Life After Manus: Help a Refugee Family through COVID-19

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Los Angeles, California, United States

After seven years in limbo, the Australian government sent Vali and his young family to the United States with barely more than the clothes on their backs in the middle of an out-of-control pandemic.

Vali’s two-year-old son Cyrus has special needs, having been born with a medical condition which the Australian government refused to provide additional treatment for – despite advocacy by numerous Australian doctors.

Now, having landed in the USA, the family is battling to keep their head above water amid devastating unemployment numbers and a medical system that routinely fails its own citizens, let alone a newly arrived refugee family.

The Aussie-run Ads-Up Refugee Network has created this fundraiser to help give Vali’s young family the best footing for a new start – contributions will be deposited directly into the family’s account.

We also encourage all donors to include a message of support. Our volunteers are working to make the family feel welcome, but the isolation as US cities return to lockdown can be overwhelming.

Please donate now, every bit counts >>

More information compiled by our volunteer team:

After seeking protection in Australia from Iranian authorities in 2013, Vali Papi, was instead unlawfully detained by the Australian government in Papua New Guinea.

Vali’s son Cyrus was born in PNG with a medical condition affecting the left side of his body. Despite advocacy by Vali and numerous Aussie doctors, the government refused to bring Cyrus to Australia to receive medical treatment which would have given him the best chance of an adult life without permanent disabilities.

Vali tells us he was made to feel that the USA was his only choice. “They said it is the only chance you can get your son treatment, so I used the one option that I had – to come to the USA.”

Social services in the USA are overstretched and under-resourced, leaving families like Vali’s with little support. Newly arrived families are given just 90 days of accommodation before they’re on their own.

On top of having to find ways to pay the rent and support their family, Vali and his wife Judy are also required to repay the cost of their family’s flights from PNG to the USA ($1500 per person, totaling more than $8,000 in debt).

Join everyday Aussies who are stepping up to give every family – and every child – the best chance at a safe, successful new start in the USA >>

When Vali talks about soccer, his love for the game is all-consuming. In Iran he played and coached at competitive levels. While detained by the Australian Government in Papua New Guinea, Vali devoted himself to coaching local teams on Manus Island, despite the threats, violence and alienation he endured as a refugee.

Vali met his wife, Judy, on the soccer field and aspires to one day be a professional coach in Colorado. Judy hopes to join a local Denver women’s team and hopes all three of their boys will be able to play when they are old enough.

Thanks to the support of Denver’s local soccer community and the Colorado Soccer Association, Vali has just begun the first stages of his US coaching qualifications.

Nothing can undo the years lost to the cruelty of unlawful detention, but together we can show that Australians are better than their government and can help this family weather the COVID-19 pandemic and find their feet in the USA.

Please chip in now >>

To volunteer with our network and help refugees like Vali and his family, visit the Ads Up Refugee Network website.

Who are we? We’re a network of Aussies in the United States who have been working since May 2018 to support hundreds of refugees arriving from PNG and Nauru under the still ongoing Australian-US refugee deal. We’ve been profiled by the Sydney Morning Herald and other outlets for our work in the United States and in Canada. For more about us, visit our general fundraiser or our website: www.ads-up.org

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