Battling David in Goliath struggle – David Spitteler, facilitator of the Asylum Seekers Centre

By Shaun Inguanzo
ASYLUM seekers in Melbourne’s south-east will soon have received $2 million of material aid since 1997, thanks to the efforts of David Spitteler and his supporters.
Mr Spitteler, 67, is a fulltime facilitator for the Asylum Seekers’ Centre run out of a base at the Uniting Church in Dandenong.
Receiving no pay for his efforts, over the past 12 years, Mr Spitteler has helped 852 asylum seekers from 63 countries to settle in Australia.
Mr Spitteler said the reward was seeing asylum seekers establish themselves in Australia.
“Asylum seekers never get Centrelink payments, and most lose their rights to Medicare,” he said.
Mr Spitteler said they were not allowed to work, and could end up in detention centres if found to be working.
He said the centre handed out clothing, computers, public transport tickets, mobile phone cards, and some furniture items.
He has also been responsible for collecting $250,000 in cash donations from the broader community to purchase those items.
Mr Spitteler now estimates he is only $18,000 in material donations away from having handed out $2 million in aid.
But the centre was not always located in Dandenong.
“I started the Dandenong office in1999 because a lot of people had to travel from as far as Pakenham to see me at St Kilda,” he said.
He said when the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre started in Footscray he thought he might as well refer people from that side of town to Footscray and continue to see those he dealt with in the past, but not take new clients unless they were from the south eastern suburbs.
Mr Spitteler said he always welcomed donations from the community, but urged people to donate less common items.
“We don’t want to have some generic clothing drive because I have to control the volume of that due to our storage capacity,” he said.
“But we will welcome any donations.”
To donate contact Mr Spitteler at the Asylum Seekers’ Centre on 0409 416 744.