l

By Chris Smith i t Frlbune Staff Writers . ‘ s T It was hopefully the last lineup for T at‘ long time for the 53 .. Vietnamese refugees who arriyed in Winnipeg Monday night.

Winnipeg with a new home and life.

“Everything.is so new and curious”, he re- . ‘

marked through an, interpreter. -

V T Twenty-eight families . were to have ar-

They marched into the airport waiting a. area, name-tags dangling round their a

necks, looking a little bewildered at being ‘

in another strange place. a .

T But smiles appeared, when the 11 fami-

T lies were united with their Canadian spon~

, A sors-

left Vietnam five months ago. a

They arrived in the city about6:30 p.rn.,; , were met ‘by ‘an East Kildonan family -l—— their officialehosts ——- and were transported to the two—bedroom apartment Waiting for ‘\

them. . . a

A Mr. Chung, his wife and two children ar-

Thanh Hai ‘Chung and family are moving into their first real home since they L,

_ ‘<8.-

’ In .

rived in Edmonton on Saturday, after being i

in a refugee camp in Hong Kong. . ,

They and the other 10 families are being a T sponsored by the Mennonite Central Com- a

mittee, an umbrella organization for Men-

noriite churches and groups of families’ who

costs and help them find work.

i Hasjob waiting

; Mr. Chung who worked as 7mechanic’s L

helperin Vietnam, has a job waiting for

him in a machine shop, arranged by; his , host. Hopefully the main problem he faces a 7 to right now is ilearningtgithe bus”, route to

work.

the shop supervisor ,an‘d he will take Mr.

i Chung to work on his first day,.,shov’ving

i him the route, and introducing him to his

new employer and fellowworkers. Mr. Chung‘ said he is excited to be in

/

V are willing to finance the refugees’ initial

rived in Winnipeg, but the others were like— ly held up waiting for medical checkups,

said MCC immigration co-ordinator John ’Doerksen.‘ “ i

He saidthe shortage of facilities for the check-ups, congestion in the refugee camps

“ and arranging, transportation are “some of T the o problemis his group, encounters in bringing theVietnamese families to Winni-

; Sponsrineg groups

Monday’s arrivals bring the total

number of MCC sponsored refugees to 88,

it he said, but 720 persons in all will be spon-

sored by churches’ and other sponsoring groups. V r

“ The sponsors, sometimes a‘ group of five? u people, arrange forliving ‘accommodation, furnishings and a food so the new arrivals .

can‘ set up housekeeping immediately.

a i 3 The host families agree to be fespons-T

ible for the Vietnamese families for a year

or until they are self-sufficient, a process which takes four months on the national

. ‘average, Doerksen said.

. His host; Peter

He said two families who went to W Winkler in; May were virtually

self-reliant in three weeks.‘

Mr. Redekopp said he decided to xioltin-4

teeras a host for the Chung family because he wasin a similar situation 30 years ago. \

He had immigrated to Canada from Russia’ as at political refugee and he now wants to help somieneelse facing the same

problem, ; i r K L g “I fled from communism the same as

A they did,,,’? he said, gesturing to his new ’_friends.‘ l ; . V