South Sudanese community appeals for help to pay for three funerals

Twelve children were left motherless as a result of the single-vehicle smash, with the driver now facing charges.

Roza Mawen, Bianca Goak and Adut Mathang were all killed when the white sedan in which they were passengers crashed into a pole and flipped in western Sydney late one Friday night.

Almost two weeks on, their South Sudanese community remains in mourning and is struggling to bury the women, who between them had 12 children.

Community President Emmanuel Kondok says it will cost more than $50,000 to organise their burials - money they do not have.

"It is affecting the community in a level that it is costing us an amount of money to bury the bodies. It is also costing the community on the thinking that what will happen to the children. So it is a very big burden on the community to bury the dead and look after the children."

Mr Kondok says Australia's 35,000-strong South Sudanese community - mostly refugees - is in many ways still getting established, with an unemployment rate of close to 30 per cent.

He believes that is a key reason why they are unable to raise the funds themselves.

"We are one of the communities that is new to the country, even though it is 15 years old it is like a young child, and it is hard because not many people are working, not a majority are working, and it is very difficult to raise the money ourselves."

A fundraising appeal has begun in an attempt to get help.

Committee member Madu Uguak is asking well-wishers to donate as much as they can.

"That is our request to Australia-wide so they can support us, to help us. Because this (is) beyond our capacity as we are as a community and we are also new to this country."

If the $50,000 target is not reached, the bodies will have to be cremated.

But Emmanuel Kondok says cremation is not a culturally acceptable way for people from South Sudan to honour the dead.

"It is one of the difficult parts culturally with Southern Sudanese for a person to be cremated. It will look ugly to the families, and the families might have even more trauma. It will even take some time to collect the money, if we can't afford to collect the money within the week."

The driver, a 33 year old man, remains in Westmead Hospital with head injuries but has since been charged over the crash.

It is alleged he failed to stop at a police random breath test and attempted to speed away from police.

Bol Mabor, who is on the South Sudanese coordination committee, says the families are trying to cope with the tragedy but are seriously distressed.

"This came as a surprise to our community, we were not expecting something like that to happen to us, and now something bad is there (with us) always and we have to be aware of how we can go ahead in the future."