Dozens of Venezue­lan fam­i­lies flocked to the Nur-E-Is­lam Masjid in San Juan for an im­mi­grant out­reach event, on Wednesday.

The Venezue­lans, most of whom re­cent­ly par­tic­i­pat­ed in the Gov­ern­ment’s amnesty and reg­is­tra­tion pro­gramme, braved heavy rain­fall as they lined up for hot meals and med­ical checks.

In an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia, the mosque’s Imam Shi­raz Ali said that the mi­grants be­gan ar­riv­ing as ear­ly as 7 am as news of the event be­gan spread­ing in sur­round­ing com­mu­ni­ties.

“We had to serve them bread and but­ter be­cause we were not ex­pect­ing them so ear­ly,” Ali said.

In ad­di­tion to food and blood pres­sure and sug­ar test­ing, the mi­grants were of­fered Is­lam­ic lit­er­a­ture trans­lat­ed in­to Span­ish and hi­jabs.

“The whole idea of it is these are peo­ple who came in­to our coun­try, are dis­placed and are in need. It is our du­ty as Mus­lims to do some­thing for them,” Ali said.

He said that the plight of the Venezue­lans was sim­i­lar to Mus­lims who were forced to flee their coun­tries in the Mid­dle East.

“When­ev­er we see Mus­lims leav­ing their homes be­cause of des­per­a­tion, war and op­pres­sion, we hope that they would be tak­en care of or be treat­ed hu­mane­ly. When the sit­u­a­tion is re­versed and peo­ple are com­ing in our land, how could we not show that same kind of em­pa­thy to­wards them,” Ali said.

Za­hir Ali, of the Is­lam­ic char­i­ty or­gan­i­sa­tion Re­vival of Um­rah (ROU) which or­gan­ised the event, said that the Venezue­lans were very grate­ful for the as­sis­tance that was be­ing pro­vid­ed.

“They need to set­tle down and adapt to T&T life,” Ali said.

Al­though most present could not speak Eng­lish, they were heard ex­pressed grat­i­tude with the few words they knew.

Jes­si­ka Moreno, one of the few who spoke flu­ent Eng­lish, said that her fam­i­ly was thank­ful for the as­sis­tance as they were not able to bring many items when they ar­rived re­cent­ly for the Gov­ern­ment’s amnesty and reg­is­tra­tion process.

Be­fore they ar­rived, Moreno had not seen her three sis­ters for eight years since she left Venezue­lan in search of em­ploy­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties.

“It is great to have them here but it is dif­fi­cult some­times be­cause all of them are ed­u­cat­ed and they have to start from scratch with­out a bed, tow­el or a pair of shoes,” Moreno said.

Al­though she, her sis­ters and their chil­dren have to all share a one bed­room apart­ment in Champs Fleurs as she is the on­ly one em­ployed, they still seemed op­ti­mistic over their abil­i­ty to find jobs and set­tle tem­porar­i­ly in T&T.

“It just makes us stronger,” Moreno said.