A Brief History of MCRS

The story of the Mennonite Coalition for Refugee Support is one that began at a grass roots level. The story begins with two personal stories of refugees being helped by two different Mennonite congregations in Kitchener: an El Salvadorian refugee, Celza Bonilla, who had been working as a house cleaner in the Kitchener - Waterloo area and was being assisted in different ways by Olive Branch Mennonite Church; First Mennonite Church was helping another El Salvadorian refugee, Lius Sandoval. Celza Bonilla had been looking to find ways to be with and support her family while also supporting the influx of refugees that seemed to be arriving in 1985. Bonilla was one of the primary contacts for new refugees to the country. She wanted to welcome and support those who were new arrivals while also supporting herself and her family. A small group from the Olive Branch Mennonite Church came together to provide some funds for Bonilla to be a support person for refugee claimants in the Kitchener - Waterloo area. Olive Branch created a small overseeing committee in order to assist Bonilla with her new job.

Luis Sandoval was a newly arrived refugee who required, in fact depended on the assistance of others in his arrival to a new land. Sandoval's arrival, incidentally, coincided with the arrival of Robert "Jack" Suderman and his family to Kitchener. Jack Suderman and his wife Irene were missionaries through the Commission of Overseas Missions, which was organized and operated by the General Conference of Mennonites. The Suderman's had just finished serving for a four year term in Bolivia. Jack was now beginning his doctoral work in New Testament studies at the University of Toronto. Jack and Irene were now establishing a home in Kitchener. The first Sunday that they were in attendance at First Mennonite Church coincidentally was also the first Sunday that Luis Sandoval was in attendance upon his arrival from El Salvador.

This coincidence led to much work with and for newly arriving refugees in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. First Mennonite established a Hispanic service, created host families for new refugees, and assisted with all the "normal" refugee support work: e.g., supporting them with the legal processes, searches for housing, jobs, language training, medical support, education for their children, and so forth.

Other Mennonite congregations in the region became interested in what was occurring in their sister congregations, First Mennonite and Olive Branch Mennonite Churches. Many Mennonites and Mennonite congregations had previously been involved in sponsoring refugees, which was often facilitated by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). Privately sponsored refugees and those who were accepted by the government as refugees had access to many different resources that refugee claimants did not have access to. For example, refugees could receive help through government settlement workers, social assistance, and so forth. Privately sponsored refugees often had the financial backing of the congregation that sponsored them along with the congregations support in finding housing and food. Refugee claimants, those who were claiming to be refugees but have not yet been verified as such, had little support available to them. Due to the conflicts and wars that were taking place in Central America, especially the internal conflicts primarily in El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Guatemala, many people from those countries began to find their way to the Kitchener - Waterloo area. Many of those who were arriving in the Kitchener - Waterloo area had not yet applied or had not been officially accepted as "refugees". "Since January, there has been a large influx of refugee claimants who have no access to government settlement workers or friendship family programs, and face many difficulties not shared with government or privately sponsored refugees..."

In the 1980's, MCC initiated an advisory body to bring awareness to the North American Mennonites of the plight, suffering, and war(s) that were occurring in Central America. This advisory body, the Central American Resource Group in Action (CARGA), began to notice the large numbers of refugees and refugee claimants to the Kitchener - Waterloo area. This was especially apparent to Robert "Jack" Suderman who was working with the Hispanic group that met at First Mennonite Church and who was also a member of CARGA.

Several of those who were part of CARGA, since they knew intricate dilemmas occurring in Central America and therefore the refugee crisis these conflicts were creating, initiated a committee that would seek to fill in the gap that existed within the support network within the Region of Waterloo to those who were refugee claimants. This new committee that was formed contained representatives from four churches that decided that they would participate in overtly supporting refugee claimants. The churches involved were, First Mennonite Church, Stirling Avenue Mennonite Church, Breslau Mennonite Church, and Olive Branch Mennonite Church.

This newly formed committee was led by Jack Suderman and consisted of Rebecca Yoder Neufeld, Anna Hemmendinger, Sue Klassen, Grace Weber, and Gary Gingerich. They began the work of proposing for the creation of a full-time position to work with refugee claimants. The position, its job description and the overseeing body was finalized on August 13, 1987. It was decided that they would seek applicants for a Refugee Support Worker who would work at filling in the gaps of support, especially for those who were refugee claimants. In this way they were able to avoid the duplication of other services already present within the Waterloo Region. The broad job description, however, also allowed the worker to be flexible in responding to the needs of various kinds of refugees, although initially the major focus would be the claimants.

