CASE STUDY: 16 month journey to reunite Matida* and her sons

16 month journey to reunite Matida* and her sons

10 June 2021

For Matida the stress was incredible when her ex-husband took her two boys out of the country. Pregnant and alone, it took a support team to help her reunite with her sons.

We first met Matida, 6 months pregnant at the end of 2019, when she was referred to Kara House with her toddler daughter, Rayan. While caring for Rayan and planning for a safe birth, Matida’s focus was on her two young sons being cared for by her mother overseas.

As a form of control, Matida’s husband, the perpetrator of the violence and the father of her children, removed her boys from her care and took them overseas. Being separated from her boys, Ibrahim and Jamal, took a huge toll on Matida’s emotional wellbeing and mental health. She struggled to manage the day-to-day care of Rayan and Khalid, and eventually child protection became involved placing the children in care while Matida was admitted to hospital.

During this time, Kara House was working away in the background liaising with various services and gathering information on how to return the children to Australia. Because of COVID-19 this became a very long and drawn-out process, and a sense of ongoing frustration and sadness for Matida.

With the assistance of an immigration lawyer, the children and their grandmother were given an exemption to return to Australia. While Kara House managed to access funding for plane tickets, there were immigration issues, which then impacted the exemption timeframe, and another exemption had to be applied for.

After an exhausting 16-month process, plus 2 weeks isolation in hotel quarantine, and with so much excitement and happiness Ibrahim and Khalid were reunited with their mother, little sister and their new baby brother. With thanks to generous donations, Kara House welcomed the children with new clothes, toys and books. Kara House continues to support Matida and her family in a transitional property and we look forward to them enjoying a secure and happy future together.
*names changed

• 50% of children we work with in refuge are under a Child Protection order and need specialist supervision and services.
• 100% of the children we work with have witnessed a violent incident, often on many occasions
• Kara House has provided specialist children’s services to 187 dependents so far this year
• 77% of women we work with rely on Centrelink or other government subsidies

*name changed