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Katie Woolf spoke with Save the Children deputy CEO Mat Tinkler · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now we do know this overnight a number of people
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: fleeing Afghanistan arrived in the Northern Territory, and we also
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: know that Save the Children have provided some packs to
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: some of those people who arrived, obviously at Howard Springs
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: here in the territory, particularly for those children arriving from Afghanistan.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Joining us on the line to tell us a little
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  Speaker 1: bit more is Matt Tinkler from Save the Children, the
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  Speaker 1: Deputy CEO. Good morning to you, Matt.
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  Speaker 2: Gooday, Katy, thanks for having me on your program.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you so much for joining us. Matt. Just firstly,
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  Speaker 3: you're based in Melbourne, aren't you.
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  Speaker 2: Oh at the moment, yes, Unfortunately it's all lockdown for me. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I was going to say, how are you guys going
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  Speaker 3: at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, look, it's a bit of a drag, I've got
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  Speaker 2: to say, Katie. I've got three kids, so we're home
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  Speaker 2: schooling and one from kindergarten and there's not much not
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: much light at the end of the tunnel for Victorians
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  Speaker 2: at the moment, so it's a bit of a battle.
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  Speaker 2: But I guess it's all relative, isn't it. When we're
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  Speaker 2: talking about people in Afghanistan, we know that, you know,
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: relatively we're doing pretty well and we'll get through this.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: But yeah, there's some tough moments, that's for sure.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, your spot on in so many ways.
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  Speaker 1: Look, we hear in the territory of thinking of you
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  Speaker 1: guys when you are in that long lockdown.
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  Speaker 3: I know it must be such tough going.
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  Speaker 1: But like you said, we know that people in other
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  Speaker 1: parts of the world are really doing it very.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: Tough at the moment.
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  Speaker 1: And fortunately we have seen overnight that some of those
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: who were fleeing Afghanistan arrived in Darwin. Can you talk
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  Speaker 1: us through what Save the Children have actually provided to
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  Speaker 1: those who've arrived.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so you can imagine, Katie, that people who have
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  Speaker 2: fled the circumstances in Afghanistan have witnessed a lot. They've
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  Speaker 2: been scared for their lives. For children in particular, it
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  Speaker 2: can be a really traumatic experience. We saw on our
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  Speaker 2: news screens images of people trying to get through those
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  Speaker 2: queues to the airport, for example. So people have been
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  Speaker 2: through a lot, have fled with literally just the clothes
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  Speaker 2: on their backs and their identity documents are not much
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  Speaker 2: more so when they are lucky enough to get to
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  Speaker 2: a place like Australia. They need everything, So a government
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  Speaker 2: is doing a fantastic job. So kudos to the NT
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  Speaker 2: government for allowing people to come into how It springs.
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  Speaker 2: They're providing support in a form of clothing and those
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  Speaker 2: kind of things. What we're doing is giving activity packs,
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  Speaker 2: particularly tagetting kids. So it's really important that kids have
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  Speaker 2: the opportunity to resume a sense of normality as soon
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  Speaker 2: as they can. So they need toys and activities, sensory
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  Speaker 2: games so they can start to exercise their minds on
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  Speaker 2: something that's as far as they can from the trauma
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  Speaker 2: of the Afghanistan. So the packs have those kind of things.
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  Speaker 2: They also have the basics for things like hygiene packs
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  Speaker 2: for women who might not have had those kind of
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  Speaker 2: things with them when they fled as well. So that's
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  Speaker 2: what we're focused on at the moment.
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  Speaker 1: Now, how many packs have been provided or do you
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  Speaker 1: have any idea how many people actually arrived on that flight.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: I don't have the precise number, and we understand that
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  Speaker 2: there are numbers coming in all around the country to
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  Speaker 2: Australia at moments. So basically wherever there are clientcy places available,
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  Speaker 2: we provided two hundred packs initially to the how it's
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: brings the facility, So we're not sure exactly how many
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: of those will be used, but we do know that
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  Speaker 2: there's a large number of children on these flights. I
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  Speaker 2: know from our own experience chrying to support staff evacuating
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  Speaker 2: out of Afghanistan that often there are large family groups
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  Speaker 2: with five, six, seven kids and extended family members as well.
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  Speaker 2: We know in the NT there's some unaccompanied miners who've
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  Speaker 2: also rund so it's really critical that they get support
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  Speaker 2: as well. And you know, we also know that there's
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  Speaker 2: a huge amount of people still in Afghanistan who are
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  Speaker 2: speaking asylum in places like Australia, so we do expect
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  Speaker 2: that to be additional numbers coming in over the next
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  Speaker 2: weeks and months.
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  Speaker 1: Matt, Do we know what happens you know with those
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  Speaker 1: kids that are here without their parents, you know what
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  Speaker 1: support is provided?
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  Speaker 3: Do we have any idea?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, And so the children have had some experience of
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  Speaker 2: this in our work in Australia and the region in
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  Speaker 2: the past, and essentially in Australia, you know very lucky
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  Speaker 2: that we have fantastic child protection systems here, will have
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  Speaker 2: people and agencies appointed as the guardians of those children,
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  Speaker 2: their job is to essentially look after the best interest
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  Speaker 2: of those children like any parent would, but they also
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  Speaker 2: rely really heavily on the communities and family networks from
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  Speaker 2: within that cultural group. So in this case, they've understand
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  Speaker 2: people from afgunderstand the different ethnic group things that exist
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  Speaker 2: within that to make sure that their children are supported.
