 Well, hello everyone and welcome, as some folks have already done in the chat, feel free to introduce yourselves, your affiliation, and where you're hailing from in the chat, lovely to see people doing that so far. But mostly welcome to the fifth in a series of webinars as part of the empowering temporary foreign workers project. This project from Cairo's Canada is funded by the government of Canada's temporary foreign workers program. My name is David I've been and I'm part of the empowering temporary foreign workers team and I'm honored to facilitate this webinar today. Also joining me from the migrant justice team at Cairo's are Alfredo and Connie we have Shannon and I believe Cheryl is in as well. And we are all happy to welcome you to this so. Please continue introducing yourselves in the chat. Your microphone has been muted and we asked that as we move into the presentations that you please keep your microphone muted. And please hold your questions for the Q amp a after the presentation we don't want them to get lost in the early part of the presentation so I know you have a lot of questions but please hold on to them until we get to the Q amp a. And a reminder that we will be recording this session so if you do not wish to appear in the recording feel free to turn your camera off. And if you do not wish to be heard in the recording please ask your questions in the chat, and I will move them into the presentation. We will begin recording with our land acknowledgement, which is. So, I would like to acknowledge that we are meeting today on the traditional territories of the indigenous people across Turtle Island. We thank them for allowing us to meet and learn together on their territories. And as the caretakers of this land, which we stand, I acknowledge the traditional territories of many nations, including the Mississauga's of the credit, the initial big, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendep peoples where I am right now. To all that was here for thousands of years before us across Turtle Island, we honor the struggles and the lives of those who gave themselves for it. And for today we acknowledge the ancestors beneath our feet and the land on which we stand. With our ears to the ground we can hear them, the Korean nation, the Métis, the Diné, the Anishinaabe, the Dakota and Lakota nations, the Inuit, the Blackfoot, the Inu and all of the nations that came before us and those yet to become. An infinity of footsteps of those who long called this land home, the unfolding of bundles, the undoing of colonization and the opening of this land to allow treaty to come alive. You affirm our relationship to each other and to the land. We acknowledge and pay respects to the indigenous nations and ancestors of this land. Once again, I acknowledge the traditional territory of many nations, including the Mississauga's of the credit, the Anishinaabe, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendep peoples where I am now. This webinar will explore the ways that people can get involved and safely support migrant workers during the pandemic. Our panelists will discuss ways to make a difference in the lives of migrant workers and share their experience creating spaces for support and relationship building. To start our discussion today, it is my pleasure to introduce Jane Andrews. Born and raised in Niagara, Jane has operated up wood hollow B&B for the last 22 years. Educating her guests about the importance of supporting local farms and serving hearty country breakfasts from produce grown in her own neighborhood is one of her passions. Through the process of organizing music for church service, she became aware of a sense of invisibility and lack of connection to the local community that the migrant workers in her area were experiencing. This is awakening to the experiences of migrant workers in Canada. Jane has been involved in organizing concerts, picnics and delivering welcome bags bags to temporary foreign workers in the Niagara region. And we are going to further explore the work that Jane has done through a short video. B&B is on Formal Creek Road, which winds through some of Ontario's most fertile farmland here in Niagara. Migrant workers often drive down the road on their bicycles, their main means of transportation. Later in the season, when the peaches are ripe, they'll be driving jitties loaded with fruit. For years, Jane noticed them, but didn't really see them. And I'm sure I was like most locals in that you avoided going to the bank or the grocery store on Thursday nights just because they're all there. Everybody's hanging around waiting for a ride for the farmer to pick them up afterwards. And yeah, that means long lines in the bank. Long lineups were just part of it. Some of it was because of more ancient barriers of skin color and nationality. When people hear the term migrant workers, it can conjure up images of the dirty thirties and the terrible poverty of farmers in that era. What did you find when you went to Niagara? You know, I found I guess a more modern version of poverty, a poverty of community and a sense of belonging. Migrant workers in Ontario actually earn a pretty decent living by the standards of the countries they come from. They're here under a federal government program called Farms. They're paid minimum wage. It went up $0.05 this year to $0.1025 an hour. They're covered by OHIP and workers' comp, and the housing is decent. You know, it's inspected once a year by public health officials. Detailed regulations for space requirements, kitchens, sewage, showers, all this kind of thing. But where I found real poverty was around a sense of belonging. A poverty as real and maybe as debilitating as the financial kind. Well, what do you mean by that? Well, you know, it struck me. These men are away from home for a long time. Some of them arrive as early as February to help prepare the fields for planting. Many won't go home until late October, so they're away from home for all but four months, really, of the year. Paul Chambers is one of them. His two children aged 8 and 12. And I asked him what it's like to have to leave them behind every year. If they're 8 and 12 and you've been doing this all your life, it must always be a little bit hard. Very much, very much, you know. Each time leaving them, it casts me so much tears to know that I have to leave them. But a good part of it, whenever time I went home back, it's always been like a joyful setting. Everybody happy to know that I'm home again. Whenever time I'm ready to leave, it brings sadness to the heart. That's how we have survival. To Paul, for him, survival means leaving home to support his own family. So I began thinking about what that sense of community means when you're away from home for so long because many of these guys feel virtually invisible when they come up here. You know, they're rarely included in the community or made to feel welcome. Jane Andres described it to me. She runs a B&B in Niagara on the lake. And she told me about a conversation with one migrant worker, a woman from Mexico, who said, you know, it's not the hard work we mine. It's that we feel invisible. And she said her eyes filled with tears as she was talking about what that feels like. It made me think, so what exactly is the definition of a community or a family? You know, does it mean that you have to be there 365 days of the year? Do you have to own a house there? Can you come and go? And, you know, when she says family, of course, I think about Paul, whom we heard earlier and what he misses the most, right? When he comes up here. Yeah. And Jane began looking for other ways to connect to these guys. So in August, she stuck a Jamaican flag on the fence in front of her B&B with a big banner, one word on the banner, thank you. And she said, people began stopping. Yeah. And it was a couple of hours later, I went back out and I was doing some watering. And then this jitney stop that's pulling, it's loaded down with peaches. And this big guy gets out and he goes, man, what's that for? And I said, it's to say thank you. It goes, for what? I says, for all that you do for us, you're picking our fruit. If it wasn't for you guys, our farms wouldn't exist. Jane began helping out, playing accordion at a Sunday evening service for migrant workers, inviting the men back to her house to meet her husband, another musician, and rehearsing music together, traveling to Jamaica, visiting the men one by one in remote farm villages in the Blue Mountains. When you go to the top of a mountain in Jamaica, and you have to walk up to the top part because the road stops, and you go up into the clouds and you find him working there so hard, and you meet his wife and you look out from his front porch as you sip coconut water, and you see this incredible, incredible view. Then when he comes by and rides his bike by the house, you've got a sense of relationship. Today, Jane makes a point of shopping at the value mart in Niagara on a Thursday evening. It's just such exuberance and excitement. Oh, that doesn't happen often when you're getting groceries, but yeah, and you become, you become family. This is Gamar, and this is Gamar. And now to talk about supporting migrant workers through COVID, but also here is Jane Andrews. Hello everyone, this is my first time doing it, and I'm kind of winging it because that's the story of my life. But if any of you are interested in watching the video with a bit smoother video, it is available on the workers welcome Niagara website. Just click on the top red button to learn more about our story. And there's a series of videos. The videos were actually, well, this one was made about 10 years ago, 2010 with CBC radio had done the working man series, which featured the story of farm workers in Niagara and what we were doing as a community to try to strengthen those relationships. And it was a radio series. I bought a Mac and taught myself how to use iMovie and just made it myself with own clips. One of the odd blessings, I suppose, in not getting funding for any of this is just, it forces us to learn a lot of new skills and develop our own resources. And so it's been a really exciting 15 years, just trying to find ways to build community without financing or funding. And it has been really an incredible journey. And I'm very grateful for 15 years of experience before COVID hit, because our relationships, there's already a lot of really deep relationships in the community. There's already a lot of trust in our relationships with the farm workers. So when COVID hit, we did have pathways to be able to communicate with them in terms of