Masses of people were fleeing their homeland after resistance failed and they feared for their safety 40 years ago.
That's when the Catholic Charities of Central and Northern Missouri first partnered with the U.S. Immigration Services, to help the Vietnamese "boat people."
Since then, the ministry arm of the Catholic Diocese of Jefferson City has served as an affiliate of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Office of Refugee and Migration Services.
Catholic Charities and its local community must meet demanding criteria, including a strong economy, available housing and support services. Someone on its staff also must speak the language of an incoming refugee.
Between the seven current staff members, they speak about 25 languages.
"It has been my great privilege to work with Catholic Charities and its board of directors for the past four years," said board president Linda McAnany. "During that time, I have come to learn of and appreciate the tireless work of the staff who are dedicated to helping refugees resettle in Mid-Missouri as they begin a new life of freedom. It is truly a worthwhile endeavor of mercy and compassion."
Particularly in Columbia, the not-for-profit has established working relationships to provide other things, said Michael Van Gundy, executive director.
"People coming here are not coming from the best of circumstances," Van Gundy said. "They have suffered significant trauma."
Catholic Charities maintains constant contact with the newly-relocated individual or family for at least three months. That intensive case management is carried out by seven staff members.
Catholic Charities expects to increase the number of refugees they work with from approximately 150 this year to 210 in the next year. That will be possible with increased staff, funded by federal grants.
As one of only three organizations in Missouri approved to work with refugees through the U.S. state department, Catholic Charities receives those who have been cleared through a lengthy and detailed clearance process.
Usually, these refugees are settled in geographic areas where there is an existing cultural connection.
"It isn't like someone comes here and then we take them," Van Gundy said.
It may take up to six years, and a minimum of two years, for someone seeking refugee status to complete the process and arrive in the the United States.
That is one reason Catholic Charities does not expect to receive any refugees from Syria in the next year.
"It is not a light process for anyone," Van Gundy said. "Those coming in have been in the pipeline already."
The majority of refugees placed in Mid-Missouri in 2016 are expected to come from Sub-Saharan Africa, Burma, Somalia, Congo and Eritrea.
"What you have is what you bring with you," Van Gundy described. "They have nothing when they come here."
That's where the focus of the Catholic Charities' work is: caseworkers negotiate all the services and take the new refugees where they need to go. When the call comes that a refugee is being flown in, a caseworker may have only 48 hours to secure housing and furnishings and create a plan for the newcomer.
"We can't put them up at temporary housing or a hotel; we must be at the ready," Van Gundy said.
As the individual or family acclimates, the network of their nationality or local church helps share the support.
Although it is a program through the Catholic Church, Catholic Charities' work with refugees is an ecumenical effort, emphasized Jake Seifert, administrative/development assistant.
"It's a unique ministry," he said.
Some on the Catholic Charities staff were once refugees themselves.
Many refugees establish themselves in a community, securing jobs and paying taxes, yet retaining their cultural identity.
However, that takes time.
"They come with real heartbreaking stories," Seifert said. "They're fleeing areas not because they want to but because they have to."
When they first arrive, "they have suffered at the hands of political or physical violence," Van Gundy said. "They had no choice not to live in their own country."
Like the Vietnamese in the mid-1970s or the Bosnians in the 1990s, the refugees they have worked with follow history's conflicts, Seifert said.
"The work we do with people, we're changing the course of human history one family at a time," he said.
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