GFMAN often need to pay for medical treatment for men in PNG who are refused medical care if they can’t pay up front. Currently we are raising $5500 for a kidney stone surgery. Please share. Thanks.
https://chuffed.org/project/help-rohim
A little bit of context
As I write, Rohim Ullah* is in Port Moresby, a refugee sent to Manus Island by the Australian government when he asked us for asylum in 2013.
He is suffering pain from two kidney stones which have remained untreated for over three years. A third, smaller stone has now moved into a ureter and is stuck there, causing intolerable pain and infection: an emergency that requires surgery ASAP.
But there’s a problem
Rohim is my friend, he calls me aunty. He’s a good and honest young man, passionate about human rights and aghast, at times unbelieving, at how his own and those of the hundreds of other men abandoned by our Australian government in Papua New Guinea have been held hostage to our politics for 5 years.
Five years ago, he arrived after a dangerous journey and asked asylum of Australia, who has recognised his genuine claim. He is stateless, a Rohingyan refugee, accused of no crime, but still remains trapped in PNG, waiting on resettlement.
And now here he is, suffering pain from two kidney stones which have remained untreated for over three years, due to the shockingly inadequate medical care that Australia has provided these men, whilst preventing them from caring for themselves or their families.
A third, smaller stone has now moved into a ureter and is stuck there, causing intolerable pain and infection: an emergency that requires surgery ASAP.
Here’s what we’re doing about it
At this time, Rohim’s only hope for the emergency surgery needed is our assistance. Please help us raise the $5,500 required now, so he can go ahead with it and prepare for the new life he hopes to move on to in a few months, in the United States.
Once there, we hope he will be able to resolve his remaining medical issues, and regain the full health which would have been so easily his, if he had been given asylum in Australia.
We have a government which has no compunction about using human lives for their political ends. This is the resulting reality:
hundreds of human beings with failing mental and physical health, as a consequence of their indefinite detention and denied hope. Not one of the Manus men remains unaffected.
We must step up to help, where our government has harmed. Please give what you can, and share your awareness.
You can join us
The $5,500 is the total amount required to cover Rahim’s surgery in a private hospital in Port Moresby, to which we have arranged his admission. It is needed urgently.
The public system is struggling to meet the health needs of Papua New Guineans and wait times are lengthy. Rahim cannot wait longer.
-Anthea Falkenberg, August 2018
Please pm me in Messenger if you have any questions.
For more information on the background, please listen to this interview with George Newhouse, an Australian human rights lawyer acting in many cases for Manus and Nauru refugees and asylum seekers:
https://justice.org.au/why-australia-has-a-duty-of-care-to-asylum-seekers-on-nauru-and-manus-island/
If you prefer to donate by direct credit to the GFMAN Medical Project account, please use:
Gifts for Manus and Nauru Incorporated
BSB: 034279 (Westpac)
ACC: 532412
Please label KIDNEY
*Name changed for privacy and safety reasons
ABN: 13886323063. Donations of $2 or more are tax deductible.
For more information, see:
Website:
https://giftsformanusandnauru.org.au/
Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/GFMAN2016/
Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1646607628911452
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/GFMAN
Email:
giftsformanusandnauru@outlook.com.au