Soft Landing, Missoula: Providing a heart, home for immigrants

Eight years ago, Mary Poole was a new mum with a little baby boy. She had been raised on a farm and worked outdoor jobs all her life. At the time, she worked for the city council in Missoula, trimming trees, had never left Montana, did not know any refugee or non-American for that matter and certainly knew nothing about running an organisation.

Poole said she was going through motherhood for the first time with a friend, watching TV and news/stories about refugees came up which got her thinking. Wondering what sort of world she wanted her child(ren) to live and interact in, her interest was awoken. Poole said she wondered what and who a refugee was and started thinking of ways she could help them.
Then came the International Rescue Committee (IRC), who set up shop in Missoula and for Poole, it was a watershed moment. She knew then what she had to do. Catching the eye of the IRC, she partnered with them and the rest as they say is history.

That was how Soft Landing, Missoula was born. Like the name implies, Soft Landing is literally that, to provide a soft landing, an oasis of sorts, for immigrants and refugees who find themselves in Missoula, Montana. Providing jobs, helping children of immigrants get into school, a community and safe space, helping to set up bank accounts, translation services and later, helping with citizenship process, the organisation remains at the forefront of helping immigrants and refugees settle in and feel at home.

Poole said the IRC who brings in the immigrants, support them for six months at most, which is too short a period for anyone to integrate fully into a new life. On funding, she said the community supports them immensely in cash and kind and they also apply for private grants as well as grants from the Office of Refugee Resettlements. Poole said she passes their message by speaking at churches, schools, civic organisations and to everyone and anyone about what they do not just for funds but also, so that residents have a better understanding on the plights and challenges of the immigrants and how best to help them.

Praising the residents’ generosity, she said they get all manners of donations which keeps the place running and is able to sort their pressing needs. This has not always been the case though as she revealed that a few years ago, the state was one of the two states in the U.S. that didn’t welcome refugees. The organization which now boasts of 11 full time staff and hundreds of volunteers, was initially met with fear and anxiety from residents, most of whom who had never seen or interacted with people from the Middle East or Africa.

“There was no refugee resettlement programme here then and people were very concerned as this is a predominantly white city. Some were upset about the idea of letting refugees and immigrants in, while some others were quite supportive. Some people said their jobs would be taken by immigrants and I had to do a lot of work in the early days, educating people that this was not only untrue but we would be better off for it as a community. I am happy that it has worked out well for all of us.”

Paul Mwinga is one of SL’s success stories. Originally from Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), he moved to Missoula in 2018 with his family after living as a refugee in Rwanda for 18 years. Revealing that he was shocked when he was told that his case had been settled and he was moving to Montana, he said he had never heard of it before and when he googled, all that came up was the mountains and the University. He wasn’t deterred and moved with his three daughters and SL helped him settle in. Mwinga, who is now a proud homeowner, said he had to learn English but it was easier for his children who were still young and were tutored by Poole and her team. Now enrolled in the Missoula College himself, he said learning English was a difficult task for himself and his wife who had never spoken it before.
Mwinga says his children speak English and Swahili now but have sadly forgotten French and their local dialect, Kinyarwanda. Now a caseworker at the IRC in Missoula, he is also a Swahili language instructor and private contractor at the Lifelong Learning Centre.

United We Eat
Another way SL is helping immigrants and refugees settle in, find their feet and make a living is through the gift of cooking and food, which is encapsuled under its sister programme, the United We Eat Kitchen.

Speaking with the Outreach and Communications Manager for Soft Landing, Missoula, Carly Graf, she said the kitchenis one of their key projects. “This is our food program which we started in 2019 as a way to create a relationship with the people we were working with and the rest of Missoula as well as provide refugees a way to share their culture and make money. Missoula is very small and we work with the International Rescue Committee (IRC), which handles refugees’ resettlement for the first 3-4 months. The IRC is funded by the state department but work closely with us.”

“We know every time a new family comes in here and we tell them what we do. If they tell us they are interested in cooking, we tell them about thisprogramme and how to get involved. MunaShbib(an immigrant) for instance, has been here for a while and has been part of the programme from the beginning. We invite every single refugee family to our office and get acquainted. If they don’t have any interest in cooking, there are other things they can do. We support with jobs and basically try to create a community for them.”
“We have people we have worked with for seven years who have become citizens and we helped them with the process. We don’t do the legal side of the process but help with other things to prepare them for that journey.”

Graf added that food is a powerful tool to not only feel connected to home but a way to express and share one’s culture with others. “People tell us it feels like they have a piece of home here and they get to share themselves with us as well. Importantly, there is the financial side to it as well because we pay our chefs. Some alsotell us that want to own a restaurant, food truck or open a business and this is a good launchpad for them. Missoula has very high commercial rent and it is expensive to get a place to start a restaurant, so we encourage them to start small from things like the farmers’ market and weekend sale booths.”

Graf said none of the refugees chose to come here as the resettlement programme chose for them. “The state department determines the cities people can go to and how many at a time. The IRC provides accommodation, not us, and sadly, it is just for the first four months.”

Graf said they are non-profit and funded by private donors. “We also get funds from business sponsorships, grants, fundraising drives and so on. We have had a lot of success stories that make us proud. We have seen clients go on to own houses, send their kids to school and make a life for themselves, it makes us happy.”

On how the kitchen works, she said, “Typically on a normal week, we make about 150 meals, we can do a little bit more or less, depending on the chef. We serve the food right here on a table we set up. The customers come here into the kitchen and we have volunteers serve the food. We try to ensure every meal is hot or cold, depending on what type of meal it is. The most number of meals we make is 175 because that’s the maximum the refrigerator can take.”
RozanShbib,Muna’s daughter,are originally from Damascus, Syria. Shbib said the war forced her family to move to Egypt for seven and a half years but sadly, had to move again.

“We decided to leave Egypt because the life there is really hard; we were there for eight years and didn’t get citizenship or legal status. This meant my family could not get good jobs. I was 13 when we moved from Syria and 21 when we got to the U.S, now I am 24.In Egypt, I was in the university reading law and was set to graduate but had to come here and start afresh. I hope I can complete my studies soon so I can become a lawyer.”
Rozan said she intends to move to Germany to be with her fiancé but is glad to be in the U.S and in the programme for now, which she said has given her and her family a ray of hope.

While there is still a lot to be done in the area of making it easier for immigrants to settle in and find their feet, Soft Landing is helping people like Paul, Muna, Rozan and hundreds of other immigrants feel welcomed and at home, and for Poole, there is no stopping or looking back.