Flourish Magazine - Winter 2024

AARON FINDS SAFE HAVEN AND SOCCER

Fourteen-year-old refugee Aaron is just one of the grateful residents at the former Regency Green Aged Care site, where he is being supported by AMES Australia.

When his older brother was shot and killed as a bystander in an armed hold up, his family decided it was time to leave their home in Venezuela.

Aaron was a promising soccer star in his homeland and is now making a mark as an elite junior player in Adelaide.

He and his team from the Croydon Football Club, in Adelaide’s north, recently won the U14 JPL championship.

Soccer has helped me settle in Adelaide. I have met people, and made friends and the soccer club and players have made me and my family feel welcome.

- AARON

Aaron says soccer is his life and he hopes to make it his career. The family fled their homeland amid escalating violence, political turmoil and an economic collapse, and were welcomed to Regency Green.

“It was very dangerous for us in Venezuela. My family was not safe,” Aaron says.

More than five million people have fled Venezuela in recent years in what is the largest refugee crisis in the history of the Americas.

The UN says crime in Venezuela is widespread, with violent crimes such as murder and kidnapping increasing for several years. Ninety-eight per cent of crimes go unpunished.

Venezuelans have also faced a worsening economic crisis and humanitarian emergency since 2014. The country’s northern coasts have been particularly hard hit due to lack of tourism and the impact of organised crime on small-scale fishing.

A recent UN report says 2.5 million Venezuelans face severe food insecurity, and a third of the population needs food assistance.