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  Speaker 2: Often they are children who are in their older teenage years,
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  Speaker 2: so we're not talking about very young kids necessarily, but
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  Speaker 2: they still do need that parental types of division and support.
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  Speaker 2: I think we're really lucky that in Australia we can
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  Speaker 2: offer that kind of thing. So hopefully these kids are
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  Speaker 2: in safe hands.
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  Speaker 1: I'm assuming that that there's going to be a lot
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  Speaker 1: of people listening this morning, who are you know, after
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  Speaker 1: they've been seeing some of the vision some of the
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  Speaker 1: images come out of Afghanistan in recent weeks, feeling as
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  Speaker 1: though they would.
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  Speaker 3: Like to help in some way.
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  Speaker 1: Is there a way that Territorians are maybe able to
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  Speaker 1: maybe make a donation or help out.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely, And the best thing is is money. So
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  Speaker 2: I know people often feel compelled to give you toys
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  Speaker 2: and goods and those kind of things. Often that can
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  Speaker 2: be harder to handle from a logistic perspective for agencies
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  Speaker 2: like Save the Children and governments frankly than providing money,
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  Speaker 2: then we can procure the things that are needed most
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  Speaker 2: and are suitable for children and their age groups and
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  Speaker 2: their ethnic backgrounds, and those kinds of things. You can
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  Speaker 2: donate to organizations like Save the Children or the UNHCR.
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  Speaker 2: Both those types of organizations are supporting kids here in
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  Speaker 2: Australia as they are, but also importantly trying to support
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: all the people who are left in Afghanistan and dealing
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  Speaker 2: with these very difficult circumstances. It's not only the sort
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  Speaker 2: of conflict and the political circumstances, but there's a huge
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  Speaker 2: amount of humanitary and need in Afghanistan. There's millions of
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  Speaker 2: kids facing FAMIN like conditions now, for example. So every
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  Speaker 2: dollar helps, and I love to hear from territory and
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  Speaker 2: they can visit Save the Children's website and donate if
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: they are minded to do so.
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  Speaker 1: Now, what kind of support services are going to be
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  Speaker 1: provided in coming months, because you know, I would imagine
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  Speaker 1: it's not a situation here where there's support provided right
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  Speaker 1: now and then we just forget, you know, it is
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  Speaker 1: a situation where there is going to need to be
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  Speaker 1: that ongoing support isn't there.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, and Australia is one of the best countries
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  Speaker 2: in the world at resettling refugees. We do take a
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  Speaker 2: large number of humanitary messages. Of course we'd like to
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  Speaker 2: be able to take more, but we have a really
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  Speaker 2: mature resettlement services sector here, so they will wrap around
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  Speaker 2: support for these people in that families in the form
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: of housing, in the form of access to medical support,
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  Speaker 2: income support, getting kids enrolled in school, training in English language,
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  Speaker 2: getting connected to local ethnic community networks and making sure
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  Speaker 2: that they can resettle in places where those networks already
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  Speaker 2: exist to make that integration into this train community easier.
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  Speaker 2: So we're really lucky in Australia to have a fantastic
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  Speaker 2: group of organizations who are very skilled at this, and
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  Speaker 2: the government is coming in behind that and providing funding
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  Speaker 2: to make sure that happens, and agencies like Saying Children
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  Speaker 2: and others are also providing targeted support for the particular
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  Speaker 2: groups of people who might be really vulnerable, so young kids,
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  Speaker 2: providing trauma informed psychosocial support to children and families, those
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  Speaker 2: kinds of things. So it's a long journey ahead for
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  Speaker 2: these people, but rest assured we and many others are
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  Speaker 2: standing by ready to provide this kind of support.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Matt, do we have any idea if there's going
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  Speaker 1: to be more refugees afganti refugees arriving here in daw
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  Speaker 1: or is it just the one plane load.
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  Speaker 2: So far we understand it's just been the one plane
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  Speaker 2: load that has arrived. But the government has the Australian
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  Speaker 2: government's allocated three thousand visas initially for Afghan refugees, and
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  Speaker 2: we understand that's been described as a flaw, not a ceiling,
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  Speaker 2: so we expect there will be more visas issued. The
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  Speaker 2: problem at the moment that afghanistand is the airport exit
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  Speaker 2: pathways been closed. So the immediate challenge is if people
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  Speaker 2: want to come out, getting them out is a real challenge.
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  Speaker 2: But we do hope that pathways will open up, either
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  Speaker 2: through commercial flights or through other land borders in the
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  Speaker 2: coming weeks. So you would expect, I think, to see
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  Speaker 2: more refugees arriving in the NT over the next week's
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  Speaker 2: a month.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Matt Tinkler, Save the Children Deputy CEO and also
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  Speaker 1: the director of International Programs for Save the Children in Australia,
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  Speaker 1: we really appreciate your time this morning.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks for having a chat with us.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: No worries, Thanks for having me on the show.
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: Thank you