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Catholic couple welcomes refugees
By Gina Keating, The Catholic Sun
December 20, 2007
SCOTTSDALE — A grassroots organization formed by a Scottsdale Catholic couple in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks has turned a new page in its efforts to assist refugee families in Phoenix.
As the “Welcome to America Project,” or WTA, moves into its sixth year of operation, founders Phil and Carolyn Manning work tirelessly to support a shoestring budget with fundraisers and donations of household items and other necessities.
The nonprofit recently netted $8,400 from its inaugural Stars and Stripes Golf Open at a Valley course where each hole paid tribute to a military service person or refugee family.
It’s the organization’s second fundraising event, with a third one planned in the spring, to help finance storage units and administrative costs.
The Mannings, St. Maria Goretti parishioners, recently hired a part-time development director to assist with long-term service and outreach goals.
WTA furnishes the apartments of refugees resettled by the United Nations to the Phoenix area.
“Refugees are a population without a voice. Unlike other special interest groups they are not vocal, they are just trying to survive,” Phil said. “This is a response to help other people, people who come here with nothing. They are not here out of choice, they are here because this is where they were driven.”
The impetus behind the project is Phil’s brother, Terence, who died in the World Trade Center attack.
“I’d like to think the project is not about that, per se, but about helping people. You can’t change the world necessarily, or fix foreign governments like that in Burma, but it’s very gratifying to know you can help — in a small way — those people who end up here from another country.”
The project partners with other agencies like Catholic Charities’ Refugee Resettlement Program, the International Rescue Committee, Lutheran Social Services and the Refugee Immigrant Relief Center.
Once they are given the names of families, WTA volunteers do a home visit to assess their needs. Then every Saturday, a group of 25 volunteers delivers enough items to fully furnish three apartments rented by refugees.
Last year WTA volunteers greeted 97 families with things ranging from couches and bedrooms sets to small household appliances and children’s toys.
It was a life-changing experience for Anne Wolf and her son, William, who attends Pope John XXIII Catholic School in Scottsdale.
The pair gave a little girl, who was born in a refugee camp, her first baby doll.
“I never met a 2-year-old who has suffered from religious or political persecution,” Wolf said. “These refugees don’t live on the other side of the world, they live 10 miles from my house.”
Wolf and her children have continued to volunteer because it’s important for her to teach her children “the bigger picture.”
“You begin to realize the things you take for granted,” she said. “They appreciate a simple gift.”
The Mannings, who have five children, recently made the family decision to have Carolyn leave her job with Banner Health Systems as a crisis specialist to devote all her attention to the project.
“It’s been a financial sacrifice for my family, but we’re adjusting,” she said. “I decided this demanded my full attention, and I can’t reach my goal of serving all those in need part time.”
The goal of the organization is twofold: furnish an empty apartment of newly arrived refugees with high quality, comfortable home furnishings and essentials, and build bridges of neighborly understanding and hospitality between the local community and newly arrived refugees.
Many refugees have been living in a camp for the past three years, but some for as long as 12 years.
“It’s important that the volunteers hear the stories from the refugees. They need to know these people went through a long journey to get here,” Phil said.
Five years from now Phil would like to see the organization fully staffed with an office located anywhere but his home.
He dreams of having the ability to reach out nationally, but for now, “we can only do what we can do.”
There is, however, satisfaction in knowing a model exists for other cities to replicate.
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