quarantine and on the farms and gave us a bit of a platform to start working from, whereas communities that are just now becoming aware, there's really a struggle saying, well, how do we connect with people on the farms? We aren't allowed on the property. They're not going shopping. How do we find them? So I can really appreciate the struggle with trying to start after COVID has already taken root in our communities. And I think what has been my experience, I first began through music, and my journey actually started when I was given the task of connecting with local churches to try to get volunteers to help out at the Caribbean Workers Church Service. And the mystery that kind of evolved to me, why was there resistance in the church? Why was there just the impulse that they would write a check but not get involved? And so that's really been my journey the last 15 years is to try to strengthen relationships within neighborhoods, realizing that when they're your neighbor, they're not a project. It's all about relationship. And it's been a huge challenge the last 15 years to get, because I'm assuming this is largely a faith-based audience that is affiliated with some church or that type of thing. The struggle has been to see beyond the project idea and go deeper into relationship. And there has just been a lot of resistance for that and continues to be resistance. And I thought at first it was just a local thing, but even the one fellow in the video who was singing along with a guitar, he got transferred to British Columbia and he wanted to go to church out there. It took me all season, six months. I Googled him, went on the map, saw all of the Mennonite churches he was surrounded with in Pitts Meadows, BC. And in six months I could not find one person to take him to church. And because they didn't have ministries to farm workers, they could not see him as a person that just needed a ride to church. And so that's been my passion and my quest to try to understand the roots of racism, not just in the Mennonite churches, but in all of the churches that tend to be in rural communities and to see how we can go deeper and build relationships neighbor to neighbor. And perhaps one of the very thin silver linings with COVID is the fact that the church has had their doors locked, and now they're forced to love their neighbors if they want to express their faith. So maybe this is a good thing. Maybe this is a new opportunity. And as Christians, I think we serve a God who is a redeemer and who can help us see beyond our own little boxes. And maybe COVID is the opportunity to break free of some of these restrictions to force us out of church walls and to be walking the neighborhood, because right now that's the only thing safe to do. They encourage people to get out and walk and that has what has made an impact just in my own rural neighborhood, semi rural people are getting out. And I'm able to introduce them to farm workers in the neighborhood. There's some really cool friendships and connections that are developing. Not only with the farm workers, but because other neighbors are watching the interaction with farm workers on the road in front of their houses where we are allowed to have conversations. It's impacting our neighborhood, which is really quite exciting. So that being said, that's all just a bit of background about where I'm coming from. So it's something that would involve people that have no faith, but just by virtue of being neighbors by living in Ontario, you can be part of this support and healthy community. So just a very brief word about what the farm workers are experiencing this year with COVID. I'll just have to jump past a lot of other information. But it's, it's been a very frightening experience for them this past year. And even with news of the vaccinations, it can, it, instead of it being good news, it's also a huge stress factor for them. And we can be very happy to get the vaccine, but they have different levels of concerns and historical experiences that impact their view. So I find right from the stress for coming to Canada starts when they are given their date to leave and they have to, they have to prepare to come for many their flight start, they, they have to leave at one or two in the morning from their homes, I will just speak about Jamaicans with Mexicans, it'll take two or three days of travel, which Jamaicans they may leave at two or three in the morning or possibly the night before. They may sleep on the concrete at the Ministry of Labor in Jamaica if it's hot. And so when they, by the time they get to the Ministry of Labor, get on the plane, they are already exhausted. And so then there's waiting several hours at the airport. So many of them have had almost 24 hours of travel by the time they arrive at Pearson airport. And now what's happening as of this past week, they're being presented with with the possibility of being vaccinated right then and there, which is frightening to them. They're extremely hungry, many have not eaten for 24 hours. They're sleep deprived and now someone's telling them they should be getting vaccinated. And so, right away, they're just putting up barriers and saying no, we need to get to a bed. We need to get out of here, not a third lineup, they have to line up for customs, they have to line up for COVID testing. It's two o'clock in the morning, they want to go lie down somewhere. And so that's, that's a very real concern for them. And their voices are not being heard. When they do arrive, when they arrive at the airport, they don't know, are they going to their bunkhouse to the farm? Are they going to be shipped off to a hotel? How will they be treated in the hotel? Will they get enough food? That's a big concern because of what happened in our area last year. They arrived and on some farms they went without food for two days. And to make it worse, they weren't believed. And it created a whole raft of problems once that was reported. So they have a lot of concerns, will I get enough food? Will it be healthy food that's given to me in the hotels? Will I be able to get outside and walk around? And so the hotel conditions are a concern, especially where they're not getting proper food. And I know in the Niagara area, some of us have tried to bring in meals to them. But that's just a band-aid. It's just helping them for that particular day. It's not solving the problem. But people are afraid to speak up about the conditions in the hotel. They can't open a window, they can't get exercise. And it's all things that elevate their stress. So what myself and some of our friends and we have kind of a dream team that has worked together thanks to our Cairo's grant where a number of us are partnering together and becoming a much more effective way of reducing some of these fears is by contacting a lot more farms through our coordinated communications and so on. But through the four or five of us, we really tried to connect personally with the farm workers. It takes a lot of work to get an updated WhatsApp number or to be able to communicate. So we really share with each other how best to do that. Who's covering which farms? Who's bringing meals? Where is there a need? Where do we need to pray? There's a pastor who's involved now. The church wants to know where there's prayer needs and what they can do to provide food or practical services. So just being able to deal with some of the isolation issues and those fears is really, really huge. And again, it's based on relationships that we have been building on for many years. But now if there's a group that we can work with and trust as we are with this Cairo's group now that we're working with that has really helped improve communications sharing our networks. And so if somebody has a health problem someone else can help manage it. It has made things incredibly difficult when we are not allowed to go on to the farms during quarantine, understandably so. But it has really created levels of concern and stress that have never existed before. And again, the main thing is we don't want them to feel that isolation so intensely. We want them to know that there is help for physical needs. We want them to become extremely complicated quickly. And I'll just tell you a quick story. And then, yeah, and then I'm not too sure if you want to open it to questions or if there's another presenter but one example, how quickly things can escalate or how much cooperation it takes. One of the fellows in quarantine required some x-lax. So you haven't been eating properly. There's, it's fairly often on the farms that guys will need to product such as that. And, and but then how do we get it to him, because he's in a house directly behind the employer, where there's a lot of issues and a lot of problems. If we give it directly to the employer will he is it to, to mark the guy because he has a problem or he just withhold it like the concerns are crazy. I opened it up to other members of the team. How can we solve this problem. Can we just dump it in the employer's mailbox and hope he gives it to him or, and it ended up that we brought chicken dinners to that farm and we're able to bring it in with a chicken dinner. But it cost us like, I don't know, $200 and chicken dinners to get the x-lax on the farm. And, and three people working as a team to make this happen. Whereas if it was a Canadian you would just drop it in a mailbox and problem solved right, but it took a lot of stress on ourselves. How can we get this to him without jeopardizing, and without anybody knowing exactly what's going on and it was stressful but it was also very exciting. So, exciting that we could make this happen as opposed to not happen. It's a different hoops we have to jump through to just solve a simple problem so it requires a lot of flexibility, a lot of cooperation, a lot of input from other people to solve some of these problems, but then also to share in the success that somebody's feeling a lot better today because we were all able to work together, make it happen. And I think, yeah, a couple of the fears, some of the main fears of the workers on the farms are dealing with the fear of being left alone. If there's something happens, well, anybody know they can't communicate easily because a lot of the regular sales people from Toronto cannot come onto the farm because of quarantine. The employers will call the salesperson ahead of time. The guys arrive. All their SIM cards are waiting on the table. They can pop them in their phones and call their families right away. There are those employers that look ahead and plan for the comfort and safety and well being sense of well being