HOST Aotearoa New Zealand held its first information session on the Community Refugee Sponsorship Programme in early December 2021. Just over 100 participants from refugee-led organisations, faith-based communities, other community partners, and government departments joined the online meeting. Birgit Grafarend-Watungwa, the National Program Manager for HOST Aotearoa, was thrilled to see so much interest in the programme.
The Information Session was co-facilitated by Sarah Ward and Alice Garner from Immigration New Zealand (Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment) to outline the process of community sponsorship in New Zealand in further detail. Thank you, Sarah and Alice.
Thank you also to Nick Regnault from the South West Baptist Church who talked about the Community Refugee Sponsorship Programme from the experience as a sponsoring organisation in the initial pilot programme, which really brought the programme to life.
If you want to find out more about the Information Session, you can watch the recording below.
As per request from participants, the presentation has also been shared on the HOST Aotearoa website: TOOLS & RESOURCES | HOST AOTEAROA NZ.
Feel free to share the recording and presentation with members of your organisation.
HOST Aotearoa New Zealand will hold further information sessions in 2022. Dates will be advised early in the New Year.