It took a whole month before Canberra pensioner Angie Roeby realised there were refugees from the fall of Kabul housed among her modest, sprawling villa compound on the outskirts of the capital. But it only took a little longer to work out they were desperate, scared people.
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First, two children revealed themselves, leading to the family, which led to others and then still more families. There are 10 families in total at the villas, and more across Canberra. Traumatised by the Taliban, keeping wholly to themselves and needing basic help.
"They looked at me and one of the girls who can speak a bit of English said, 'We got no money.' And I said, 'What do you mean you got no money?' 'We got no money. We got nothing'," Ms Roeby said.
"And I said, 'Well, you've got children'. And she said, 'We've got no milk for the children. We've got no yoghurt, no eggs'. 'Oh, for heaven's sake', I said, 'I'll go home and get changed. I'll pick you up'."
New accounts of confusion and anxiety among refugees in Canberra come after The Canberra Times revealed the story of former Afghan team cyclists Narges, Mustafa and three-year-old daughter Helen struggling at a different Canberra location, a nearby caravan park.
Ms Roeby and friends Heather Holland, Anna Pace, Merrylanne Baxter and Lyn Van Aalst have been assisting refugees because they say official support is letting them down.
Some are suffering panic attacks, according to the women, and they have no way to independently get around Canberra. They say the women are too scared to walk away from the villas.
"They have just been dumped here and left to their own devices," Ms Pace said.
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"How are they supposed to get groceries? Yeah, they can't, they got no vehicle. There's no bus service. And they don't have a computer to do an online shop or anything like that."
The Australian Red Cross, which is the Humanitarian Settlement Program provider charged with supporting the refugees, says people are able to "make their own provisions" for food once they start to receive Centrelink payments.
From then on, Red Cross helps with food in an emergency.
But the pensioners allege the refugees were told by one busy case worker to put important Centrelink letters in a drawer.
"So these people can speak English, right? So they get all these letters from Centrelink, like well, they can't read," Ms Roeby said. "So what do they say to the liaison officer? 'I've got these,' 'Oh don't worry about it, put them in the drawer'. So they put them in the drawer."
"They get the debit cards, they thought they were things to go in the computer. So they went in the drawer."
When Ms Roeby mentioned Centrelink when trying to work out what help the refugees had, it rang a bell.
"They said 'Oh, we got Centrelink.' 'Oh, have you?' 'Yeah.' So they bring out all these papers? But it says terminated. 'Yeah, we don't get anything. Why is it terminated?' Because they didn't go to the office," she said.
"Then I said, 'Oh, these are from your bank', and they said no for the computer. I said, 'no, that's your card for the bank.' So, and it says it hasn't been activated. And they say 'no'."
"So we get them in the car. They've never seen an escalator before. They hadn't seen hundreds and hundreds of cars in the car park, so getting them out the car was a nightmare. Then we get them on the escalator and who should be coming down the other side but Father Christmas. So that was a nightmare."
The Australian Red Cross disputes that the refugees were sent letters from Centrelink notifying termination of payment.
In a statement, Poppy Brown the Red Cross director NSW and ACT said this "did not occur and was clarified weeks ago."
"A range of funded support services is in place under the HSP and Red Cross has spent considerable time on site helping families to access all that is available," she said in a statement.
The refugees were taken for their first supermarket run thanks to the pensioners to get fruit, vegetables, sanitary items, basics.
Back at the villas, there were people without shoes and changes of underwear.
"I just said just grab what you need, just pile it in the trolley and come home," Ms Roeby said.
And then I went back the next day to see them. And then explained to me that there was 10 families here."
The Australian Red Cross is currently supporting 134 people who evacuated from Afghanistan since the large-scale evacuations from Afghanistan in September.
Fifteen other families are in another suburbs, while there is an unknown number of refugees at the caravan park where Narges, Mustafa and Helen live.
The Canberra community has been rallying to help the refugees. Food, toys and medical supplies have been donated through social media. But the women want more official support for the refugees, particularly interpreters and help with transport.
"We're just pensioners. We can't afford to keep supplying 10 families, we can't afford to keep ourselves sometimes," she said. "Well, they need more help. They brought them here."
"They need more financial help up front and they need a bus to take them to get their food, not just free handouts. They're embarrassed about us giving them free handouts. They don't want free handouts. And now they need homes. How do they get homes?"
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The Australian Red Cross said it welcomes and actively seeks feedback from the community. It also said it respects and values supports initiated directly by members of the community.
It also said there was significant supports in place.
"Red Cross assesses families' needs and provides them with items they need, including food, sanitary items and clothing and we respond to any additional requests and emerging needs through the ongoing contact of our caseworkers and bilingual support workers," Ms Brown said.
"Red Cross communicates with people we support through bilingual staff plus telephone interpreters so people can ask questions and have any concerns addressed.
"Red Cross is highly committed to delivering quality supports that meet the needs of refugees and humanitarian entrants and engages directly with families and across the community to identify and respond to any identified gaps."
The Canberra Times also sought a response from the Home Affairs Department.
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