Nathalie is a Columban lay missionary from Chile, based in Birmingham. Situated close to the centre of Birmingham, Fatima House is a partnership between Birmingham Archdiocese and the Columbans, offering safe shelter to destitute women asylum seekers.
Lent is a special time for Catholics around the world. It is a time when the people of God are invited to reflect on Jesus’s passion and to commemorate the 40 days Jesus fasted in the desert. It begins with Ash Wednesday when we receive crosses of ashes on our foreheads as signs of repentance and conversion and finishes with Easter Sunday when we celebrate the central message of Christianity: the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
I have worked at Fatima House alongside my husband since the beginning of the project; in fact before that, because we were part of the planning, designing and implementation of the project with other partner organisations. The project opened in July 2016 and has so far supported 27 women.
When I think of Lent, the image of the women at Fatima house comes to mind. Indeed they fast: a very long fast wherein not only they observe and experience - sometimes -deprivation of basics but also of an anguished and extended wait.
They patiently and desperately wait for the Home Office to recognise them as asylum seekers. Some women have been in this wait for as long as 18 years. They wait for a favourable outcome to their asylum claim. They wait for their time to go to the Home Office reporting centre hoping they will not be detained then. They wait for someone from back home to send them some ‘official evidence’ which will support their asylum claim. They wait for the NHS (National Health Service) certificate which enables them to access free medical treatment and medicines and so many more things they wait for. They are constantly waiting. But what do they wait for more specifically when at Fatima House? They anxiously wait for the post, for any letter from the Home Office, hoping it brings the good news of progress in their cases.
They also wait for the ‘white van’. The white van comes to Fatima House when a woman is granted section 4 support. This means that the Home Office recognises someone as an asylum seeker and thereafter the State provides some form of accommodation and £37.75p/w (approximately $70AUD).
This is only one step in their case; it doesn’t mean that they have the right to remain, or find a job, or to study in the UK yet. The white van has come several times to Fatima House and each time it arrives there is a sense of celebration for the person who is leaving: a sense of liberation and resurrection inundates the house. There are literally shouts of joy and tears of happiness but also a sense of sadness; sadness for the friends they leave behind who must continue the wait.
I feel privileged to have the opportunity to share my life with these women. Each one has taught me in different ways and through diverse experiences about resilience and survival, but above all about faith. Many will say that faith is what sustains them. The Home Office can strip them off everything but not their faith.
During the past two years, there have been Muslim and Christian women at Fatima House. Volunteers there have seen how willingly and faithfully they fast when it’s time to do so in their religion. It’s perhaps, one of the women said, “the only freedom we experience here; it’s the one act we can decide upon and nobody can question if our fasting is genuine or not”.
The women are thankful to God for the hospitality and care they receive at Fatima House and many pray each day that God will grant them what they need.
Lent happens every day at Fatima House. We all wait in hope for good news to break into the lives of these faithful women. We all wait for each other’s plea to come to an end and that the promise of our risen Lord will bless us all.
Nathalie Marytsch
Related links
- Read more from the current Columban eBulletin