with their employees. Other ones, like the previous one. They have no way to communicate with them. They can't get their SIM cards. They don't, they don't have cell phones hooked up. So for two weeks they have no communication with their family. Now how will that feel when you're from St. Vincent, and there's a volcano. The guys from St. Vincent derived last week after a week's journey, they left St. Vincent a week ago. They were evacuated by ship. We're in a hotel in St. Lucia, separated from their families, wondering what is going on. Finally arrived here exhausted. For men from in those situations to arrive and have no communication with their family, you can imagine how frightening that is. What I have been working on for the last couple years and pushing for is to provide Wi-Fi hotspots at no charge to the farms for the duration of the season, not just for a week's loan, but for, for the full duration of the season. And every year I've been turned down saying we can only afford to. Yesterday I went to the rotary. They want to make a donation to welcome kids, which I said, can we divert it to hotspots. And so last night the rotary came up with three, the funding for three hotspots for three farms, which is amazing after a couple of years. But you can imagine when you come here worried about communication and you've got the hotspot there and right away you can call your family. And I think that's something if people are not connected with farms. They can start partnering with organizations like Rotary with Kairos with various community organizations to to find out which farms are is the internet provided for which aren't they can find that out from an employer if they don't know employees. And then just see how can they do this as a gift for the community to get started. And then they'll have the ability to connect with the guys as well. So when this COVID blows over you've got some people you've got some relationships so there is some possibilities for things like that. You can have some meals delivered to the farm so once the guys are finished quarantine and can start work on their days are long. I've been hearing from a lot of guys who their days are exceptionally long because they've been held up for a month because of quarantine, all the paper work. There's a lot of stress because the weather is the blossoms are finally coming on and now we're getting snow so there's a lot of stress by with employers and their employees will there be a harvest. And yeah so because they're working long hours to deliver a meal from an approved restaurant pre approved from the employer, which is generally not a problem, especially if they're packaged by the restaurant. So I think alleviating their fears that they're going to be alone, providing meals, just dropping them off pre arranging. And another main concern related to COVID right now is the vaccines. Sorry, I feel like I'm pushing a lot of information out here, but there's a lot going on, but every single farm worker I've talked to is very concerned about the vaccine. Because of misinformation, but a lot are prepared to get it but they have very concerns, very real concerns that are not being addressed, such as if I get side effects. They're not that worried about having chills or fever for two days, what they're worried about is having to lose work because of it. And then their families not getting enough to eat that week, because they were off work. So, and these are questions that the employers and the government are not answering. What happens if I do get sick short term. What happens if I get sick long term. What happens if I get a blood clot, am I going to be abandoned. And we all have experiences, even just recently where. And a lot of them are not sure what the relation is between blood clot and a stroke. But for example, one of our friends on the farms had a stroke about three weeks ago. Now fortunately he did get to the hospital in a good amount of time where other farm workers that we've been involved with have not been. It was a week in the hospital before he even got a voice message on his phone from the liaison officer. He's still not sure what his, what is the damage. Nobody's really taken time out to explain to him in a way he can understand. And it took over a week of him being in a hospital bed before he even picked up his phone and got like 20 second message from the liaison officer, which was not reassuring at all. So, when they're worried about getting a blood clot or stroke, because of the vaccine, they know they are going to be on their own. And so for us to reassure them, we are not going to let these things happen, we are standing with you. And because we do have a history in Niagara of things happening where we have really stood with farm workers and refuse to let them go home to the point of having them live in our homes. They know that we're willing to put our money where our mouth is and that's very reassuring for them. So that's, that's it in a nutshell, what's happening down here. I'm sure there's more questions people have which we can ask later if you like. Thank you so much for that. I've learned quite a bit through this and I'm looking forward to the Q amp a that'll be coming up right after our next presenters so thank you so much, Jane. And it is now my pleasure to introduce Stacy Gomez Stacy Gomez is a community organizer active in the migrant justice movement. She is a member of no one is illegal Halifax to talk. Supporting with the migrant workers program. Since 2016 Stacy has also worked with a maritime space network engaged in solidarity with human rights defenders in Guatemala. Her writing has appeared in the Nova Scotia advocate and the media co op the coast and the Chronicle Harold. Thank you Stacy for joining us today. Thanks so much. And thanks everyone for joining us. Thanks also Jane, I haven't met you yet, but it's great to meet you virtually. And definitely a lot of things that Jane shared also resonate with our experience here. So I'm based here in Halifax, and we work throughout Nova Scotia in support of migrants, including migrant workers. So yeah I'll just share a little bit about us. So through our migrant workers program, we're engaged in outreach advocacy public education and direct support with migrant workers in our communities here. We're also part of the migrant rights network, which is a network of migrant justice organizations throughout the country that are calling for full and permanent immigration status for all migrants including migrant workers. So here in Nova Scotia, there are about 2000 migrant workers that come each year, working in the agriculture sector and also in seafood processing. They're from Jamaica and Mexico, and some have been coming here for 10 years or more. And so, as Jane has highlighted as well, we do really emphasize that migrant workers are part of our communities. And, you know, with COVID-19 it's really highlighted the important work of essential workers, which migrant workers are as well they contribute incredibly to our food system. So I do want to talk about what's going on with migrant workers during COVID-19. But I think to talk about that it's also important to talk about what's been going on pre COVID-19. So here in Nova Scotia and throughout Canada, Mexican migrant workers have made complaints to the Mexican Labor Ministry. So between 2009 and 2018, there were 89 complaints to the Labor Ministry registered from Mexican workers working on Nova Scotia farms. So that includes for issues such as wage theft, poor and inadequate housing, and so on. And we've also seen over the years, heavy surveillance of migrant workers, migrant workers being told that they're not allowed to speak to Canadians. So we've seen food insecurity. And to quote a friend of mine, who's a Jamaican migrant worker, he says, if we should eat right based on the pay we're getting most of us would just die out there. So he talks about how they, they shop at Dalarama, for example, in order to get food that's less expensive so that they can send more money back home. And there's also ongoing health and safety concerns related to the conditions of living and working conditions. So this includes exposure to pesticides, insecure transportation, lack of safety equipment and so on. And then there's also racism based from the community and also from the employer. So I remember one Mexican migrant worker that I met. I was speaking to him about the work that we do. And he was saying, he was telling me that one time he and some other workers went into town to go grocery shopping and just someone randomly started braiding them in in a racist manner. He told me, which is I think important for, for all of us. He told me, what are you going to do about that. So I think that's important to ask ourselves, what are we going to do in our communities to challenge racism. That's an overt form of racism, but there's also other other kinds of racism that we see through this program as well. So for example, my friend who made this comment about the food also told me an example of how he, he was working and one of his colleagues was on a tractor. I think it was a tractor. And he, he went into the ditch and the his, their boss came and said, were there any apples in the bin, not concerned at all about the well being of the worker who got into the accident, who fell in the ditch. So that's another example that my friend shared and he, he told me, my employer is a racist. And so that's one example but there's also, you know, workers being told that if they speak out that they, that they aren't going to be allowed to come back in the future, and that there are many other workers that would take their place. And so that's another form of racism to say that they're expendable as, as, as workers as people. Importantly, when we talk about racism, it's also important to talk about the structure of the program that, you know, these workers, as I said, some have been coming here for many, many years but they're still considered temporary. And they don't have access to permanent residents through this program. So that really puts them in a vulnerable situation. They're also, they don't have the right as many of us do to to leave their employment easily. They. So that puts them in the vulnerable situation where they're tied to one employer. If they speak out about any of the conditions that I mentioned, they risk being fired return to their home country and barred from the program in the future. So there is an application that they can make if they're in a, if they're vulnerable workers if facing abuse. But, you know, they have to apply apply for that