by Margo Millard, North Stake Media Specialist
“I’m really touched about how we’re teaching in a Lutheran church, and I’m a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints who’s working for Catholic Charities, and we’re teaching Muslims. It’s exciting to be a part of that and a blessing in my life.” Carolyn Heywood
When Carolyn Heywood listened to her Church leadership’s invitation to serve newly-arrived refugees in her community in April 2016, she felt the need to get involved immediately. Her online search for volunteer opportunities pointed her to Catholic Charities, a well-known organization that provides comprehensive refugee and immigration services in San Antonio, TX.
“Catholic Charities was so nice and so willing to let me do anything I wanted to do to help.” Heywood, who was home-schooling her third grade son at the time, asked that he be allowed to volunteer with her. The pair began as teaching aides in an ESL class of mostly Cuban refugees, providing extra help and encouragement to students while the lead teacher instructed in English. Classes included men and women, and Heywood found them to be friendly, happy, and hard-working students who were grateful for the chance to learn.
Eventually, Heywood and her son began teaching refugees from the Middle East and Africa. “Sometimes women in those countries didn’t have the opportunity to have education, so they seemed especially happy and excited to be learning. Some hadn’t even held a pencil,” she recalled, noting how hard they labored at writing letters of the alphabet. “It was very refreshing to see that they weren’t taking this for granted and that they were so thankful and happy to be in America. It made me realize how much I had in my life and what I take for granted.”
children’s parents were learning English
Because of the language barrier, Heywood did not know much about these refugee’s former lives, only learning occasionally from other workers about the hardships of wars and religious persecution that some endured. But in one lesson, Heywood recalls, an older woman practicing new family vocabulary words spoke in halting English, “I have two sons. Dead. I have three brothers. Dead.” She was stunned to learn that this woman had lost her entire family.
Says Heywood, “These are really inspiring, wonderful people to be around. It’s a brave thing they’re doing to come to a country where they don’t know anyone, they don’t know the culture, they don’t know the language, and it’s such a great service that Catholic Charities is doing to get them on their feet. They want to be on their feet and be a part of society.”
After three years of volunteering at Catholic Charities, Heywood is reluctantly leaving because of her husband’s transfer out of state. When she reflects on why she felt so compelled to work with refugees, she recalls the question that Linda K. Burton, General President of the Relief Society (2012-2017), posed to church members when inviting them to serve: “What if their story were my story?”
Heywood replies that it is her story.
During the 1800s, one of her ancestors left Denmark as a young man with no family support to join the Latter-Day Saints in Utah. While journeying by boat and push cart, he suffered severe hardships and hunger and was not expected to survive upon his arrival. Fortunately, he was taken in by a couple who nursed him for a year, and after his recovery became a farmer who married and raised ten children. Says Heywood, “If it wasn’t for that couple, I wouldn’t be here. That’s mystory.”
Heywood encourages others to volunteer with Catholic Charities because they will find a place that uses your talents to serve. If you’re interested, call Grace at (210) 355-4553.