Bring Tom and Jess Home!
Donation protected
UPDATE: We are no longer accepting donations.
UPDATE FROM TOM AND JESS: Thank you to everyone who has donated. We have heard we are able to get on a flight on Wednesday and have just raised enough funds for a flight to Melbourne, and then a flight to Sydney. We really appreciate everyone's generosity and cannot wait to get back to Australia.
Due to COVID-19, Peru closed its borders for 15 days on the 16th March 2020 leaving travellers 24 hours to return home.
Tom and Jess were stuck in the coastal town of Paracas in Peru until yesterday. They arrived before it was recommended not to travel and before any restrictions were put into place. As soon as they found out they needed to return home to Australia, they rushed back to their hostel only to find they could not get on a bus out of Paracas. Everything had been shut down.
Since then, Tom and Jess have done everything they can to get on a flight back home to Australia but were stuck in lockdown. Australian airlines have suspended their international services, leaving them stranded with little help from the Australian government. They've struggled to get information from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).
Chimu Adventures, a commercial travel company arranged a flight to help stranded Aussies get home, but the tickets were over $5,000 per person for an economy ticket. To register for the flight you had to pay upfront and no refunds were going to be given if the ticket holder couldn't get to Lima, where the flight was leaving from. Lima is 3 hours from Paracas.
There was no assurance if the flight was going to go ahead and if this option was endorsed by the government, leaving a huge amount of concern for both Tom and Jess.
After weighing up all of their options, Tom and Jess were unable to get to Lima for the flight. With no public transport to the capital, limited funds and not feeling safe driving on unfamiliar roads in a country with a language they could not speak, they had to stay put.
They have since found out they were able to travel during the lockdown if they had specific permission from the Australian government. If they knew this, they could have been on the flight.
Yesterday, they made it to Lima after a long and stressful drive as their hostel was closing down. They didn't know if they were even going to make it. They had to arrange 3 different types of permission to travel. One from the embassy, one from the government in Peru and one from the police. On the way, they were stopped and questioned in Spanish for 20 minutes as some of the details didn't match up. This meant they didn't know if they were going to make it to Lima by curfew. Thankfully, they arrived but it was an incredibly unsafe journey.
The situation in Lima is quite scary. There's military on every corner and men and women are only allowed out on certain days of the week. Men are allowed out on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Women are allowed out on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Nobody is allowed to be out on Sunday.
Getting Jess and Tom home safely is the main priority. They also need to be able to safely remain in their Airbnb apartment.
If the government organises another flight like the Chimu one, they will need to get a loan or use credit cards, adding a huge financial strain for them. There is talk of another charter flight but there is no official word yet. It also won't be government funded.
If a flight was to go ahead it would be great if we could help them out financially to get home. If a flight did not go ahead, Tom and Jess would still need to pay for the apartment they are staying at in Lima. This is also in addition to needing to pay for food and other supplies.
If you can please donate with urgency to help Tom and Jess it would take a huge financial strain off them in this already stressful situation and we know they would be extremely grateful. We don't know when another flight will be announced and would love to organise funds for them as soon as possible. Any little bit will help, whether it is $1, $100 or $10,000.
UPDATE FROM TOM AND JESS: Thank you to everyone who has donated. We have heard we are able to get on a flight on Wednesday and have just raised enough funds for a flight to Melbourne, and then a flight to Sydney. We really appreciate everyone's generosity and cannot wait to get back to Australia.
Due to COVID-19, Peru closed its borders for 15 days on the 16th March 2020 leaving travellers 24 hours to return home.
Tom and Jess were stuck in the coastal town of Paracas in Peru until yesterday. They arrived before it was recommended not to travel and before any restrictions were put into place. As soon as they found out they needed to return home to Australia, they rushed back to their hostel only to find they could not get on a bus out of Paracas. Everything had been shut down.
Since then, Tom and Jess have done everything they can to get on a flight back home to Australia but were stuck in lockdown. Australian airlines have suspended their international services, leaving them stranded with little help from the Australian government. They've struggled to get information from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).
Chimu Adventures, a commercial travel company arranged a flight to help stranded Aussies get home, but the tickets were over $5,000 per person for an economy ticket. To register for the flight you had to pay upfront and no refunds were going to be given if the ticket holder couldn't get to Lima, where the flight was leaving from. Lima is 3 hours from Paracas.
There was no assurance if the flight was going to go ahead and if this option was endorsed by the government, leaving a huge amount of concern for both Tom and Jess.
After weighing up all of their options, Tom and Jess were unable to get to Lima for the flight. With no public transport to the capital, limited funds and not feeling safe driving on unfamiliar roads in a country with a language they could not speak, they had to stay put.
They have since found out they were able to travel during the lockdown if they had specific permission from the Australian government. If they knew this, they could have been on the flight.
Yesterday, they made it to Lima after a long and stressful drive as their hostel was closing down. They didn't know if they were even going to make it. They had to arrange 3 different types of permission to travel. One from the embassy, one from the government in Peru and one from the police. On the way, they were stopped and questioned in Spanish for 20 minutes as some of the details didn't match up. This meant they didn't know if they were going to make it to Lima by curfew. Thankfully, they arrived but it was an incredibly unsafe journey.
The situation in Lima is quite scary. There's military on every corner and men and women are only allowed out on certain days of the week. Men are allowed out on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Women are allowed out on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Nobody is allowed to be out on Sunday.
Getting Jess and Tom home safely is the main priority. They also need to be able to safely remain in their Airbnb apartment.
If the government organises another flight like the Chimu one, they will need to get a loan or use credit cards, adding a huge financial strain for them. There is talk of another charter flight but there is no official word yet. It also won't be government funded.
If a flight was to go ahead it would be great if we could help them out financially to get home. If a flight did not go ahead, Tom and Jess would still need to pay for the apartment they are staying at in Lima. This is also in addition to needing to pay for food and other supplies.
If you can please donate with urgency to help Tom and Jess it would take a huge financial strain off them in this already stressful situation and we know they would be extremely grateful. We don't know when another flight will be announced and would love to organise funds for them as soon as possible. Any little bit will help, whether it is $1, $100 or $10,000.
Organizer and beneficiary
Kaede Ker
Organizer
Ingleside, NSW
Thomas Curnow
Beneficiary