Thomas' Move to Australia

Hello freinds, strangers, everyone,

I'm Serena. I grew up in Australia, where I was born, with my mum and grandparents. My dad disappeared from our lives since before I can remember, so I was very disconnected from any relatives on his side of the family.

In my adult years, I came to discover that he had had other children before and after me. When I was 18, I had the opportunity to meet my two older sisters, who were also born and raised in Sydney and we developed a beautiful sister relationship, which I cherish. We met on Facebook, where they found me, even though we had all changed our surnames from our dads to our mums.

In the last year, I have reconnected with my 2 younger siblings, who both live in the Phillipines. They were born to a Filipino mother, and without dad's support, have lived a very different life to us in a small island village in the south of the country, near Dipolog City in Mindanao provence. Like with my older sisters, I found them on facebook and we developed a relationship. Thomas (TJ) is 19 and Cathy is 15.

Upon our interractions, I found out that like with me and my sisters, dad had left them when they were 6 and 2 and does not support them in any way. They currently live with their mum and grandparents and other relatives in a small house and regularly speak of the hardships of day to day life without financial help. They have talked about the rising costs of rice, lack of work opportunities in their provence and inability to pay for schooling, thus TJ had dropped out in the 10th grade and Cathy in the 8th. Their mum has recently moved to Zamboanga to pursue a housekeeping job, which pays less than a couple of dollars a day.

Our dad had applied for their Australian citizenship over 10 years ago, however they were never able to afford a move, and without his financial or physical help, would not be able to relocate, as their mum is also not a citizen herself, and they were too young.

Tj has told me about his dreams to come to Australia, study, work and build a better life for himself, and in the future, his mum and sister. He has learnt fluent english and is motivated to do the big move.

As he is now an adult, I decided to help him apply for his Australian passport earlier in 2024. I flew to Manila, and flew him there so we could attend the embassy together and apply for his passport. This was our first time meeting. As TJ's family does not have much money, I financed this trip, as well as his passport application, to support him as he is my brother and I wanted to do all that I could to help him build a better life.

As TJ lives overseas, it is impossible for him to apply for basic needs for a life in Australia such as a bank account, tax file number, medicare and a photo ID card, which he will require before he can apply for jobs here. So, he will likely be unemployed for a number of weeks after arriving while he sets up his necessary accounts before he can begin to work and make an income for himself.

With help of family friends, TJ will have a temporary place to stay once he arrives in Sydney, however needs help to cover the cost of basic living needs once he arrives. He also needs help to pay for his flight from Diplog City, Phillipines to Sydney, Australia.

The purpose of this gofundme is to raise money for TJ in support of his move, to cover the costs of his flights, meals, transport to and from job interviews and other living essentials in Sydney until he is able to begin working.

I have done what I can afford to do and reach out to others to help in any way that they can in giving TJ the tools to give himself an opportunity at a better life.