Portrait of Feroza.
Feroza approached me on the street as I was documenting the impacts of COVID-19, having seen me with my cameras. “Where you from”, she asked, “Channel 7, Channel 9?” (people always seem to default to Channel 7 first up for some reason). She wanted some information about whether she would get into trouble for collecting bottles off the streets and from rubbish bins under the current public health orders. I told her I didn’t know and that she could possibly ask authorities, but she baulked at the suggestion, fearing it may bring difficulties for her. Feroza supplements her pension by cashing in bottles that she finds. The pension, she says, is not enough to live off. She also collects discarded toys that she finds for a children’s charity in Fiji, her country of birth.
I asked her if I could take a photo of her and she agreed, hoping it might get her story out.
Today, the NSW Premier announced stricter restrictions of movement, particularly in south-west Sydney, and other new public health orders as 111 cases were recorded in the last 24 hours.
Part of an ongoing series, ‘COVID-19 Diaries’.
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