and there's a lot of documentation and such and it's not given that they will receive it so. So this is the situation pre COVID. And with COVID-19. These conditions have been exacerbated. So for example, here in Nova Scotia, last year, there were reports in the news. And also we received reports as well of migrant workers not being allowed to leave the farm, which is their workplace. And also, they live in import employer provided housing. So the employer has a lot of a lot of exists a lot of power in the situation. Also, we heard of workers facing wage theft. They face intimidation when an inspector came. And they were told that if they told the truth about what was happening on the farm that they would be that they would be sent back. And they also spoke out about safe or rather, they made a complaint about unsafe living and working conditions there. And we know that with COVID-19 with over overcrowded housing, that really is an increased threat to the health of migrant workers with the pandemic. And we've also with this limitation on the freedom of movement. This also impacts their ability to send money home to get groceries and to connect to social supports. And so, in addition, we are also hearing of workers in quarantine going hungry. So that's due to a number of factors, including poor quality food and lack of access to culturally relevant food. And we also hear Nova Scotia. Last year, when we heard of one worker who became sick with COVID-19. And this year, we've heard more recently of eight workers becoming sick with COVID-19 in the province. And it really highlights that migrant workers risk their lives to come here. They risk their lives to provide for their families and for themselves. We know that they contribute enormously to our food system and our communities. And yet too often, they're seen as a threat, as a health threat, because of xenophobia. And so, so that's something that is ongoing. And also, we have been part of ongoing advocacy calling for access to vaccines for everyone. And in Nova Scotia, migrant workers have been identified as a priority for, I believe it's phase two of the vaccine rollout. But we don't have very much information on when that's going to happen. And so we're still, yeah, we're still advocating around that. However, workers are also being told, some workers are being told that if they don't get the vaccine, then they won't be invited back in the future. So there's a common theme in a lot of what I'm saying is the threat of not being able to come back because of the structure of this program, which is exacerbated during COVID-19. I do want to share a few, just a few pictures, a few slides. So I'm going to open that up right now. Okay, it's not coming up just one moment. Alrighty. So I want to talk a bit about the work that we do in support of migrant workers in solidarity with migrant workers in Nova Scotia. So a few, a few of the things that we do. So we're engaged in direct support and accompaniment to migrant workers. For example, with issues around immigration and labor related issues in the workplace. We also provide emergency support to migrant workers, including with access to food. We are partnering with other organizations in the community to deliver know your rights workshops for migrant workers in, in Spanish, and also in English with the support of volunteer who speaks Patwa as well. We are engaged in mutual aid. And so here on this slide, there's a few examples. So we have a migrant solidarity fund, which is fully funded by community members and local organizations. And we have this fund for emergency situations for migrants in the community. And it's also available to migrant workers as well. It's a small fund because we're also a small group. So we're, we're working on growing this fund because we know that there's, yeah, we've received a number of requests already. Also, earlier this year, we supported a migrant worker who's been coming to Nova Scotia for close to 10 years. When his family house in Jamaica burned down. Thankfully, everyone, his family was safe. And so we helped to raise over $10,000 in support of his family to rebuild. And so we're in ongoing need. It's, yeah, it's been, it's been challenging and really put out this fundraiser recognizing really it is based on this idea and this idea. I don't want to say idea. I mean it's based on the fact that migrant workers are part of our communities, even though they're not here year round that they are here eight or nine months of the year. I know that if someone's house burned down here in our community that we would see a big outpouring of support. And so we also put this out to the community, hoping for an outpouring of support, and we were definitely touched, all of us to see that incredible outpouring of support. And so, so yeah, that's that's one example of something that that that falls under our mutual aid support. Also, in terms of one of the things that's new that we're doing this year is that we're engaging members of the community to grow culturally relevant seedlings. We're growing a pass out there for Mexican migrant workers and Kala Lou for Jamaican workers, and there are over 60 volunteers that are helping us to grow these seedlings that we're going to eventually give to migrant workers. So that's something that's that's currently in the works. And it's also pretty amazing to see that amount of dedication from the community. And we're trying to go hundreds of seedlings. So this is an ongoing project that we have. And really, and we're thinking about about this and whether we'd be able to do it again in the future. And it actually didn't cost very much money I think in total was about $300 for all the materials. So I think it is something that's it is easy to replicate in the future. And, yeah, we'll see we'll see how it rolls out this year with our this being our first year of doing this. And in addition, I would say, we're also engaged in in ongoing advocacy in in support of migrants including migrant workers. So here are a few pictures highlighting some of some of that work. So we have a, a campaign calling for healthcare access for all migrants including migrant workers. So migrant workers don't have access to public healthcare in Nova Scotia. And in one situation, last year, we supported migrant worker with access, getting access to workers compensation. When he got into a he was in a passenger in a in an accident. And it was within the context of work. And so, at that time, his employer took away his his they have access to private insurance took away the card. And so really that really highlights the vulnerability of workers in terms of access to healthcare. And so we were able to find a way around that. But yes, so this is something that's ongoing, an ongoing call. As I mentioned, we're part of ongoing calls for full and permanent immigration status for all, recognizing that it's the quote unquote, it's a temporary immigration status of migrant workers that really contributes and causes their vulnerability. And of course, as I mentioned, that's tied to racism. And so here's a picture we did a posturing blitz, where we went to different, different places that are important symbolically so here we were at the local farmers market with these posters saying migrant workers are part of our community. We had a series of four with different migrant communities. So that's, so that's a little bit about our advocacy. And we've also done public education, such as film screening, and, and other events as well. And as well as other activities. So those are some highlights. I added this slide here, because I think, you know, people always want to know what, what can we do in our own communities. And so, here are a few suggestions. So when join, I put join or contribute to a migrant justice organization in your area. I think it could be contributing in terms of volunteering in terms of funds. I also should have put, or start your own as well, or support group or specifically for migrant workers or how, however, yeah, however you envision that. We recently reached out to by someone who's who's thinking of starting a group, another group, which is really exciting and beautiful to see that. And number two, connect with migrant workers in and around your community, which is challenging during COVID-19. But I think that there are still ways to do that. So we're thinking, like, we've heard of other other groups such as church groups in the past hosting community dinners with migrant workers in the community, which is really great for challenging the sense of isolation that that migrant workers can feel and really highlighting the support in the community for migrant workers. And we're thinking of doing something similar but a barbecue outside because of COVID-19. So that's, that's an idea. And also, they're ongoing events through this is through the migrant rights network. So there are four upcoming days of action, where people throughout the country are encouraged to plan an event or participate in an event and really as under the spanner of full and permanent immigration status for all. So those are a few ideas. And this is our contact info. Thank you so much. Thank you so much to see a lot of information there will make sure to get your contact info into the chat. I've learned a lot and looking forward to getting active with some of your tips there so thank you for your insights. Now is the time for questions and answers. So, in terms of, if you want to ask a question you can put it into the chat. And raise your hand through the reaction button, and we will put you in the queue. And if we should have plenty of time to get to all of your questions. And I will be free to put them in the chat and I will put them in order I already have a few questions that were asked earlier that I will put to the group. And if anybody has insights, feel free. There's a wealth of knowledge, not just from our presenters who are very grateful for but also in the room overall. I have a question earlier. In Ontario people 40 and over can now be vaccinated. Is the farm owner responsible for scheduling that workers vaccinations. So if anybody has insights. Things are kind of going full steam ahead with them being given priority. So the first ones received vaccinations from trigono farms. Yeah, if you if you go on to the grower, the magazine the grower website, there is information on there about that about how they're rolling it out to the farms, and an interview with Phil trigono as well so that we have as men received the first vaccinations as part of the pilot. Again, there was a lot of anxiety among the guys and we received