Please Join us to here from Anne Moon, who has spent time on Manu Island and is taking the time to talk to us about her experiences. The talk is titled ‘Life on Manus’ and explores the conditions that the men have been living in for the last 4.5 years. It includes many photographs of the men from some of my 2 earlier trips to Manus. I will also tell one or two individual stories of some of the men I have become close to - where they came from, why they fled, how they have coped.
Anne's bio.
I have spent decades as a volunteer helping various vulnerable people all over the world. For almost 20 years I lived overseas volunteering in places like Ecuador, the Amazon, and Sumatra working in orphanages and teaching English. I have documented stories from Timorese and Kosovo refugees, and worked in East Timor for 8 years doing amongst other things documenting the stories of children and adults suffering abuse and torture at the hands of the Militia.
My involvement with refugees in offshore detention began when I saw asylum seekers being forced into buses and sent to remote islands, and as the stories emerged about people with life-threatening diseases, epilepsy, diabetes, and heart disease being denied their medications. This prompted me to become active in calling for offshore detention to stop but it soon became clear that writing emails, calling and visiting politicians’ offices was not enough.
I accepted my first Facebook friend request from an asylum seeker on Manus in 2014 and spoke with this person every day for 5 months before accepting another. I now have over 500 men from Manus on her friends list and up to 12 months ago would speak with at least 30 or 40 a day. But as their mental health has worsened so has their ability to chat.
In 2015 I started supporting men who were sick and not receiving proper medical attention by liaising with organisations such as Doctors for Refugees and the AMA. Due to my intervention there have been 4 men sent to Australia for treatment and many others to Port Moresby. I now have many cases with different agencies supporting their medical needs which includes assembling and copying the necessary documentation, and collating their medical files. Over the last 18 months I have also liaised with numerous lawyers to help assemble signatures and documentation for various court cases. I have just returned from my third visit to Manus to provide support to the men.
Anne's bio.
I have spent decades as a volunteer helping various vulnerable people all over the world. For almost 20 years I lived overseas volunteering in places like Ecuador, the Amazon, and Sumatra working in orphanages and teaching English. I have documented stories from Timorese and Kosovo refugees, and worked in East Timor for 8 years doing amongst other things documenting the stories of children and adults suffering abuse and torture at the hands of the Militia.
My involvement with refugees in offshore detention began when I saw asylum seekers being forced into buses and sent to remote islands, and as the stories emerged about people with life-threatening diseases, epilepsy, diabetes, and heart disease being denied their medications. This prompted me to become active in calling for offshore detention to stop but it soon became clear that writing emails, calling and visiting politicians’ offices was not enough.
I accepted my first Facebook friend request from an asylum seeker on Manus in 2014 and spoke with this person every day for 5 months before accepting another. I now have over 500 men from Manus on her friends list and up to 12 months ago would speak with at least 30 or 40 a day. But as their mental health has worsened so has their ability to chat.
In 2015 I started supporting men who were sick and not receiving proper medical attention by liaising with organisations such as Doctors for Refugees and the AMA. Due to my intervention there have been 4 men sent to Australia for treatment and many others to Port Moresby. I now have many cases with different agencies supporting their medical needs which includes assembling and copying the necessary documentation, and collating their medical files. Over the last 18 months I have also liaised with numerous lawyers to help assemble signatures and documentation for various court cases. I have just returned from my third visit to Manus to provide support to the men.
