Colac rolls out the welcome mat for refugee family

From left: Sifa, Sister Gerri Boylan SGS and Rosie, a member of CRISP 6. Image: Sisters of the Good Samaritan.

A Good Samaritan Sister has joined a refugee support group in regional Victoria which is taking practical steps to help resettle a family from Burundi in a country-town collaboration of hospitality and compassion.Sr Geraldine (Gerri) Boylan has been living in semi-retirement in Colac, Victoria for four years after many years of ministry in Western Australia. Gerri said she welcomed the chance to get involved in supporting refugees in the local context when the opportunity arose.Just over two years ago, the Ministers’ Fraternal in Colac invited well-known refugee activist Sister Brigid Arthur CSB from the Brigidine Asylum Seeker Project to come to town and speak about the plight of refugees and asylum seekers in Australia.

“Many people from the town and surrounds came to listen and after a few months, a committee of Rural Australians for Refugees (RAR) came into being,” Gerri said.  “A huge donation was made to the group by a benefactor who has since died and the group found it could be generous to people outside Colac, so it became known as Colac and District Rural Australians for Refugees (CADRAR), and I became a member.”

Gerri said the group soon began looking at what practical steps it could take to help support refugees. “The people who turned up were very committed and compassionate people,” she said.

In time, the committee decided it would look into the federal government’s Community Refugee Integration and Settlement Pilot (CRISP) program with a view to sponsoring a refugee family to resettle in Colac, and a CRISP sub-committee was formed.  The CRISP program was announced by the Australian Government in December 2021. Under the program, refugee visa holders receive settlement support directly from trained community groups. The program operates as a dedicated settlement pathway for refugees who do not have family links in Australia and are referred to Australia by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for resettlement. A total of 1500 refugees will be settled through CRISP up until 30 June 2025.

Gerri said the local CRISP sub-committee soon learnt of a family that qualified for the program. “We learnt that a family from Burundi originally, but which had been living in a refugee camp in Kenya since 2015, was waiting to resettle in another country,” Gerri said. “The work of CRISP is to welcome, resettle and assist people towards independence, all within a year. Because of the donation we had received, we could see we could do this.”

The group began making preparations to welcome the family, which consisted of a single mother and her six children (five boys and one girl) aged five to 19.  They informed the townspeople about their plans and were blown away by the support they received.  “The response was very committed, generous and supportive,” Gerri said.

“A big enough house to rent was found and set up with furniture, bedding, white goods, linen and clothing, all to be ready for their arrival in May this year.”

Sifa and her children. Photo supplied by The Colac Herald.

This was all done through the work of the local CRISP sub-committee, whose members were trained and received ongoing guidance from Community Refugee Sponsorship Australia, the organising body.  When the family arrived, appropriate schools were chosen for the children, from kindergarten to high school.  “The boys especially have been ‘a hit’ in their schools because they are great at sport and shine particularly well in soccer,” Gerri said. “They have found acceptance immediately in this sport-loving town.”

Gerri said the family speaks a few languages, with Swahili being the common one among them.  “Others were picked up through exposure to many cultures during the nine years in Kenya,” she said.  “The mother, Sifa, has little English. In order to hasten her progress, I mentor her in an English class for two to three hours a week.”

A member of the CRISP sub-committee and Gerri also tutor Sifa alone at other times during the week.  “I am so glad I grew up speaking English as I find it a very hard language to accompany someone in,” Gerri said. “Apart from our alphabet of 26 letters, there are 44 sounds and many ways of spelling a word with the same sound as others, but with different spelling and meaning.  “A lot of my time with Sifa centres around ‘incidental learning’. She is a quick learner and is very eager to practise what she has learnt in conversation.”

Sifa’s daughter, Ireni, with Dot, a member of CRISP 6. Photo supplied by The Colac Herald.

Gerri said that during the family’s first few months in Colac, they have received medical and dental checks and had inoculations brought up to date. There have also been many Centrelink appointments, shopping, and the purchase of school uniforms and other items, with the CRISP sub-committee members responsible for helping the family procure all those necessities.

“A great commitment is required from the members of that CRISP group, who are all retired people, and others who help alongside them,” Gerri said. “This family’s neighbours have been challenged to be ‘neighbour’ and to learn to live with people of different backgrounds. They are very encouraging and take an interest in the family’s doings. Being neighbour is well and truly lived out by the people of Colac.”

Gerri said the whole experience of welcoming the new family to the local area has been both a learning curve and a very rich blessing.  “We in CADRAR see ourselves as fortunate as we gain so much in our giving to and accompanying of this family. They are truly a delight. They are grateful, excited, enthusiastic and keen. So are we!”

By Debra Vermeer

This article was published in the September 2024 edition of The Good Oil, the e-journal of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan, and is republished with permission. There is no cost to subscribe to The Good Oil: www.goodsams.org.au