Swift Current to celebrate refugees during week of activities

Several refugee families have been welcomed to Swift Current in recent years and there are currently a number of local refugee sponsorship initiatives under way to assist other refugees to have a better future.

Various events will take place in Swift Current during Refugee Week from June 13-19 to celebrate the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees in the community and to share information about ongoing initiatives.

Anika Henderson, who helped to coordinate arrangements for Refugee Week, felt it is an opportunity to reflect on Swift Current’s efforts as part of the global community to act compassionately in the face of suffering.

“We also hope to continue to build on the amazing relationships and experiences that have been created between Swift Current citizens and former refugees, as well as those refugees who have not yet arrived,” she said.

Refugee Week can help to raise awareness about the importance of creating a welcoming community for newcomers, asylum seekers and refugees.

“Through continued community opportunities for education and awareness, we hope to encourage and inspire members of our community to continue to welcome new arrivals in a safe and inclusive way, now and moving forward,” she said.

One of the current local initiatives to sponsor a refugee family is carried out by the Main Centre Refugee Committee. It consists of a group of individuals with strong connections to the Main Centre area, which is located northeast of Swift Current.

The committee members are Gary and Sonja Martens, Dan and Carol Siebert, Michael Siebert, and Russ and Jacqueline Siemens.

Committee Chairperson Gary Martens said the committee members share a desire to assist a refugee family currently hoping for a better future.

“I think all of us are really excited to be a part of this and humbled that we can be a part something like this and helping someone who is in need and help them in a new life here,” he mentioned.

The group was formed after Martens and other members of the committee were contacted by Ken Epp, a former pastor of the Main Centre Mennonite Brethren Church. Epp is now living in Indonesia and he wanted to help a refugee family from Iran to find a new home in Canada.

“I'm good friends with our former pastor and I trust his judgement,” Martens said. “He's been a mentor of mine through part of my life and so it was an opportunity to help someone in need from another country. It resonated with me.”

The family of three, a husband and wife with their six-year-old son, has been in Indonesia for six years. They left Iran as a result of religious persecution.

“They have refugee status with the United Nations and they're living in a small apartment in Indonesia, but they're not allowed to work,” he said. “They'd like to work, but they can't. So they're really stranded there in limbo essentially.”

For Russ Siemens and wife Jacqueline the story of this family convinced them to become part of the committee.

“Our motivation for being involved was around hearing their story and feeling compassion for their situation that they have found themselves in Indonesia as refugees and are looking for a more permanent home,” he said. “We believe that Swift Current and Canada, specifically Swift Current, could be a terrific home for them.”

He noted that the refugee couple has professional backgrounds in law and engineering. Siemens therefore hopes the committee can assist them to continue their careers.

“How do we help them in the future to re-establish themselves in their professional lives, and we know that's maybe a way down the line, but I think we need to start thinking about that, about how we help them to engage back into their professional lives,” he said. “We're hearing that many of the jobs that are available for refugees coming to Swift Current are in the service industry, but we would like to continue to think about how we can connect them into their professional practice that they once had.”

The committee already achieved an important objective to raise the funds required to sponsor a refugee family. Martens said they have raised approximately $36,000 in donations and commitments, which was more than the initial target of $25,000.

“It only took us about a month,” he said. “We just wrote the letter and told the story of the couple and why they left Iran. I think it resonated with a lot of people, and people wanted to help.”

The fundraising letter was sent out mostly to former residents of the Main Centre area and those with a strong connection to the hamlet. There were 36 donors, either couples or individuals, who made it possible to achieve their fundraising objective.

“I know most of the people well that we contacted and so from that perspective I'm not really surprised, but it's still very humbling when people are so very generous in this way,” he said.

The committee already submitted the refugee sponsorship application, which involved detailed paperwork. This was done with assistance from Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Canada, which has experience of the refugee program and the process to bring refugees to Canada.

Siemens said MCC Canada is pleased with the way the Main Centre Refugee Committee was able to raise funds and complete the application forms.

“We understand that the Government of Canada has accepted our application and has moved that on to the visa office in Singapore,” he noted. “The next steps might be to prepare for an interview with the refugee family, but we've also been told that we need to wait and wait and then maybe even wait some more. So although we're excited about the progress we're making, we're thinking that we're probably one or maybe two years away from the family arriving in Canada.”

The committee will continue to plan the various details of supporting the family after their arrival in Swift Current. This will include arrangements for housing, medical appointments, transportation, education of their young son, and employment.

According to Siemens the committee is energized and looking forward to the task ahead, but their excitement is about more than just the work being done by them.

“It's really about connecting and engaging our entire community to support the family,” he said. “We're a small part of that by bringing the family to Swift Current, but we know that there will be significant opportunities for people to support and to help the family if they come to Swift Current.”

He believes the process of helping refugees to build a new future is benefitting the community where they will settle.

“We're experiencing community in that we're gaining relationships with others within our community that we possibly didn't have before,” he said. “We're building new relationships within our refugee committee and then it extends outward. As the refugee family comes in as well, what they're able to bring to our community in terms of their understanding of what it takes to build community and how we build trust. … So I think there's a host of opportunities that we have mutually to grow.”

The Main Centre Refugee Committee is benefitting from the experience of other individuals and organizations in the community that sponsored refugee families in recent years, and the committee will become part of that process.

“I believe the work that was done by the first groups that brought refugees to our community was really foundational to help to understand what needs to be done,” he said. “So we've really been able to leverage the experiences of those groups of the past, and hopefully our group will be able to offer some support to future groups.”

Refugee Week will be formally proclaimed during the regular City of Swift Current council meeting, June 14. The proclamation will be done in partnership with multiple community groups, including the First United Church, Freedom 2020 group, Southwest Newcomer Welcome Centre, Swift Current and Area Ministerial Association, and others.

Activities during the week will start on June 13 with a First United Church refugee awareness church service. Send an e-mail to firstunitedchurch@sasktel.net for a link to the service.

There will be a Walk for Awareness on June 16 from 12:15-12:45 p.m. that will start at Market Square. The Swift Current Branch Library will have a book display with a suggested reading list, and there is currently an exhibition about Newcomers – Then and Now at the Swift Current Museum.

There will be several virtual presentations during the week. The presentation Understanding the Refugee Journey with Helen Smith-McIntyre, the Saskatchewan trainer of the Refugee Sponsorship Training Program, will take place 6:30-7:30 p.m. on June 16. There will also be a virtual Arabic cooking class during the week, called Cooking with Heba. Details about these online events and other events during Refugee Week will be posted on the Refugee Week Swift Current Facebook page (@refugeeweekswiftcurrent).