a lot of calls for that. But again, we reassured them that don't follow the headlines regarding the blood clot it is still very that seems to be the overriding thing. So if I get a blood clot and a stroke, and who will help me if their side effects so when we let them know, historically speaking, when there have been crises on the farms we have stood by injured workers and not let them disappear so we said we will be standing with you. And as soon as I got my shot I let I've been letting the guys know I created this little video short short 30 second video which I think I shared with you that we've been sharing around via WhatsApp, they need reassurance. And the fact that the employer took the first shot really made a difference to because they figured, okay if he's going to get it he's not going to endanger himself and his family. So that was greatly reassuring for them. So this week will be the big push for vaccinations on the farms in Niagara, at least and I'm sure it's going to be spreading out across Ontario. So it is up to the farmer but I have to say the farmers, even though they are not able to reassure them saying well you're going to get paid time off if you get side effects, but they are saying that this is your choice. So, but also historically guys know a choice is not really a choice. You can choose not to you just will be coming back next year so that's what's happening in our area. Thanks a lot. And I. So far, I have the timeline, I've timeline I've been hearing here, which I haven't heard very much is June for the vaccination of migrant workers. So we don't have any details, any more details on that. Thanks. Thank you so much, Jane and Stacy for the very informative, you know, sharing. I just want to add some information around vaccination, as Jane said here in Ontario this is already being rolled out. I understand that that last Saturday, there was, you know, a full kind of steam vaccination done in Lenington. I also want to, you know, to share that there's two streams now, one for the workers who are already here. That's, you know, so it's through the farms and also kind of sharing that information and so forth. But for those workers who are who are just arriving, vaccinations are done, you know upon arrival. So it started, I think, not this Saturday, but the other Saturday workers coming in through the Pearson International Airport are, you know, are being bused or through the link brought to a vaccination area. So they are going to the airport before they are, you know, they are picked up by their employers. So, just, you know, to mention that in Halifax, the kind of the Atlantic government is kind of coordinating, you know, among themselves being able to provide logistical support to the workers that are arriving and also kind of a mandated quarantine in government approved facilities before they are transported to, you know, or before they go to where they're supposed to go, whether it's in the Grand Suite or PEI or in Nova Scotia. Right now there are two airports operating as port of entries. So this is Moncton and also Halifax. So there is, you know, a huge possibility for our community partners, you know, under this empowering temporary for a migrant workers project that our community partners are able to provide logistical support into airport to workers who, you know, who are just arriving. So in Toronto we might be able to start, you know, this airport support services. This, this week, while, you know, we're still, you know, negotiating, you know, for Halifax, flu, Stacey and no one is illegal, and possibly in Moncton. So just, you know, to share that information and stuff. Well, may if I might just add, of all the workers that I talked to that arrived last week, and they all turned down the vaccinations at the airport. They said they felt that was unfair to be presented with that when they were so some of the guys they said we could hardly walk we haven't moved for a couple hours. Now we've been in two different lineups for customs and COVID tests. We're shaking because we're so hungry. We don't want to get into another lineup for a vaccination. We just want to go lie down and get some food, and none of them accepted the vaccination. But talking to them today, they said we would have received a vaccination if we could have at least had a meal so we didn't have to stand and wait in another line. So some of them were not anti vaccination, but they all agree it's a bad idea at the airport it's incredibly sensitive. And it's not listening to what their needs are, which is food. It's just one more example of them not being listened to even filter gun out the first farmer who got the pilot vaccination program going, he said it's not a good idea, but the government is not listening. I think Eduardo from all columns to share additional information around nation. Oh, sorry. Yes, hi everyone. So, yeah, we've been quite trying to get stay connected to all of the developments around the vaccine airport initiative. Similarly, we were quite concerned when we started hearing about the proposal for it. Exactly what you're mentioning Jane in terms of just trying to figure out if that is, you know, not a space that sounds like it's very conducive to making sure things are done slowly and with a big focus on communication and answering people's questions. We provided a lot of feedback early on to some key contacts at some of the groups involved, including Omafra. So we provided, you know, recognition of the importance of making sure workers were receiving information before they were offered the vaccine at the airport and if that was going to be happening, then the initiative obviously started. And, and there's a staff person that we work with and it also works with TNO, who's part of the network here, who's been involved in those vaccines. And generally speaking, it's, it's tough because I think, you know, we've heard a lot of positives from the Mexican worker community. So in terms of the people involved, they noted that a lot of the Mexican workers were really thankful to have the vaccine available to them. It sounded like there was still a lot of learning that happened in that initiative in terms of, you know, from the get go some information was not necessarily being provided right away and through more of doing the vaccination clinic, you know, certain things got identified and kind of looped into it. I know workers do get a meal following the vaccine. But, but yeah, it's definitely, we've been, we've been really trying to keep track of it because we are and continue to be concerned but one of the biggest things too. So the Mexican government has been, so we produced a series of packages of resource packages that we've been distributing that have the vaccine information in them, as well as other COVID-19 safety resources. And those have been printed and handed out to every worker while they're in line to get the vaccines in the airport. And so at least that's some information and they have greeters that then discuss the information with workers. And it sounds like questions to an extent are being, you know, being answered but again, you know, it's, yeah, far from perfect, I'm sure. Like you said, Jane, the one thing that was flagged was that there was quite a, or there was a difference between the acceptance of the vaccine among Mexican communities and among the Caribbean communities. So the first Caribbean flight that came in, it was from Trinidad and Tobago, and the rate of acceptance was quite lower. For the Mexican community, they had a really high acceptance of the vaccine at the airports is what the ministry and the council were reporting. The Trinidadian flight, I think, had an estimate around 60% acceptance of the vaccine, so it was lower whereas in the Mexican flight was actually higher than that, it was quite high. Higher than I think it was the regular population. So then again, there was really a focus on ensuring that workers didn't feel pressured that this wasn't part of an arrival requirement or things like that. That was really emphasized in what we said that it should be emphasized and it sounded like it. It is being emphasized. And then maybe I'll stop ranting, but it's continuing and yeah, I guess one, and sorry, the last couple things and I don't know if other colleagues are on the phone as well that might want to speak to this. Some of the other issues that we've started to communicate to some of the health units are, and they were raised actually from some Kairos network folks and Stephanie Mayel as well from TNO that some workers have been getting their second date, so the date of their second dose of the vaccine ends up being after their return date back home. So that's been a concern that people have been raising to the health unit saying, you know, it really becomes really needed to ask workers when their date of return is to be able to figure that out. Especially for example, Moderna is a vaccine being used at the airport and in some of the regional vaccinations and Moderna is not available in Mexico. So we, you know, started flagging what that looks like if a worker gets a Moderna vaccine here and is supposed to return before the second dose, what happens for that second dose if it's not available in Mexico. So we've been engaging with health units as well as with the vaccine airport initiative around those topics and there's a few others as well and things are still unclear because as we know their vaccine shipments have been reduced in certain points including of Moderna. So health units are not necessarily being clear as to whether they're going to be able to prioritize that second dose for workers amidst what's happening across the province. So still a lot of work to figure out for sure. Thank you, Eduardo so much for sharing your insights into this. I know it's a very wide, wide field and it's just rolling out but it's important to, to center the workers in that process which I think is what all of us have really been doing through this conversation. So we'll be having a webinar in this series specifically about the vaccines and I'll let you know which one that's going to be because this is a very vital topic and as the rollout progresses across Canada. It's important to look at the interplay between the vaccination rollout and migrant workers. While we're on the subject. There were a few questions just checking on. We'll stick with vaccines for now so are there portable vaccination agencies like bands or nurses available available to go to farms. So that's rolling out. I know we talked about the pilot project, but I'm assuming that through this, if it's refused to