Jessica Perini edited the second edition of my book, Sustainable House.  During the editing we became good friends.  Jessica’s professionalism was a delight.  Her editing greatly improved the book.  We discovered a mutual interest in food, gardening and nature, and it was partly through that friendship I discovered the Asylum Seekers Centre in Surry Hills and gave them the native stingless bee hive we split at my place – for more info search using the tag, bees.

Now I’ve read an email Jessica sent her friends on 23 December with this story; it’s her Xmas present to her friends, and I’m sharing it with you, my blog readers.

Enjoy; you’re about to go on a lovely trip as you read Jessica’s story of her Xmas this year . . .

And so this is Christmas

23 December 2010

I’m so ill-prepared this Christmas. I haven’t cooked anything. The house looks like some hurricane swept through; washed clothing drying everywhere, papers and receipts, beds undone, the spare room uninhabitable. It’s the twenty-third, yes I know, the day before Christmas Eve. While our neighbours litter their balconies with Christmas lights our tree isn’t even up yet. And so this is Christmas, but what have I done?

Two weeks ago I decided to send an email to five friends. I asked them each to send one package to kids in immigration detention across Australia. I thought maybe five, ten or fifteen kids might benefit.

Today I’m wondering if we managed to reach all 888 of them.

The response I got was extraordinary.

From computer to computer my message went out. It didn’t just reach five or ten people. Each person sent it to lots of people. Those people sent it out too. At that point it went viral.

It got into the hands of Jews for Social Action.

At this stage two weeks ago I was editing a book. I had about 200 pages to go. No big deal in two weeks. But then the emails started to flow in.

Where can I send these toys? How many kids are there? What ages are they? I spent a whole day fielding queries. Then another day and another. My editing work fell further and further behind.

As a member of the recently reformed ChilOut (www.chilout.org… – Children Out of Immigration Detention) I had a few of the answers. But I hadn’t anticipated the flood of emails and questions I’d get. I called on other people in the organisation to help. We have members in charge of kids in immigration throughout Australia (Darwin, Leonora, Villawood, Christmas Island, Melbourne, Perth, Port Augusta to name but a few).

One thing I learned during this exercise is that giving transcends all religious and social boundaries. Christian Jews for Social Action members (whoever knew there was such a thing?) at a nearby church started their own toy drive. Within five church services their donations had quadrupled the amount ChilOut had in the bank. Their office started to fill with toys. And it wasn’t just the Catholic parishioners who were donating. Rabbis and reverends came from nearby suburbs, along with lots of other people.

The stories abound. One family moving overseas donated all their good toys to the kids in detention. A grandmother spent her pension money on gifts for the children. One parishioner bought kids 10 trikes! A post office worker who had migrated to Australia only recently teared up when the sender told him where the toys were going. Another post office donated new toys from the postal workers to the kids. When several packages going to kids in Western Australia were mislabelled the post office at Leonora assured me that the kids would get their toys for Christmas.

Donations started flowing in to our PO Box from all around Australia.

Last week, I managed to get in contact with a support group called Asylum Seekers Christmas Island (ASCI). They have about 280 kids held on Christmas Island. Once I knew they were available I started channelling gifts to Christmas Island. A few days later Renee Chan, coordinator of donations for ASCI emailed to tell me that she was overwhelmed with enquiries and donations.

Mid last week a great tragedy occurred. As we all know by now a boat foundered on the coast of Christmas Island. Over 40 asylum seekers died and many were traumatised. Including four newly orphaned children. These children have now joined the ranks of kids in detention.

Yesterday we discovered that one of these children spoke Farsi and we were searching for relatives. I sent out an email asking for help from Iranian and Persian associations. Within five minutes I received a response from an Iranian woman who wanted to pay for all costs of the child in question and also care for him.

Tears welled up in my eyes.

So if you do happen to ask me what I’ve done this Christmas. Nothing much. The house is a mess. There aren’t yet any lovely roast smells wafting out of my kitchen.

But maybe some kids in detention will have presents this year.

The kids are not free. But that will certainly be ChilOut’s resolution for 2011.

Jessica Perini