After losing his job as a construction worker eight weeks ago, Sami has struggled to pay his bills and afford food for he and his wife, burning through his life savings just to meet their basic needs.

“My biggest concern is money of course. I have a bank account, and everything is in negative.”

Sami has been seeking asylum in Australia for the past four years. As people seeking asylum on bridging or temporary visas have been omitted from the federal government’s COVID-19 emergency stimulus payments, Sami is ineligible to receive the Jobkeeper or Jobseeker payments.

“I don’t have money to pay for rent, electricity, for the car, everything, I have no money now. All my savings are gone. I went to my boss [to ask for help] and just nothing, I just have no work now. I don’t know how long this will go for, [it could be] two, three or four months [until I can work again.]

Left without access to a welfare safety net, Sami has been forced to rely on support from not-for-profit organisations like SSI to meet his basic needs.

Due to his circumstances, Sami has not had the funds to cook himself regular meals. As a result, he sort out support from SSI’s Care Package program, which will provide him and his wife with basic food staples so they can put food on the table.

You can help people like Sami to put food on the table here

*Sami’s name and image has been changed to protect his identity.