A recent meeting between representatives of the Convocation Refugee Grant Program (CRGP) and United Society Partners in the Gospel (USPG) in London laid the groundwork for potential future partnerships with a shared focus on the same projects, said Guilia Bonoldi, the Convocation’s chief welcoming officer.
“One of the most important aspects of our program is fostering connections, to create a space where migrants and their families feel welcomed, valued, and supported,” said Ruth Frederico, employment and social integration specialist for Frontiers of Hope, a project in the Convocation Refugee Grant Program (CRGP).
The project is part of St. Paul’s parish of the Lusitanian Catholic Apostolic Evangelic Church in Lisbon and is one of two CRGP projects in Portugal. “For us, the process of accompaniment seeks not only to respond to immediate needs, but also to create opportunities for each person to develop skills, find work, and rebuild their life with greater stability and hope,” Frederico continued.
“For us, the success story is that there are always a couple of people we’ve helped who become community leaders,” said Kenji Sario, a volunteer with Food for Thoughts, Soup for Souls, which is a project of the Filipino Ecumenical Diaspora in Europe (FEDE) in Brussels, Belgium.
The Bernanos Centre was originally a student dorm on the campus of the Université de Strasbourg but, since 2016, has been transformed into a center for URM. “It’s really a place of hope, a way of being in solidarity with those in difficult circumstances.” That’s how Fr. Mark Barwick describes “Welcoming the Stranger,” a collaborative program to house and help unaccompanied refugee minors (URM) in Strasbourg, France.
The program now offers Portuguese language classes, legal assistance, rent support, and emergency medical funding for refugees while continuing the work with their Portuguese neighbors.