

Living with this domestic violence has impacted my life mentally, physically and emotionally. The worse came when in 2012, through my husband's crooked dealings, he lied and told my manager at work that I was committing adultery with another man, and I lost my job and my final tiny bit of independence. He then tortured me physically and locked me up in the family house for ten days with heavy security, without food and barely any water, in the presence of my children. After the ten days, he bought me out to a reserve, as he had called for a mediation team of village chiefs and magistrates. I found a chance to escape, surrendered myself to the nearest police station, and was kept in a women’s safe house by the police for almost three months until his court summons was served. Unfortunately, he found out I was in the safe-house, forced me to go home and the terror started again, even in front of the police. He didn’t appear in court, was not arrested, or charged and the never-ending story of violence continued.

I was lost and devastated; my family couldn’t defend me, the law of the land in Papua New Guinea was denying me, and I didn’t know who to fall back on. The mental and emotional stress took a toll on me while my children were also suffering, although they were not abused by their father, they were neglected by him and not allowed to see me. We all knew he would kill me eventually if I stayed, so my children and I resolved that I had to flee somewhere far away, get residency and then bring them to me. My second eldest child suggested I go to another country and when it was safe, I could bring them to me, or they would find me one day.

This led to my most heartbreaking moment when in April 2017, I had to leave my children to flee to Australia. I could not say goodbye to my precious children; I could not bear it, I only shared a moment crying with them and my youngest child asked, “Mum, why are you crying”. My last response words to him were: “I am just crying". My second eldest child shouted through the window as I was leaving: “Mum, we will find you!" and those were the last words I heard ringing in my ears as I fled.

It was a terrible choice I had to make (I am writing this with streaming tears), but I did what I had to do to save my life so that I could one day be reunited with my children and help them have a better life. As they said to me, it was better for them to know I am alive somewhere than to know I am dead and gone. Seeking protection over my own life while leaving my children and family behind is the toughest decision I have ever made in my life. I could only do it because I knew my husband would never abuse the kids and that my sister was helping to look after them.

And up until this year, that was the case, but now that the children are getting older, and two of the girls are becoming teenagers, their father has now started his domestic violence on them. I am desperate to get them away from him and to Australia. However, the refugee legal services are so overwhelmed with cases they have been unable to help me for over a year. My only hope is to pay an immigration lawyer – but I don’t have the money to do that.

To get my children to safety in Australia, I must get the children away from their abusive father and pay for their shelter, food and clothing for the period it takes to get the visas which could be up to 2 years, as well as the cost of the visas and the cost of the lawyer. All this comes to an overwhelming amount, one that I could never afford with my small income. I lost all hope and was even contemplating returning to Papua New Guinea, knowing that it would mean I would have to return to my abuser but hoping that I could at least protect my children. But Queenie and her friends, who are helping her in this campaign to raise the money we need, have given me hope again, and I am praying for a miracle to raise the money we need to get my children away from their abusive father and safe in my arms in Australia for a better future.

Thank you for having me share my story with you and for anything you can do to help me get my children back."

Faith and her children desperately need your help to raise the money to initially re-house Faith’s children away from their abusive father in Papua New Guinea and then support them for the time it takes for their visa applications to be accessed – which usually takes up to 2 years.

The costs breakdown is as follows:

- Child Visas: $2710 x 4 = $10,840

- Immigration Lawyers Fees: $4125 per child x 4 = $16,500

- Monthly support for her 4 children (i.e., Shelter, food, clothing etc) = $1957 per month x a possible total of 29 months = $56,753

Total = $84,093

Plus approx. $2438 + $520 (to cover GoFundMe’s transaction fees of 2.9% + $0.30 per donation) = $2958

GRAND TOTAL to Raise = $87,051.69

I know it’s a big ask, but I’m confident there are so many people in this world, like me, who have been very blessed with what they’ve got and been given and want to help those who have less. I feel like many people in our community would love the opportunity to provide money and support to someone where they can see the outcome of their support. I keep picturing, a few years from now, everyone who donated to this appeal in a big park having a picnic to welcome Faith’s children to Australia – and all of us knowing that we have been part of a beautiful experience where we were able to profoundly change a bunch of lives for the better and giving them all a future they only dreamed about. How incredibly rewarding and heart-burstingly wonderful would that be?!

Thank you in advance for donating, spreading the word about this worthy cause and for helping reunite Faith with her children in Australia to give them the bright, safe future that all women and children deserve.

With love,

Queenie van de Zandt

(PS. Thank you to composer Maneesh de Moor who allowed me to use his song, "Compassion", as the music running under the video above. Check out the full song here: https://music.apple.com/au/album/compassion/426563227?i=426563241)