From Today’s Daily Mass Readings:
As we journey through Lent, we invite you to join us in accompanying refugees. Today we hear from a JRS volunteer. Where do you sense the Lord’s sincere love in her story?
Marischka’s Story
Marischka volunteers with JRS UK, helping day-to-day around the office, and also at our weekly Day Centre where she accompanies the destitute refugees we serve. She is also a refugee and knows first-hand the difficulty of people’s lives.
Having volunteered with JRS for a number of years now, Marischka and has seen many different people come to our Day Centre, all with their own stories, worries and joys. Each person who walks through our door on a Thursday is warmly welcomed like a member of our family. For Marischka, it is the people who make her feel at home here. “It feels like home when I meet and talk to men and women from different countries, culture and backgrounds. They left their home countries to find refuge in UK. I learn about their everyday struggles, their culture and their day-to-day lives.”
The difficult situations that refused asylum seekers are left in has a huge impact on their well-being. Finding a solution to the problems we encounter is not always possible, but by ensuring that each person feels welcomed and supported, we can begin to make small improvements. Through volunteering, Marischka has seen both the highs and lows that our friends experience. “Most are broken spiritually, and whatever support JRS brings to them, small or big, always has a positive impact on them.”
#Do1Thing
At JRS UK our mission is to accompany, serve and advocate for the rights of refugees and forcible displaced persons. Our advocacy work comes out of our experiences of accompaniment – we use our influence to encourage people to listen to refugees’ voices and stories.
Today we invite you to support our work by writing to your local MP expressing concern over the current environment that refused asylum seekers find themselves in. As part of the hostile environment, there are news changes to the way people are charged for healthcare. We know that it is likely to deny access to healthcare to some of society’s most vulnerable people. Join JRS UK as we call for these policies to be repealed. On our website you can find a template structure for a letter to your MP.
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