the airport there would be opportunity on the farm to accept the vaccine. Yes, we've heard that that's a thing so we've heard that the that the airport vaccination is communicating with regional vaccinations to then the idea was that they were going to then supply the second dose in the community if the times matched up now that's a bit less clear but yes, within the community vaccinations, it's a mixed batch between centralized locations where workers through their employers are being directed to those centralized locations so for example in Windsor Essex, they started their their their their main or the health units main vaccination clinic started this past weekend and there they are going for a centralized location so workers are are being registered through their the farms and then transported to that centralized location to get the vaccine. Some of the other initiatives are are more mobile vaccination clinics. So the health units so it seems to be a bit different in each region. Some of the there. So Windsor Essex health units that they wouldn't be doing mobile ones, but other health health care practitioners in Windsor Essex who are okay to vax vaccinate could be doing specific farm and actual kind of outreach clinics, but in other regions like in Niagara it seems like theirs might also be outreach clinics so it seems to be a bit of a of a mixed batch. But we're just hoping that communications very well established between all of them right because there was also, we had started hearing where one groups were kind of registering or preliminarily registering some farms where then the health unit was also going to contact that was kind of something that that we were worried about in terms of some of the feedback from the airport vaccinations to there was talk about really making sure we're we're talking to communities about whether they've received a vaccine prior to coming and that was something that you know volunteers were kind of catching that some workers were not necessarily flagging right away that they had received a vaccine back home. This was mostly among communities Mexican worker communities, and there was still some kind of conversations around maybe the benefits of getting another vaccine and maybe not as clear around, you know, that that might not, you know, that that needs to be unpacked and you want the vaccine to be the same vaccine and all that stuff. You know, one of those cases was flagged really close to worker in the line of getting the vaccine so then once that was figured out it became a conversation that started more overtly I guess with workers to say anybody who's gone around vaccine you know let us know because we then you know need to follow up with you. And that then became kind of a it seems to like it became more of a discussion so. Thank you. Alfredo I saw you had your hand up. Yeah I'm not just because you mentioned the we're hoping to have a webinar on vaccines will be on June the first June just wanted to share that. And then later on we can share information on the in the rest of our upcoming webinars. I saw earlier that Donna had her hand up did you still have a question. There's another in the chat. Well, in the meantime, there's a question from Ashley from unknown neighbors. Does anyone have suggestions or strategies. They can share on some ways of locating temporary form workers at majority of the farms I've reached out to say they don't employ temporary form workers. This has been kind of a theme through a lot of the, a lot of the webinars, and it does make that direct piece difficult but if anybody speak to that. So, my name is funny and I'm working for Kairos. In the same area, what we do is we go to the supermarket. Walmart we go to food basics we go to. We go to the Superstore we go to the bank. And we have CIPC kind of close to your bank. BMO and usually if you go on a Friday or Saturday. They are the workers are coming to town this year, like we. It's not like this year where workers were not able to come out this year we've seen a lot of workers coming to town shopping. So those are some of the ways to reach out to migrant workers and deliver flyers and let them know that you're there for them. And also we check the newspapers, because usually when there is. There is a farm that has a covered some 19, it will be in the paper. And then you'll find out to the farm that there are some other farms that hired migrant workers. And that's how we reach out. And the farms in our area they've been really. We have we didn't have any trouble talking to the employers. And so just knock at the door. Usually they have a big sign do not enter. We call, we are at the door of the office, we call them and then they come out. And so those are the ways banks supermarkets are the ways to reach out to migrant workers. There's a question in the chat for Stacy. You talked about Dorothy is wondering if you can say a bit more about what the health and safety issues are that have been going on. Yes. So, yes, happy to share and also here is no it is also supporting with the migrant workers program here in Nova Scotia. And welcome. Yes, I talked about some of the safety concerns that existed before the pandemic and how they're being exacerbated during COVID-19. And so, yeah, I think that's also something that can speak about as well. And so, but yeah, I'm happy to share I had mentioned a few things such as hazards, such as pesticides, lack of access to safety equipment. Those are some of the some of the things that have been directly mentioned that have existed prior to the pandemic. Also during the pandemic. So for example, I'm not sure if it's the case also in Ontario, but workers in the food sector. They're exempt from the social distancing measures. So the employer is supposed to reduce the amount it kind of is supposed to find ways to to reduce the risks to to migrant workers, but but they're exempt from from social like physical distancing in the workplace, which makes it hard for them to refuse work that is unsafe in this context. And so with with our group and other organizations that are part of the migrant worker rights working group. We've been calling for a removal of that that exemption for workers in that sector. So that's that's something recently that we've been well since the since COVID something that we've been advocating around. And I also, I wonder if no I might also have other things to add to this to this question as well. Okay. I feel that the security in the houses, as well as living in the house, which is like a point of collapse. The last visit that we did was to look at the houses are abandoned. So no is also no is talking about so safety in terms of housing is also an issue. So recently he saw some housing where migrant workers are living that is at the point of almost collapsing that look like they're like abandoned housing. So also, in terms of the workplace, another issue around security is lack of instruction and training around issues in the workplace. So with COVID, for example, when the employer talks to the workers about COVID, they talk about the fine that they might receive, but they don't talk about how they could prevent getting sick. That that's that's it for now I think. Thank you. Thank you so much for that. And Dorothy. Yeah, you can go ahead. Hi. So my name is Dorothy Wigmore I'm working with the Ocow folks around this migrant worker project and doing the toolkit toolkit for workers and some other things. But I wanted to let folks know that we'll have the link for you hopefully by the time this session's over. We're April 28 is what they call the day of mourning for workers killed and injured on the job. It's now it's year 35. It started here in Canada is now on around was on around the world. And so we came up with the idea of doing a webinar for this network and for others who are interested in in migrant worker health and safety on the 28. And it'll be from 130 to three. And, as I said, we'll have a link to put in the chat box, hopefully, before things are over. But that was really helpful, Stacy, and I'm sorry, I'm awful on names, your friend's name. No, thank you. So it's just, I think, you know, there's a real connection between the health and safety issues and living issues and things around the vaccine, you know. So, anyway, we'll be talking more about that on the 28th and hope you can join us. Thank you so much. And yes, please put the link to that in the chat so that you can connect. Yep, Connie, you can go ahead. Hi. I just want you know, well, first of all, hi, I haven't seen you for a while and so good to see you, you know, at this webinar. Yeah, Temporary Foreign Worker in Quebec and has been very active with the Immigrant Workers Center there and now he's in Nova Scotia, helping, you know, workers in Nova Scotia. I just want to, you know, to say that our topic, you know, this afternoon is very, very important and very relevant in terms of how, you know, how we make migrant farm workers welcome in our communities and how can we support them. Considering that we've been saying all the while that these workers are essential, you know, to ensure that, you know, there's food on our table and other essential services. Jane and Stacy, you referred to the current project that Kairos is partnering with Service Canada and in the process of implementing this project, we are in partnerships with about, you know, 13 community organizations that are in partnership with about 70 other community organizations. This project is very, is very short term. This is going to be ending in June, end of June, June, Turkey. However, migrant workers have been coming and will be coming throughout, you know, throughout the years. And in as much as we, as we are using, you know, the care funding to support local communities, local organizations and hoping that, you know, with your continued support and continued commitment of our community partners, this work, this support, this assistance, the migrant workers, you know, continue. So one of our kind of one of our objective or kind of aspiration in this afternoon's webinar is to open it up for everyone to sort of share what you are doing in your communities and strategize on how we can do a more coordinated community approach. Working together, collaborating together to continue the support that, you know, we are already expanding. Hi Ella and Richard. Ella and Richard are very active in London. And of course, you know, we have Ashley with unknown neighbors in Collingwood, and I saw Joe Bicina with the, the Diocese of London in the Windsor assets area. So, let's, let's, you know, share and and try to share, you know, what