THE International Organisation for Migration (IOM), in collaboration with the Migrant Support Network of Guyana (MSN- GY) hosted a ‘Day of the Lord’ as part of ongoing efforts to facilitate the integration of Venezuelans and Guyanese.

“Many Venezuelans live in Georgetown and seeing as it is Christmas and they are away from their homes, we thought we could just help out with a Christmas mass,” Project Manager at IOM Dinesh Persaud said. “It is a small service where they had communion and a Christmas mass, and afterwards they partake [sic] in some Venezuelan foods.”

The mass was held at Our Lady of Fatima Church, located on Shiv Chanderpaul Drive and North Road on Sunday. Interestingly, it was the church that approached the IOM to collaborate.

Persaud related that this church would usually conduct services that incorporated Spanish or Portuguese in the proceedings to facilitate migrants. As such, what the support group and migration organisation did was to organise a social gathering after Sunday’s service to provide a friendly space for cultural exchange after.

According to the project manager, part of the work IOM is doing through ‘Venezuelan response’ is providing assistance to Venezuelan migrants coming to Guyana and to Georgetown.

Previously, the organisation has been distributing food supplies to the migrants in Regions One and Seven and working along with the government to provide access to social services, and to build government’s capacity to better manage the situation.

“As many are aware, receiving migrants is new to Guyana, since traditionally Guyanese have been leaving. So what we are trying to [do is] provide any form of assistance to the Venezuelans that are here,” he said.

Facilitating this service and social was part of the assistance being provided.

“It’s an integration process, where Venezuelans can interact with Guyanese and we can share in each other’s culture,” Persaud said and added: “It’s also Christmas and we’re trying to make persons feel welcomed.”

About 40 Venezuelans attended the gathering and according to him, they were encouraged to come to the service by word of mouth.

Member of MSN-GY, Derwayne Wills, stressed: “It’s important for you [to] engage in these cultural spaces where you can navigate the language… and it is important for Guyana as well, as we build partnerships in South America.”

For him, it is only through efforts such as these that government and civil society organisations can work to build partnerships and foster cohesion.

And he stressed that this cultural exchange is necessary in order for people to live peacefully and to address the micro-aggressions that might stem from xenophobia.

“In the spirit of Christmas, we should just take a minute to consider those persons who might be leaving their homes behind and travelling along with their families,” Wills said.