One of the earliest and key questions that was raised was whether this work would be done under the auspices of MCC or whether this would be a congregational venture. Suderman stated that this was an opportunity for different congregations to get involved in supporting newly arrived refugees to the area but also provide the opportunity for they themselves to be transformed through this support. While there seemed to be the very real possibility for MCC to take on the project, Suderman resisted that road hoping that congregations would become directly involved. Thus, even though MCC played a very supportive role in this venture, it was the coalition of the different Mennonite congregations that came together to make it a congregational initiative.

In founding the work on behalf of the congregational efforts, Suderman articulated that the church's own roots helped motivate the coalition of churches. He stated, "We, first of all, recognize that we as Mennonites were refugees to this land not that many years ago. We have had experience of what it is like to be in this situation." "Jesus himself was a refugee..." continued Suderman. "He was hunted down by Herod and his troops and had to flee to Egypt. Our Central American friends have told us it is comforting for them to know that Jesus has gone through this and in that sense it is part of the Christmas story.... It is part of who we are and what our faith is about."

In December 1987 three refugee support workers were hired to share one full-time position. Angelica Reyes, Theresa Troester, and Joel Klassen were the first workers for the newly formed Mennonite coalition to walk the complex path of resettlement with refugee claimants from Latin America in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. The four different congregations who were a part of the coalition supported the new venture by offering two representatives to sit on the overseeing committee while also providing some of the financial support needed. MCC also provided financial assistance. First Mennonite Church provided some of the office and administrative support needed for the newly appointed workers. The budget for the first year of operation was $25,000. Thus began the Mennonite Coalition for Refugee Support.

In 1989 Celza Bonilla, who had been working in a similar fashion under the auspices of Olive Branch Mennonite Church, was hired as a settlement and education worker for the Mennonite Coalition for Refugee Support (MCRS). Bonilla, a recent social work graduate, replaced Theresa Troester who enrolled in law school. In the same year, MCRS was provided office space and support at the Working Centre at 58 Queen St. in Kitchener. During this time MCRS continued to receive financial support from MCC, MCEC, MSCU, Mennonite Foundation, Mennonite Churches and individuals. MCC also provided bookkeeping, administrative, and volunteer support.

Throughout the years MCRS has continued to grow and develop both in terms of its organization and in its programming. Eunice Valenzuela, the current Executive Director for MCRS, began as a part time support worker in 1993. She recalls how the needs of the refugee claimants continued to increase; more and more people continued to arrive in Canada as refugee claimants.Valenzuela remembers that more and more refugee claimants began to arrive in Canada from other countries than just Central America, which had been their main focus. By the mid-90's MCRS began to assist refugee claimants who were arriving from other countries from around the world.

Valenzuela was hired as the Executive Director of MCRS in 2002 who then began to work at establishing MCRS as a non-profit organization. This achievement was met, with the help and support from MCC, by in 2004. This process meant that MCRS had to create and establish the necessary organizational by-laws, mission statement, and policies that would guide them into the future. MCC has continued to support MCRS financially, although they too have assisted in the development of MCRS' own fund raising efforts. By 2007 MCRS became fully incorporated, which was a difficult process in-and-of-itself that took several years to fully materialize. In 2007 MCRS also changed their logo from a map of Latin America with a cross and a dove flying away from the continent to a hand that is loosely holding an olive branch.  They chose the hand that is open while also holding an olive branch because they too are open to embrace and witness to peace. They hold the family when they arrive but also let them go when they have become well established in their new home.

The work and support provided by MCRS has continued to grow and develop. Today MCRS has become more ecumenical, although there is still a large Mennonite support network to both MCRS as an organization but also to the people whom they serve. MCRS has, however, continued to use their name (Mennonite Coalition for Refugee Support) as a way to honour the Mennonite churches and community who initiated the important work that was embarked upon in 1987. The need for refugee support has not decreased. Valenzuela states that if the need is still present than our mission continues to be present to serve refugee claimants.Today MCRS continues to provide support to refugee claimants, provide community support, advocacy, community outreach and education, provide emotional support activities, provide a youth program, provide a sewing group, invite people to a "Speak English Cafe," train refugee claimants on basic computer skills, and provide a refugee legal clinic among other things.