“I reckon ASIO has got a file on me mile high, I’ve been to that many protests,” laughs Barbara, lead campaigner for Grandmothers against the Detention of Refugee Children.

Each week she is joined by other grandmothers or FROGS (Friends of Grandmothers) to gather petitions in the streets of Melbourne against the mandatory detention of refugee children.

Dressed in purple, the color of feminism and the universal color of peace, Trish Jannu and Frances Sutherland say they are deeply concerned about the welfare of children in detention.

“As grandmothers, we know the kind of support children need.”

According to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre,  90 per cent of people who arrive by boat are found to be refugees and over 2,000 children are held in detention facilities.