you are already doing and how can we sustain it beyond June 30. Thank you. So developing this webinar. I as someone who prior to January was completely disconnected from this issue was wondering about ways that were just like interested people who aren't working in the field can participate and what they can offer to to support migrant workers. And I think there are a lot of great tips for people from Jane and Stacey, but if there are other people from other organizations who are looking for volunteers or have programming that could benefit from from sort of a massive people getting involved. Feel free to add that into into this webinar. I might add. I'm very grateful for this ability to be able to connect with our opportunity to connect with people from across Canada. As many of you know, the farm workers are usually like in our area they're just here for a specific amount of time then a lot of them that come up later will then transfer to Collingwood and brighten some of as far as Nova Scotia for the Apple and then we get calls from there saying Jane I need to see a doctor or I need a new pair of shoes and all manner of things that people need in the course of living and we have nowhere to start to be able to hook them up. Last year number of ladies were in Collingwood with all kinds of needs they'd never been there before. And had not been told the truth about where they were going to harvest and just found themselves alone and isolated and very worried because they didn't have proper winter clothing to harvest apples so knowing now that there's kind of connections in Collingwood is just really helpful and encouraging, as well as Halifax and across the country so this kind of information is also invaluable to all of us actually so I really appreciate everybody's input today. I'll raise her hand earlier. One thing we find I David just mentioned you know as far as volunteers will get a call a day before a rain and the guys will say we have no work we're stuck in the bunkhouse. We'd like to practice English. So we got the book from Frontier College we reprinted it's about $10 or $12 to reprint we put a plasticized cover on. We, we give it to the workers that are interested we've just done a pilot but they'll call us up the night before they'll say can you, can you call us can you practice English with us tomorrow at four. So, I just find there's a real need to practice English, or on Sundays that'll happen. And then we have a bicycle shop that gives us a discount so we tune up bicycles when it's not COVID time when people are restricted, we tune up bicycles, and then we sell them for $25 to the workers. They ask us to store their bike for the next season so then we store it. So those are and then we do food drops we get, we get certified organic food, and we give it to our friends and we do food drops at farms. But this year we can't see any workers so we take it to the farmer. Thank you, Ella. Thank you so much for that. In the chat says a few of us in Brighton had to work hard to access medical care for workers since they're working hours don't match with medical clinic hours. What have others done in regards to this issue, in particular with insights into this. I think. Yeah, there are significant difficulties with not every locality has 24 hour medical care or easily accessible. Medical care that has those extended hours so I mean that could be another opportunity for volunteers to expand services. I'm going to put Donna on this. Donna. I knew you were going to do that. I've been. Well, good afternoon, everyone. I've just been here, you know, trying to hold back because there are so many things that, you know, migrant workers need just simply having someone who can, you know, call them to say how are you doing. It's just so important. You know, we need volunteers to, you know, to drive them to for their medical appointments to sometimes do to get groceries, especially with COVID with some items that are, you know, they go to the grocery store it's not available. You know, I would get calls and say, you know, can you pick up, you know, can you pick up some some yam for me or can you pick up medication. You know, that kind of stuff, you know, just knowing that there's somebody who can, who can help them out, you know, during this time is very important. I also volunteer with an organization called Caribbean workers outreach project, and we are connected to the United Church. And in the past what we have been doing is connecting spiritually so we have Sunday night services which is the guys tremendously love to attend even now they're saying, you know, they're saying, you know, when are we going to get together. Can we actually do like a zoom. You know, serve worship service on a Sunday morning. So you know their calls for that. And, you know, you know, rival with with with Vineland. We also do a cricket competition which is, which is a great past time for Jamaicans. So just being able to, to get that social aspect in there. volunteers who will, you know, on their own time, will invite workers over for dinner, or they'll take them out on an excursion. You know, just simple things like that, that help to connect, to build community, to let migrant workers feel, you know, very welcome. Like they're part of our community. It's so very important. And I mean, thanks Jane. Jane is kind of like my mentor in the Niagara region, because she does so much for migrant workers. But I mean, the guys, you know, just showing them how much we appreciate them, and how much we care that they lead their families every year to, you know, to spend six, seven, eight months here, you know, just to provide, to put foods on our table. Thank you, Donna. What we are also planning at Cairo is organize, you know, a local ecumenical meetings in areas where we have already community partners and in areas where there's a huge, you know, concentration of migrant farm workers. So for example, with Shannon is here with us. We've been in touch with Father Peter, for example, in Cinco, and, you know, kind of requesting, okay, who are the community churches that are in the area that we can, you know, we can call on and we can organize a meeting and just find out if they are also doing or providing services to migrant workers in the area. Or if not, how can, you know, how can we, we start ecumenically? As you know, Cairo is an ecumenical organization and we have membered churches in almost all of the areas where there are migrant workers. So that's one way of, you know, drawing, drawing in local churches and faith groups to, yeah, to start kind of, you know, providing support and assistance in whatever way they can. But really, you know, get engaged and become part of this community action that, you know, we are doing. Shannon, if you want to say a little bit more on that. Just to say that we have, we've not reached out to all of our partner organizations yet. In every area, we just sort of picked a few that we knew were sort of where there were lots of churches around and we were ready to reach out there. We're slowly setting some dates if there are folks on this call who would be keen to have that sort of meeting in their area to garner more support for your organization or for the work that you're doing or to just see more initiatives begun. Reach out to us and we'd be happy to partner together to, you know, use, use your contacts, our contacts and put together an invitation where we can share the work, share that is being done and share the needs that are there and invite more people to be involved. Shannon. David, if I might just add it's Donna here. Yep. Another very important way we were able to connect with migrant workers is through Caribbean workers outreach. We would bring two ministers from Jamaica to the Niagara and the Vineland side and they would spend five weeks each year, all expenses paid and what they would do is they would actually go to the farms like in the evenings and visit with the guys, you know, just minister to them, you know, just see how they're doing and that kind of stuff and they really, really appreciate knowing that they have a minister who speaks the same language, who understands culturally, you know, these kind of things that they're going through and I found that to be very effective. Thank you, Donna. Thank you so much. Shannon has put her email in the chat if you're interested in partnering for the Ecumenical Meeting and there is also the Eventbrite link for the OCOW health and safety webinar as well. And if you want to save the chat, it's just three little dots and then click save chat. May I also mention an idea from that a local church is doing and Southridge Church in Vineland has probably one of the most effective farm worker outreaches in Canada, I would say. And last year they managed to have a social night one or two nights a week by inviting the farm so that they're coming in their own hub and their own bubble. So there was no concern about mass contamination between farms. So they would have their nights of ping pong and pool and watching movies, video games, that kind of thing. So they've been very innovative about how to create some very important diversions for guys to even though it's the same bubble, but at least they're different activities and they're off the farm and it involves food, which is wonderful. So there are some of the ideas with Southridge Church in Vineland, which you can just Google them and contact Nate Dirksen. I'm sure he'd be happy to fill you in on ideas. Traditionally in August, well for about eight years, I did the workers welcome concert, which we eventually just outgrew because we didn't have room for a venue that had room for a thousand people. So it evolved into the Peach Pickers picnic starting in 2017 and we continued for three years. The last year we fed a thousand people. It was a phenomenal turnout. Now of course we can't do that because of COVID, but one of the things we're considering is doing a pop-up concert with delivering meals at the same time and just getting a trailer, putting a kit of drums on it and a little portable speaker, one mic and just property distancing, but just pulling around to the farms, doing two or three songs, dropping off a meal, moving on to the next farm before we can get busted, essentially. And again, it would just be pulling off the road safely and just letting the guys know you are not alone, delivering watermelon, snacks, whatever, whatever the budget will allow. And I think there's many different ways we can be creative about this while still respecting all of the protocols because ultimately that's what's most important, that you respect