Posted April 16, 2024
Meet Faith, a mentor for a refugee family through Migration and Refugee Services (MRS)!
After hearing about the mentoring program through her church, Faith decided to take action and reach out to Catholic Charities to get started.
“I wanted to get involved with other people,” Faith said.
She and another parishioner work together to mentor a family who had been in a refugee camp for 17 years before they were able to come over to the U.S.
“We get acquainted with them [the family], and then we visit every week for a couple of hours, and we see if they need anything,” Faith said.
When working with people from another country, it can be hard to communicate with one another.
Although MRS provides translators, Faith can communicate with her mentee family without one.
“The one member of the family speaks very good English and other languages,” Faith said, “the other adult does not but, through these months we’ve gotten our way of how to communicate with one another.”
By mentoring this family, Faith has learned valuable lessons.
“We are all the same, but in some ways, there’s more honor to people that come here because they’re not taking anything for granted, they’re just grateful to be in a safe place,” Faith said.
Refugees go through many hardships to get to a safe place and rely on others to help get them there. They meet many different people along their journey, and in some cases, they can cross paths again under different circumstances.
One day, the father of the family was at an appointment when a woman noticed the football [soccer] shirt he was wearing.
“This person looked at him and said, ‘I know that shirt… my best friend worked in that camp. She’s here visiting from California can I call her?’” Faith said.
The friend and the father were able to meet and continue to talk over Zoom along with others who were in the same camp.
“With that visit, they still connect on Zoom and with some of the other people that were in the camp together in this football league,” Faith said.
Mentoring a refugee family can fulfill people in more ways than people may think.
Mentors have the opportunity to share their gifts and talents while helping others in need, and the mentees have someone they can lean on while adjusting to their new home.
“Open your door and do it. Jesus asked you to. Don’t say no to him.” Faith said.
Interested in learning more about the MRS Mentoring program? Click the button below or call (216) 939-3737.