Starting over in NZ: What would you take?
You’ve been told you have to leave your country, and you’ve got 15 minutes to pack up and get out.
What would you take with you?
It’s a question Red Cross refugee volunteer Joanne Ussher asks people training to become volunteers like her.
And it’s a question she has put to herself more than once since becoming involved in working with Colombian refugee families in Southland in the past 18 months.
‘‘My daughter, parents, passport, birth certificate, cellphone, charger, jewellery – you can always sell it – food; whatever I could put in a backpack. Maybe a small toy for my daughter and medicines.’’
Infected by post-Christchurch earthquake mentality, Ussher admitted to having a box of supplies she could just grab in an emergency. She regularly rotated the batteries in battery-operated appliances and checked the date stamps on her canned food.
Co-volunteer Catherine Patterson said she would not go that far but did keep a folder at the ready with the family’s important papers and passports.
It served as a reminder of what it was like for people who had to flee their countries with virtually just the shirt on their backs.
More Colombian families were expected to arrive in Southland this month.
Christmas time could be a stress point for many families, especially refugees, Patterson said.
However, modern technology was playing a big part in the Colombians being able to stay in touch with their families back home, and not too feel disconnected.
The first thing they did when got here was to set up their phones and internet so they could get in touch with their families back home, she said.
‘‘If you were a refugee 20 or 30 years ago, it was a way different story.’’
As Red Cross refugee volunteers, Ussher and Patterson are on hand to support them through the Christmas holiday period. They each look after two Colombian families.
Ussher’s first family arrived before Christmas last year.
‘‘They are amazingly resilient. They had the Christmas tree up in no time. We’d told them about a lot of community events. They love those, and going to the markets. Just because they’re in another country doesn’t stop them doing what they normally do.’’
But the ongoing support was important, she said.
The resettled families are now in a position to play host to the new families this month.
It was hard to imagine being sent far away to a country you had probably never heard of before, Ussher said.
‘‘When some of them were told they were told they were going to New Zealand, they had to Google it.’’
Well in advance of their arrival, their house would get set up.
‘‘Farmers provide the furniture, Red Cross the food. We go in and make the beds and arrange things. I try and think, if I was going to another country, what would I like to walk into. We put out flowers. If there’s something I think would be nice, I go to the Warehouse and get it myself.’’
They go out to the airport to pick up the family and take them to their new home.
‘‘When they get to open the front door of their house, the emotion is incredible. They are so grateful.’’
The first two weeks of their arrival were the most important and usually pretty intense, hooking them up to the services they would need, getting the household set up, arranging doctor’s appointments, schools and visits, plus more.
During this time, Ussher and Patterson spent at least an hour with each of the families every day.
‘‘Our job as volunteers is to help them gain their independence. I look at the first families and say, ‘wow, we did do a good job’, because they are independent,’’ Ussher said.
The satisfying thing was going to the supermarket and seeing them, and not being able to escape without a hello and a hug and a kiss.
‘‘The heart warms that they think so much of us. The reality is we haven’t done very much.
‘‘You stop becoming a volunteer and they become part of your extended family.’’
Language was the greatest barrier to gaining independence, especially for young people aged between 17 and 22, Patterson said.
It had led to a new job opportunity for the mother of four. She was now coordinating English learning classes between the schools and SIT for the Education Ministry.
It’s a pilot programme that she hopes will be rolled out next year.
‘‘The heart warms that they think so much of us . . . You stop becoming a volunteer and they become part of your extended family.’’