Refugees find peace in Invercargill
Leaving civil unrest in Colombia and arriving to tree-lined streets and colourful flowers helps refugees living in Invercargill be at peace.
Aida Guanga arrived in the south this year, and yesterday graduated from the Computers in Homes Refugee Programme.
The course was aimed at parents with children at school and participants were given laptops and computing training to help them in their new life.
Southern Reap early childhood and schools manager Kate McRae said 12 refugees graduated from the course and were the first in the south to do so.
The general computer training included how to use internet banking and families were set up with the internet in their homes, McRae said.
Parents were also shown how to navigate their child’s school website, and a focus was making sure parents were apart of their child’s education.
The course was held by Southern Reap in conjunction with the Red Cross Invercargill, Ministry of Education and 2020 Trust.
Colombia has been embroiled in armed conflict since the 1960s, with government forces fighting a variety of armed criminal and paramilitary groups.
There are more than 6.8 million internally displaced people within Colombia, second in the world only to Syria.
Guanga said ‘‘we are happy and thankful to be in New Zealand.
‘‘We are learning many things
. . . and really appreciate that.
‘‘We live peaceful here and we feel at peace, which we haven’t felt before. It’s safe and there is no trouble. We like the tree lined streets, the green and flowers.’’
Red Cross community services manager Gabrielle Humphreys said there were 90 Colombians from 19 different families based in Invercargill.
There were 45 children, 35 who were in school.
The course was one of the main initiatives to integrate the refugees into the community as well as an orientation when they arrived to provide information about support services, fire and water safety and heath and wellbeing. ‘‘They are very vibrant people . . . very warm hearted people and very resilient.’’
Some of the refugees had been able to move into employment and ‘‘that’s really exciting’’, Humphreys said.
Two more families would arrive in Invercargill on December 21 and then next year more families will arrive in March.
This year, 130 families took part in the computer course throughout New Zealand.
Immigration New Zealand figures show Invercargill was set to receive between 135 and 145 Colombian refugees by the end of June 2019.