Threads – From Strangers to Neighbours: The Power of Refugee Sponsorship with MCC

Episode transcript:

Kyle Rudge (00:02):

It begins with a single thread woven through other thread, and then another and another, until we have a single piece of fabric. That fabric is stretched, cut and stitched together with another, just like it. This process is repeated over and over and over until we have a beautiful tapestry that all began with a single thread. Welcome to MCC Threads, where we look closely at how our stories in Manitoba weave together with the stories of MCC and its partners around the world.

Erin Morash (00:51):

I've had it called 'bvor' 'beaver' program, <laugh>, and the 'before' program was a new one for me. And I think they actually thought that that was the term that was being used because it was before your life in Canada and after.

Kyle Rudge (01:06):

We'll get to the full name of the program in a moment, but what's more important than the name or the acronym is the heart behind it: welcoming the stranger.

Erin Morash (01:14):

I'm Erin Morash, and I'm the BVOR Program Associate for MCC Manitoba.

Kaylee Perez (01:19):

Hey, I'm Kaylee Perez. I'm the National Migration and Resettlement Coordinator.

Kyle Rudge (01:24):

Erin works at the MCC office in Winnipeg while Kaylee works out of Kitchener, Ontario. Both are instrumental in helping refugees and migrants come to Canada through sponsorship. Probably the most commonly thought of method of welcoming refugees into Canada would be something called the PSR program or the Private Sponsorship of Refugees program. This is where specific individual or individuals are in mind, say, family members of someone already in Canada, and all costs for their sponsorship are covered privately. The BVOR program, Blended Visa Office Referred program is something different, and that's what we're talking about with Erin and Kaylee.

Kaylee Perez (02:00):

MCC is what's called a Sponsorship Agreement Holder (SAH). So we've been involved in refugee resettlement, and particularly refugee sponsorship, since 1979, and were instrumental in the creation of the private sponsorship program in Canada. Now this particular program, Blended Visa Office Referred, or BVOR for short, started in 2013. MCC has been involved from the beginning. It is a program that requires MCC to go out and recruit people to say yes to sponsoring someone who they've never met before. This is a unique program within the refugee resettlement space because most of the dynamic that we see is that there are sponsors in Canada who know the refugee overseas that they want to bring to Canada because they're often related. It's loved ones who've been left behind. But this program, the nature of it, is very different. It's essentially facilitating a "sponsor the stranger" program.

So there are refugees that are referred by the UNHCR that we then go out and find individuals in various communities across Canada who are willing to say yes to support a refugee family who they've never met before. MCC has been involved since the beginning in 2013. We are involved at a national level in supporting strengthening the program. So we sit at tables with government and have the opportunity to influence policy and operations around this program. It's a program we strongly believe in. It's connected to our key values of what God calls us to, which is welcoming the stranger and using the privilege that we have in the safe country that we come from to support those who who are in need.

Kyle Rudge (03:49):

There are numerous churches and groups throughout Manitoba taking advantage of the BVOR program to help in welcoming the stranger.

John Ilg (03:57):

Hi, my name is John Ilg and I'm chair of the refugee committee for the Douglas Mennonite Church.

Kyle Rudge (04:04):

Douglas Mennonite Church is located in Winnipeg's North Kildonan area.

John Ilg (04:08):

I've been chair for about five years now, and we've hosted about five families ...

Kyle Rudge (04:15):

(By Hosting, he's meaning sponsored and helped five refugee families come to Canada to start a new life. The first four families were through traditional refugee sponsorship)

John Ilg (04:24):

... and the latest was a family from Afghanistan, a mother and two teenage children. And that was through the BVOR program.

Kyle Rudge (04:33):

What inspired Douglas Mennonite Church to get involved?

John Ilg (04:36):

We are supposed to be welcoming and helping others. So this is seen as a way that we could do some service to the world. And I think Douglass has been very careful not to make it a religious requirement. We're not specifically targeting Christians to come over here or wanting people from other religions to come to our church so they can become members of our church. We're just doing this so that we can help. And it's a way that, you know, there's a group of us that have a heart for this sort of thing that have a[n] ability to actually get involved with this. And certainly with helping refugees, you are dealing with people that are very much in need and there's a very specific need that they have, and you're able to help them. So it's a very tangible way to help others.

Kyle Rudge (05:36):

And what about some of the challenges encountered with the latest sponsorship?

John Ilg (05:40):

There are many of those BVOR refugees, they don't speak English. And so now you're into a whole other world of difficulty. We are very fortunate that one of our members, she spoke Turkish, which she wouldn't expect, but she spoke Turkish and our refugees spoke Turkish, so that made it much easier. But yeah, many of the people, like, you don't know really who you're getting. You just have an idea. It's a mom and two children and something like that, but you don't know really what their history is. One of the big benefits of BVOR is that you are helping the most needy of the refugees, and also the government assists with the financial end of things.

Kyle Rudge (06:24):

And how has MCC been a support through the sponsorship program?

John Ilg (06:29):

MCC, they are our experts. They have a lot of information. They've really helped guide us through so much of it. So when we have questions, they're our first point of contact. Yeah, I really can't say enough about how much they've helped us in this full regard.

Kyle Rudge (06:45):

And of course, one had to ask, was it worth it?

