Northwest Side pastor pioneers migrant resettlement program through churches

Jimena and Kamila Juma, a mother and daughter who recently arrived in Chicago, were given shelter inside Calvary Memorial Church in Oak Park as part of a resettlement program overseen by a North Austin pastor since last year. (Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times)

Jimena and Kamila Juma, a mother-daughter pair among the most recent migrants to Chicago, arrived in a city whose winter weather was unlike anything they had ever experienced home in Ecuador.

“I was shaking beneath my blankets,” said Kamila Juma, 5, recalling several nights they spent outside the Grand Central District police station, particularly the last — Halloween night — when it snowed.