The Calvary Church in Wānaka is home to the Brazilian community, first begun in Christchurch and Queenstown, started by a Brazilian immigrant pastor several years ago.
As the Brazilian population kept growing in the region, the church opened a Wānaka division in March last year, to help Brazilians acclimatise to their new life in Wānaka.
Minister Wellington Alves, inspired by his own journey as a young immigrant years ago, has been running the church’s programmes since they started in Wānaka.
He first moved from Brazil to Australia in 2012 to work and learn English before coming to New Zealand eight months ago.
Mr Alves said most of the immigrants he saw were families, the parents often taking jobs in construction, cleaning and mechanical assistance.
"They are leaving for a better quality of life," he said, mentioning that safety was the main motivator for Brazilian immigrant families.
Up until now, most of the church’s services to the Brazilian community had been practical ones, including helping newly arrived families to set up their bank accounts, getting their children settled in school and running online English lessons, he said.
However, more recently they had started a YouTube and podcast series with content intended to inform people in Brazil about the process of moving to New Zealand.
This project was started after the community saw many families facing serious struggles after immigrating.
"They have no idea what’s waiting for them in New Zealand," Mr Alves said.
The language barrier was a major issue in communicating the immigration process, he said.
He had seen cases in Christchurch where three or four families would share one house, which would lead to frustration and at times even domestic violence.
"We have seen examples of people living in cars," he said, recalling incidents he had seen in Queenstown.
Although solving those issues was a complicated journey, the community group felt that having information out there in Portuguese was a step in the right direction.
Mr Alves started the project with the help of Emanoel Dionisio, a former news videographer for Brazilian channel Record.
Mr Dionisio left Brazil for Wānaka with his wife and children two years ago and began working in construction, sacrificing his passion to provide his family with a better life.
With the help of Mr Dionisio’s video and editing skills, Mr Alves along with other members of the Brazilian community have begun filming the series.