John Ilg (06:48):

Well, yeah, I'm just thinking of just what happened. A couple of days ago, I contacted one of my families. The one fellow he's involved with cars. And he buys and sells cars and you know, gets some repaired and sells 'em. So I was just telling them that I had a car that I want to sell. And so he said, "Well, I can help you with that". And so now he is gonna see about getting this car fixed up and we're, you know, looking at them helping me.

Kyle Rudge (07:23):

Both Erin and Kaylee have also participated in similar programs. The relationships, the memories and the stories just come pouring out if you ask anyone involved in these programs.

Erin Morash (07:33):

Oh, it was a family with three teenagers, and all I can think is fleeing and trying to find a safe place to be with three teenagers. And teenagers are teenagers wherever they travel with their parents. And it was amazing to meet these two parents with their three young people, two sons and a daughter, who had not been able to go to school and have the education that they wanted to have and to have the friendships that they wanted to have. They kept leaving, having to leave friendships behind. And it was impossible to not draw a connection between that family that we were connecting with every day and asking ourselves, what would we do if the same thing happened to us? And we'd like to think that it couldn't happen to us, except this was a good middle class family who had a very good living and in fact had had a beautiful house, and they had dogs that they loved. They had neighbours and cousins and friends, and everything was pulled apart in the space of three days.

Kaylee Perez (08:30):

I remember working with a sponsorship group from a remote rural town, and again, they had never done this before. They came together. Their town was pretty homogenously white, and they decided that they wanted to sponsor a Congolese family. So they were matched. A few weeks before the family was arriving, they rented a house and they were frantically cleaning the house, moving stuff in. And all of a sudden the neighbour comes out and the neighbour asks, "Hey, what, what are you guys up to?" And the sponsor basically says, "Oh, nice to meet you. We're actually sponsoring a refugee family. They're arriving in just a few weeks and they're gonna be your neighbour." And all of a sudden this particular neighbour got upset and he said, "How dare you move a refugee family next door? I care about the value of my property. This is going to significantly devalue that. I'm not okay with this." And basically was upset. And so this sponsor, caught off guard, didn't really know how to respond. Basically was like, "See ya," <laugh> went back to their sponsorship team and was like, "Hey guys, uh, potential hostile neighbour situation here. We've gotta keep an eye out."

So a few weeks later, the family arrives and being, as most newcomers are – lives their hospitality out loud – literally would come outside, wave hello to their neighbour, actually would bring them leftover food, knock at their front door and say, "Hey, we have some food,” <laugh> “would you like some?" And so a month later, they were having a gathering in the backyard with the sponsorship group, the newcomer family. And this neighbour came out, found that same sponsor who they had spoken to, and said, "Listen, I owe you an apology. This family has completely shifted my idea of who I thought refugees were. I'm so sorry for how I initially reacted. I'm so glad that this family is my neighbour."

Kyle Rudge (10:42):

So what are we talking about here? Just how many refugees are there in the world today?

Kaylee Perez (10:47):

So we are living right now at a time where there is an unprecedented number of forcibly displaced people in the world. So as of April of 2024, the UN Refugee Agency estimates that there are more than 120 million people who've been forcibly displaced in the world today. So forcibly displaced for a lot of the reasons Eron had mentioned, including persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations, [and] other events that have led to a lack of peace and security essentially. And of these 120 million individuals, just over 43 million are refugees.

Kyle Rudge (11:32):

BVOR is a wonderful program for many reasons, but one is the split cost between government and private sponsorship. However, for those groups who may struggle with even those finances, MCC Manitoba has something called the Catalyst Fund to help.

Erin Morash (11:49):

MCC has some very generous donors. And because of that, we were able to gather together a Catalyst Fund. A fund of money to be able to free up our sponsors to be able to do the thing they do best, which is support the families. With the BVOR program, the Canadian government will cover six months of that support cost. And the sponsorship group that traditionally supports the newcomers will cover the other six months plus startup costs. So things like getting furniture for an apartment, winter clothes - winter clothes are so necessary for a family that's arriving in the middle of December - groceries... So that the minute they walk into their apartment, they have a sense of being in a space that can be home and where they can make a space for themselves and have some independence. MCC has, through the generosity of donors here in Manitoba, is able to cover the sponsor's 50% of the cost of sponsorship. So that means the responsibility that our sponsors will hold then is caring. Which I find most people, that's what they're really in this for. But this allows us to even, to lift that from them so that the primary job of just caring and guiding and walking alongside people for their first year is their focus instead of the fundraising part. So MCC has done the fundraising on behalf of them.

Kyle Rudge (13:11):

Not a bad deal, right? If you're worried about expertise in this, MCC is in your corner. If finances are a barrier, MCC has the Catalyst Fund waiting for you. All that's required of you is your time, your care, and your commitment to helping the most vulnerable in our world.

Kaylee Perez (13:28):

So you might be listening to this podcast and considering, Hey, maybe can I do this? I'm not sure if I can, I'd like some more information. I would encourage you to check out our website. We have a really great frequently asked questions document. But even more so, we have a staff person, the amazing Erin, who is ready to talk to you and answer all of the questions that you may have. So we're here to support potential sponsors who are asking questions, wondering if they could do this, wondering who's gonna be there to support them if they agree to do so. And that's Erin. She'll be with you every step of the way. So reach out, don't hesitate. We'd love to have a conversation with you.

Kyle Rudge (14:16):

MCC Threads is produced by KR Words with story assistance by Jessica Burtnick. To find all the contact info you need for BVOR, head to mcc.org and search for "BVOR" on the website. I'm Kyle Rudge, and this is MCC Threads.