Footscray’s Asylum Seeker Resource Centre is used to helping people in need, but on Friday 9 January that assistance looked slightly different than usual.
With the mercury topping 42 degrees, the ASRC flung open the doors to its Nicholson Street headquarters to refugees and asylum seekers seeking somewhere to escape the heat.
Not only did they get to cool off under the air-conditioning from 10am-4pm, but the ASRC fed them too, with staff staying back late the night before to prepare a lunch featuring roast chicken, pasta and salads.
ASRC founder and chief executive Kon Karapanagiotidis said the decision to provide shelter and food to people on Friday was a straight forward one.
“The ASRC is open on a 42 degree day because charities need to be there when it most matters,” Mr Karapanagiotidis said.
“For many of the refugee families we support they have nowhere safe and cool to get some respite while being able to also access lunch and some support.”
More than a hundred people are estimated to have visited the ASRC on Friday with the centre providing free food and take away meals for asylum seeker families as well as putting on lunch.
Both Maribyrnong and Hobsons Bay library services extended opening hours at branches on Wednesday and Friday last week so locals without air-conditioning at home had somewhere to stay until the cool change arrived.
