We are introducing this program because, as a Canadian who has travelled extensively, I have always valued the hospitality I have received in other countries, and the learning that hospitality has given us.
The situation:
International Students arrive in Winnipeg each year, ready and eager to study, achieve a degree, and make a future for themselves.
- You come with high expectations, sometimes high levels of anxiety, and many questions. How will you fit into the community? How will you survive the very different climate, history and culture? With who do you share your experiences, your questions?
- This program is built on a similar program that has been running successfully for some 25 years at Durham University in the UK.
- It aims to help you, through integration, to be better able to continue and complete your studies.
- And it seeks to introduce host families to the rich range of cultures, languages, and practices that you bring to this country.
We hope hosts and students will all benefit.
Here’s how it works
- International Students interested in being hosted for several meals in the home of a Winnipeg family are invited to register to take part in this project.
- Assuming we have enough hosts for the number of student registrants, you will then be paired with a Winnipeg host who will, as much as possible, have some connection to your faculty, interests, etc.
- Thanks to the generosity of the Peter Gionakes of the Belltower Cafe on the lower level of St Paul’s College on the U of M campus, 70 Dysart Rd, all such ‘paired’ hosts and students will be invited to gather there for a meal early in the fall term (date to be determined).
- Thereafter, the host will invite you to their home for two more meals in the fall term and three in the winter term of the academic year.
- You will be welcome, should you so choose, to bring with you to those ‘home’ meals one other international student. (Note: this proviso is purely to afford you a sense of safety and confidence, knowing you are not alone in going to a strange home.)
- Hosts will be responsible for ensuring you get safely from the university or residence to the home of the host and back again.
Hosts may also invite you to join them in visiting and participating in other places and events in Winnipeg. Such invitations, however, are not to take the place of the meals in the host’s home.
This pairing will continue for the academic year, though you and your host may continue beyond that as friends if you and they so wish.
At the end of each term, there will be an opportunity for you to provide feedback, so that the program may be improved to better meet the needs of both hosts and international students.
If you would like to discuss this opportunity further before you register to take part, you can contact us at ray.temmerman@gmail.com, or via WhatsApp.
To register as an international student to take part in the program, please click the following link: