The Revd Glen Ruffle serves as the Anglican Communion’s Geneva Representative at the United Nations, where he works to amplify Anglican voices on global issues, particularly in the areas of refugee advocacy and human rights.
Through his engagement with UN agencies, international policymakers, and faith-based networks, he highlights the Church’s role in supporting displaced communities and advocating for just policies that uphold human dignity.
He reflects on the life-changing impact that one Anglican mission project, the Holy Trinity Brussels’ Community Kitchen, recently had for one woman in pursuit of a free and fulfilling life. This mission provides emergency food aid for refugees in the city of Brussels but on this occasion was also able to provide a gateway to a sustainable and hopeful future.
What would it be like to be a prisoner in your own home? That was the experience of one woman from Iran. She desperately wanted to learn and make more of her life. She wanted to work and to contribute. Yet in Iran, she was just the property of the men in her life, who demanded that she stay at home. So, when talk of an arranged marriage to an unknown man occurred, she decided to take her fate into her own hands.
She secretly planned her escape out of Iran with a hope of seeking refuge in the European Union. During the course of one month, she endured a difficult journey, passing through several countries including Turkey, Greece and Serbia. She then spent many more months in poor living conditions, often lacking proper food, shelter or access to healthcare as she sought a new life. She was, at length, given asylum in Greece.
She was able to receive some care and support from the United Nations High Commission on Refugees agency (UNHCR), and some funds to help her establish some life of her own; though opportunities where she was in Greece, to build a life were entirely absent.
The only second language she knew was English, so naturally, she wanted to go to the United Kingdom so pursued opportunities to get there. She travelled to Spain, where for four months she earned some money cooking and selling Iranian food, before attempting to enter the UK but without success.
She arrived in Belgium and applied for asylum but was told she’d likely have to return to Greece. She awaited the outcome of her application and lacking the documentation she would require, she could not even attend classes to learn a language.
A life turned around through an Anglican church’s mission
It was then that she found Holy Trinity Brussels’ Community Kitchen. Operating out of Holy Trinity Brussels, an Anglican church in the Diocese in Europe, the Community Kitchen is a ministry that focuses on providing food aid as well as more holistic, psycho-social support to vulnerable people.
The food ministry involves preparing upwards of 5,000 hot, nourishing meals each week for people who are hungry, homeless or otherwise vulnerable in Brussels. The meals are prepared and apportioned in Holy Trinity’s kitchen and then distributed across the city by other non-governmental organisations.
Holy Trinity’s main partner is the Red Cross, for whom Holy Trinity provides 85% of their meal support for refugees and others at the Humanitarian Hub in the north of Brussels. The Community Kitchen also responds to the ongoing crisis in Brussels of managing asylum seekers by providing meals to asylum seekers in various ‘unofficial’ refugee centres.
Meals are prepared seven days a week, usually twice a day, and demand is only increasing. It takes 100-150 volunteers every week to animate this operation, plus three employed staff.
The Community Kitchen helped the woman from Iran, who then began to volunteer at the centre. She soon got noticed. Her love of cooking led to a contract being offered, and finally, after nearly three years of unemployment, some income.
Money was not the only benefit; staff at the Community Kitchen helped her find a place to live and apply for proper documentation.
When asked if she missed home, the woman replied immediately: “Of course I miss home, Europe is 100% different to my home, and of course I would like to go back and visit my home, but I cannot because of the way I left. Many times, when I was without work, income and hope, I wondered if I had no choice but to return, and feared what might await me, but as soon as I received my documentation, I felt so relieved. Suddenly, I had some stability.”
The woman expressed that she feels blessed, saying that she enjoys her work and likes using her talents at the Community Kitchen. Although the salary is small, it makes a huge difference to her, granting her independence and the ability to save.
Looking to the future
Now, with a comparatively settled life and some security, she hopes to learn French and get a diploma in cooking; though longer term, she would like to try and become a train driver for the Brussels’ Metro.
Through the Community Kitchen initiative that helped those in urgent need, this woman has found a way to help others in her host country, contribute to society and sustain herself. What’s more, through Holy Trinity Brussels, she has found a supportive family community sharing the love of Jesus for all people in practical ways; ways that reach and serve the most vulnerable.
The work of Anglicans in Canada in aiding asylum seekers was highlighted in a previous blog post.