Service Above Self: Powerful partnerships
By Medicine Hat Rotary Club on July 30, 2024.
There are partnerships – and there are noble partnerships! The Rotary Club of Medicine Hat is weaving a noble one with Saamis Immigration Services Association, one that results in a demonstrable impact on the lives of newcomers to our city. All Rotarians in more than 35,000 clubs in 220 countries are strongly encouraged to build relationships and forge partnerships with other organizations. Those efforts strengthen resources, power, and impact in communities. With rising costs of involvement in projects abroad, our Club has chosen to reduce overseas involvement yet has added an international component to local projects. How? Through a partnership with Saamis Immigration, bringing our members in direct contact with newcomers to the area from around the world. In 2023, Saamis immigration worked with 317 newcomers to Medicine Hat, divided into four categories: economic class (4%), family class (8.5%), refugees (51.9%), Ukrainian evacuees (35%) and other (0.6%). Through regular communication and a growing trust with Saamis executive director Marijana Agicic, manager of programming Mihaela Craciun, community connections co-ordinator Aide Hilsendiger and our club’s International and Community Services Committee, we have had the privilege of providing a library in the reception area of SISA’s offices (2020); funding a bus ride for newcomers to see Christmas lights (2021); joining Language Instruction for Newcomers (LINC) learners for a walk from the Information Centre to the Saamis Tepee and back (2022); picnicking with newcomer families in Echo Dale Park (2022); funding a Family Film in Redcliff (2022); packing and distributing bags of toiletries to males for International Men’s Day (2023); and conversing with newcomers while traversing the trails in Police Point Park accompanied by well-informed Interpretive staff (2024). In addition, since 2020, our club’s Team FreeWheel project, headed by Terry Cooper and his team, have donated more than 250 reconditioned bicycles to Saamis, making a huge contribution to the mobility and the access of newcomers to education, work, retail and recreation. In their own words: “As a newcomer to the community and Canada, attending the International Men’s Day celebration at the LINC building was really special. The gifts from the Rotary Club were a nice surprise, and the Rotarians’ speech made me feel important and welcomed. It was a great chance to meet others and feel like I belong. The teamwork between the Rotary Club and the staff made this day unforgettable. I’m thankful for their kindness and help. This never happens in the country I have left.” (Newcomer from Syria). “… getting a bike has been a big help for me. I needed a way to get around, and the Medicine Hat Rotary Club gave me a bike. They fixed it up so it works well. Now I can go to work, college, and buy groceries more easily. I feel more free and independent. The community here is so kind and supportive.” (Newcomer from Ukraine). The members Rotary Club of Medicine Hat thank Saamis Immigration Services Association for deepening our understanding of the needs of newcomers to Medicine Hat, and for allowing us to join forces and respond to some of these needs, thereby making a contribution to the settling and rooting of newcomers to our city. To all Medicine Hat News readers: Please consider becoming a Rotarian and joining in our quest to forge partnerships to help meet community needs. This column is contributed by members of the Medicine Hat Rotary Club 14-13
