Refugees celebrate the holidays with the help of volunteers and Catholic Community Services

Intermountain Catholic

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Food from a variety of cultures was served at the Christmas celebration. IC photo/Laura Vallejo

HOLLADAY — Volunteers from the Refugee Resettlement Ministry of several parishes in the Diocese of Salt Lake City offered a Christmas celebration for refugees at Saint Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Holladay on Dec. 8.

The refugees have been resettled in the Salt Lake area from various countries through the U.S. State Department and Catholic Community Services of Utah, which provides basic services to the refugees to help them gain self-sufficiency.

Volunteers from Saint John the Baptist, Blessed Sacrament, Saint Thomas More, Saint Vincent de Paul, Saint Ambrose, Saint Catherine of Sienna, Saint Patrick, Saint Francis and Saint Therese of the Child Jesus parishes, with the help of Catholic Community Services, treated 16 refugee families with food, Christmas music, clothes and games. Each parish ministry helps a refugee family or families adjust to American life.

"The importance of doing [this] is because most of these people that are here have been here just for the last six months," said Raul Yumul from the CCS Refugee Resettlement Program, who assigns the families to each parish ministry. "Imagine that they never had this experience in the refugee camp, where all they think about is the food that they will be eating for the next meal."

In the last seven months about 40 families have arrived in Utah from countries such as Burma, Bhutan, Iraq, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Afghanistan, Yumul said.

Each year, Utah receives approximately 1,200 refugees from all around the world, many of whom have fled war and violence. Also each year, CCS helps to welcome them by hosting two annual celebrations: the Refugee Christmas Party in December and a picnic in May.

"Here in America we celebrate a lot of traditions … but we do respect all their traditions; we respect them even with the food that we have," said Yumul.

At the celebration the attendees were able to sample a variety of dishes: traditional plates such as fufu (peanut soup), vegetables, food from halal (Islamic dishes that avoid any type of pork, birds or animals that have been sacrificed by a non-Muslim); and the little ones really enjoyed the cheese pizza.

While the adults – who are in the process of learning English – sat mostly with their families, the kids were mingling with other kids as though they had been friends forever, and a lot of joy and smiles filled the place. In particular the children enjoyed playing with the balloons.

"Each of these volunteers helps one or two families, and they don’t know the other families that are being helped, so to bring them all together today is a great experience for all these people," said Yumul.

"Being able to share as a whole community is wonderful," said Kim Colby, one of the volunteers at the event.

"This is also a way for the families to come together and know that they are not alone; there are many other families that are going through what they are going through," added Nancy Sliwinski, another volunteer from St. Ambrose refugee ministry.