everybody's health and keep everybody safe. But this is part of dealing with the stress levels and the mental health issues are of increasing concern. When there have been mental breakdowns in the past year, just due to all the accumulation of stress, isolation, fear for their families, they just get sent home. And it's been very, very concerning to hear about these stories a year after the fact that we didn't even know about this because there's the shame and stigma attached of people having the inability to cope with such huge amounts of stress. They don't have the resources we do and they have the added levels of shame and stigma, which many of us are now more open about if we're suffering with depression, whatever. We recognize the signs. We can be proactive about some things, at least if we see it in family members. But for these guys, it goes unrecognized until it gets built up to a breaking point. And so just to recognize the needs to support their mental health and reduce some of this stress, which can just be silly stuff, it can just be, yeah, maybe a pop-up concert. The fellow that headlined at the concert, we used him in the COVID video, or in the vaccination video. And he is amazing, we'll probably use him. Stick him on the back of a trailer and just go farm to farm two songs each. But these little spur of the moment things that are very low budget, we're usually used to working with no budget. But we never let that stop us. We never let that stop us. We never let that stop us. So that's another idea too. Music is really a big boost to the guys. So another fellow we were able to purchase a keyboard for. He does have internet provided on his farm. So we hope he's going to be able to do some recording and we can share that online as well. Just to allow them to share their voices, that they will be heard and that their voices are important in connecting them. I want to pick up on what you shared earlier about partnering with community, local community business, in terms of being able to provide, for example, the Wi-Fi hotspot in the house. Because it's one of the major issues that many of the workers are facing in terms of isolation and not being able to connect to their families, especially during emergencies, if something happened in the bank house and so forth. So I wonder if you can, you know, just say that again and just, you know, for our participants here to take, you know, some inspiration and kind of how to do it kind of thing. Yeah, well, I think it was a huge success with our own library. They only had two Wi-Fi hotspots, so I connected them with the farms most in need and advocated on their behalf that they shouldn't have to return them after two weeks. And it was actually, but prompted that move. I wasn't even that familiar with what hotspots did two years ago, but one of the fellows on the farm was actually having a breakdown of sorts. His wife had left him in Jamaica and took the kids with him. He had no idea where she was going. There was really a very serious situation to the point he started digging his own grave in behind the bank house. He was going to kill himself and didn't want to make a mess. And so he started digging a hole. It was very, very frightening, very depressing and worrisome for the other guys who were quite scared what was going to happen. And I realized this is just really important for him to be able to connect at home. And where he worked and where the bank house was located, it's just in a little blackout area. So they also can't make phone calls. Like chatter doesn't work. Some of these traditional providers just didn't work in that area. So they'd actually have to go up to a neighboring house and try to connect to the neighbor's Wi-Fi. It was really a problem. And so I just went to the library and said, this is a real, this is a very urgent situation. We need to borrow a hotspot now. And it was just sitting there idle, not being used at the library. So I was able to get it and to have it extended till the end of the season. And I automatically asked for it the next year, but I'm realizing all over, I didn't realize how expensive the data plans were until I had to get it on my phone. And then it was because we want to communicate, everybody needs WhatsApp to communicate to Mexico, Jamaica, wherever. And then when I had to put it on my phone, it's like, oh my gosh, I can't afford this. But then I thought, well, I do need to communicate with them. But I just thought their earnings are so quickly eroded because they're supporting their household back home. They also have internet fees back home. And now with COVID, it's gone through the roof with them having to pay. If they have two or three kids at school doing it online, the internet is eating up such a huge cost of their wages up here. So they just, they end up not buying enough groceries and just scrimping and other things because of the online costs and staying in touch are so high. So I got frustrated and, and I've been asking the library for the last two years, how can we get more Wi-Fi hotspots? I was turned down all the time. It's the prohibitive. But then I found out, no, it's not prohibitive. It's $1,200. Rogers has a plan with our Niagara Lake library. You buy the hotspot for $100. And then you purchase a two-year plan, which is $1,200. Each transponder can serve 15 devices at a time with unlimited internet. Well, this works out to $50 a month. So if you guys have 15 guys chipping in $5 a month instead of $50 a piece, that's a huge saving. And the internet is unlimited. And, and it goes everywhere. There's no blackout areas. Like it works close to the, our problem is the Niagara river and proximity to the US. There's no problems with these hotspots. So rotary wanted to contribute $500 to the welcome kits yesterday. I said, can we use it towards this? Here's the need. And I did all the background information. There are other libraries. Kitchener Waterloo has 82 hotspots that they loan out. You know, Wellington County, Meford, the rotary, they're paid for their new hotspots. Why can't we work with other community organizations to serve underserved rural areas. And so, until five G kicks in or whatever, we can solve this problem now immediately. And so yesterday rotary kicked in enough for three more hotspots and the contracts, which I was not expecting, but people are anxious to do something. And this is a very tangible way. It's a difference immediately. And it also helps us to connect with in our community. It's not just back home. It's us. We want to learn what's happening with our neighbors who are. We want to learn what's happening with our families. We want to learn what's happening with our families. We want to learn what's happening with our families. We want to learn what's happening with our families. Okay. In St. Vincent. Like this is important for all of us. Right. And their kids back home need help with their homework. And they're calling their dads. Can you help me? I don't have data. Well. You know, it's possible. We can try to keep these families in tact and. Communicating as best as possible. And this is one really good way to do it. But it's not only to be able to stay in their homes. There's nothing else that can help. I've seen in the past. I've seen in the past. I've seen in the past. In our houses and also a post office. And delivery spot for Amazon. And I know Amazon. The. Everybody guys think I have a real addiction, but it's actually. People just sending using our house as an address, because they, this is a privilege we don't think of. We think. Like they can get mail. They don't want their mail going to their employer's house. They don't want all the parcels going to their employer's house. and I don't support Amazon personally, but these guys have no alternative. Yeah. Thank you, Jane. And I just want to add, you know, that the libraries, the public libraries are really good to be partnered, you know, to be partnering with. For example, Durham Region for migrant workers ministry are actually given, I think, five Wi-Fi spots or hotspots, and also were, you know, they were lent devices like tablets. Yeah. They were able, you know, to, for the workers to connect and use the tablets. And also in the Durham Region, they're partnered with Salvation Army. So that for, you know, the food banks, for example, after the, you know, the regular clients have taken their, you know, their food, whatever is left over is given, are given to the ministry and then they share it with, you know, the migrant workers in Durham. So there's many ways that, you know, we can, we can continue to support. And I think the work has to start now in terms of locating who their community organizations are and in terms of partnering with them. My, my cut wants to join the conversation. Yes. And start small, like start small, enjoy some small successes, but just get going. I've never had money to start anything. In fact, I just met resistance with most of my projects. So you just start small and the success is built. And honestly, like the local paper wanted me to write about all the volunteers that are involved with supporting farm workers. And I just said, we're not volunteers. This is a way of life we have chosen. We choose to love our neighbors as ourselves. We don't clock off at the end of the day. We don't, we don't ever stop thinking about it. This is a way of living and a way of loving. It's not a volunteer mentality. And as you get involved and you love them as your neighbors and as your friends, you'll find no ends of things that you can do to support them and enable them to use their own voices to express themselves safely. That's how do we use our privilege to serve? That's all. Absolutely. As we come to the close of the session, I was wondering if Stacy had anything else to add before we are done with the day? Thanks a lot for the opportunity to speak with everyone and to connect with everyone. Thank you so much for, for joining us, Stacy and Jane. I had put the registration link for the next webinar in the series in the chat, but I'll do it again. The topic is going to be further discussing open work permits and the sort of related issues around them and focusing in, of course, on empowering temporary foreign workers because, you know, that's what the project is. But thank you so much for attending and we look forward to seeing you at the, at the next webinar. From this webinar, I'm looking to develop a resource that should be available potentially on the Kairos website. So look out for that. But yes, other than that, we will see you at the next webinar. Thank you so much. Thank you, everyone. See you again.