Material goods needed to help refugee family

Chris McIntyre

+ Enlarge

The St. Francis Xavier Parish Refugee and Resettlement Ministry welcomes their most recent family, who are from Turkey. Every refugee family is met at the airport with a banner and a welcome committee that includes volunteers, translators and case managers. Courtesy photo/Chris McIntyre

SALT LAKE CITY – Parishes around the Diocese of Salt Lake City are working with different immigrant communities, helping them to grasp and adapt to life in the United States. The Refugee Resettlement Ministry at Saint Francis Xavier Parish in Kearns has been active in this ministry for more than three years. Currently the ministry is working with a family from Afghanistan, a mother and her five children. The family already speaks Farsi and Turkish; with the help of Chris McIntyre and four other volunteers from St. Francis Xavier parish, little by little they are learning English.

"We welcomed them from day one," said McIntyre, who has helped several families through the resettlement ministry, in which she has participated for almost three years. "When we know they are coming we help set up the apartment, put sheets on, wash dishes and then we go to the airport and we have a big sign that says ‘welcome.’"

After the initial welcoming, the volunteers meet with the family at their new home and, with the help of a translator from Catholic Community Services, ask and respond to questions that they may have.

"After that we are on our own; we have to help them learn English and learn to use the bank, buses and help the kids enroll in school," McIntyre said. "We do all those kind of things. Also visiting and sitting with them to let them know that we are here to help them and we are their friends."

The five Zabu children have already started school; the three youngest walk to Lincoln Elementary, and the two older boys take the school bus to Highland High.

For McIntyre, her ministry is not all about going to the store and buying an extra can of peas, it is more "giving up your time to do something for somebody else that needs it. And that part – it’s not always so easy in our society today. But these people really appreciate it so much and they get a lot out of it, and so do I."

There is no escaping the fact that right now the Zabu family needs quilts, bedding and trash cans, but for McIntyre the issue is more about realizing how fortunate some people are, while others are not so lucky.

"In reality we all want to be accepted and welcome, and we all want to be a part of something. Helping them do that also helps us have that connection as well," said McIntyre.

The U.S. State Department reports that almost 3 million refugees have come to the U.S. in the last 35 years. The Utah Department of Workforce Services estimates about 46,000 refugees have resettled in Utah since 1988. Of those, 70 percent are women and children.

CCS is the agency that helps nine of the Catholic parishes in Utah with the Resettlement Process through the Parish Refugee Resettlement Ministry.

If you are interested in working with the Zabu family or donating items, call McIntyre at 801-566-3351.

"I get a lot of satisfaction out of it and I also get new friendships," said McIntyre.