COVID-19 pandemic sees international students unable to return home, surviving on free food

Life in Melbourne was going well for Tiyon Novaidin and his wife.

They both had steady jobs and he was completing his masters in accounting.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and upended their lives.

Mr Novaidin’s wife lost her full-time cleaning job because of the restrictions in Victoria, and Mr Novaidin was struggling to pay rent and put food on the table with just his part-time cleaning job.

“Everything happened so suddenly,” he said.