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By Andrea Flexhaug
“IT’S JUST connecting with guys and making
them feel at home,” explains Dr. Grant Bogyo about the South Okanagan
Coalition for Services to Migrant Workers.
He is speaking about a newly formed volunteer group
which caters to the ever-growing number of Mexican workers who travel north
from their country, to provide much needed labour in the Okanagan’s
fruit and grape growing industries.
Penticton clinical psychologist Bogyo and a group of
about 25 volunteers first formed the coalition last spring, as a way to
help the Mexican migrants adapt to working in a foreign country.
“The purpose of the coalition is to meet social
and spiritual needs of migrant workers,” he explains.
It is based at Penticton Alliance Church, which has
appointed Dr. Bogyo Director of Ethnic Ministries.
“I have been at the church here for about seven
years,” says Dr. Bogyo.
“Last year, in the spring, I wanted to do
something here for the Mexican guys, because I have quite a few Mexican
friends.” It started with a music evening and some dinner, and
carried on from there.
Canada has imported Mexican workers through the
Migrant Worker Program, due to a great need – not only for
agricultural workers, but for mechanics, carpenters, and hotel and
restaurant workers.
“All of that is up for grabs right now,”
says Dr. Bogyo. He thinks that “it makes sense to develop our labour
pool from there, because it’s so close by.”
“It’s really about the money. And when
you’ve got a family and you want to feed them, are you going to work
for a few pesos, $15 a day, when you can get $90 a day?”
On any given Sunday, about 15 to 20 Mexican workers
will drop in to the church to socialize and learn English.
Bogyo, who is himself bilingual – as are the
other volunteers to varying degrees – also offers a myriad of other
types of assistance to the migrant workers.
“Last week, one of the guys had been quite ill
and had gone to see the doctor, but the doctor couldn’t understand
him,” says Bogyo.
“So I took him to the doctor and
translated.” They also help with tasks such as assisting the workers
in filling out medical and dental forms. The volunteers will even do a bit
of special grocery shopping for them.
“We do tortilla runs to the U.S. for them because
tortillas are so much cheaper there,” says Bogyo. “We just pick
up about 20 packets of tortillas a week.”
The migrant workers stay in houses and trailers on the
grounds of the farms where they are employed.
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Some arrive in Penticton and area in February, and work
in greenhouses; some arrive during the summer to help pick fruit; and there
is always vineyard work in the fall.
The coalition serves the areas of Naramata, Penticton,
Oliver, Osoyoos, Keremeos, Cawston and Okanagan Falls.
On some afternoons, Bogyo and the volunteers will drive
through those areas to make contact with the workers.
He notes that “around five, six o’clock you
drive Highway 97, and you’ll see Mexican guys going to and from the
fields – and I just pull over and tackle them.”
He basically welcomes the migrant workers to Canada,
and gives them his contact information in case they need it.
“We have a 24/7 Spanish phone. On it, they get
two or three crisis calls a week, ranging from illness to family tragedies
back home.”
The response to the program has been positive.
“This year I’ve had personal contact with about 150 [migrants],
and I haven’t been working at it this year,” he says.
Last year Bogyo had personal contact with over 200
workers.
Penticton Alliance Church provides “very cheap
office space” for the coalition’s events, says Bogyo.
“The congregation has gotten involved. They want to be more involved.
They’re extremely supportive of it.”
This is reflected in the church’s worship.
“We are trying to do a number of our choruses in both Spanish
and English on Sunday mornings.”
The migrant workers are also provided with Mexican
Bibles if they so wish, and last year Bogyo ran a Spanish Bible study for
them.
Some enjoyable activities the coalition provides are
soccer games and trips to Kelowna, and even the celebration of days that
are special in Mexico.
“We had no idea last year when we started that
we’d have over 200 Latinos here for Mexican Independence Day,”
says Bogyo.
Judging by the response, the events are appreciated by
the migrant workers; and as Bogyo says about the coalition’s efforts,
“We just want to help people.”
August 2008
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