Gratitude

Blogging, as it happens, is not an easy thing for me.  In these past few months especially, it's been hard for me to find time to put into words (let alone finding the right words) all that I've witnessed and been a part of in Toronto's refugee resettlement process.

While my sponsorship group impatiently awaits the arrival of the three groups we are sponsoring (Yes. Still.), we've kept busy with the many community efforts afoot to help those that have already arrived (over 3000 in the GTA). I have learned just how wonderfully resourceful, creative and generous my co-sponsors are and just how lucky we have been with the support of our community who seemingly have bottomless stores of supplies and goodwill.  So many newly arrived Syrians (and I'll wager, refugees from anywhere else in the world) will not have such a well connected group to ease them through the transition to a new country, culture, and weather system.

Until last week, I've been volunteering once a week at "The Hub", a pop up housewares shop where newcomer families could come and pick out gently used and donated items at no charge to them.  The effort was entirely volunteer-run and completely non-profit.  The women who started it have jobs and young children and busy, busy lives, but somehow, found it in themselves to help hundreds of families ease into their new lives here.  The lease at The Hub is up at the end of the month, and truth be told, supply couldn't keep up with demand and so the store is now closed.  What will take it's place is still a big question mark.

How do you keep a community engaged, focused and optimistic?  Once they have donated all their extra clothes, furniture and dishes, how do we convince people to continue to donate their most precious commodity, Their Time? These are all things I hope we'll be discovering in the coming months.

As for myself, I'm discovering that the more I give, the more I learn, and the more my eyes are opened to the infinite possibilities of a little bit of goodwill and a lot of elbow grease.

A call to action

The world can seem like an overwhelmingly bad place sometimes. There are acts of senseless violence that can render us immobile in our grief and confusion.  I have found that for me, the best way to fight against this dark and dreary state is to surround myself with people of action.  I am incredibly fortunate that in the journey to sponsor a Syrian refugee family I am rubbing shoulders with an inordinate number of people who are prepared to give so much of themselves for a family they have never met. This was in evidence tonight as the core group hosted our first meet and greet to get to know some of our supporters.  We had a fantastic turnout and the range of experiences and skills this group brings to the table is inspiring. How did we get so lucky?

 Now more than ever, when such ugly gestures are landing on our very doorstep it is time to turn our facebook status updates into concrete gestures of kindness.  We can all contribute something meaningful.  Even in Toronto, the city of no eye contact. It is time to engage meaningfully with each other.  Over the last few days, Muslim women in our city have been the victims of physical and verbal abuse.  I challenge you all to be there for them. Acknowledge their presence with a welcoming smile. Be prepared to stand by them should they need assistance. Be aware. Be an ally. Be a Canadian!

Trick or Treat

It's a strange world we live in.  Here in North America, we have the privilege of celebrating a holiday dedicated to all thinks "Spooky". We delight in, and pay good money for the chance of having the crap "safely" scared out out us.  Meanwhile, elsewhere, the horror is all too real, and it's relentless.
This week, I want to share something that one of our PEERS group core members, Carrie Klassen, wrote.  

"We just picked up our Halloween candy for tomorrow night, and as I set it on the counter, the bag of Tootsie Rolls took me right to a small village in India. I'd had a long but uneventful flight. I'd been worried I wouldn't find my ride to the place I was staying, but I did. I was a healthy woman with money in my pocket and contacts who could help me. But I arrived in my room and was afraid to leave for 24 hours (probably more, and even then, struggled). Everything was different. The smells, the sounds, the firecrackers, the cows poking their heads in my window. I was overwhelmed. I didn't know how to function outside of that room, yet. So I stayed there and ate only the candy I had brought from home to give to children. The thought of venturing out, navigating, trying to figure out how to get myself food when I couldn't speak a word and didn't know the customs... I wasn't capable of it yet. That so simple thing was too much. And so, looking at my Tootsie Rolls, I am thinking of the refugees all over the world who are arriving at new places but won't feel safe for some time. I had every advantage. I hadn't lived in a camp first, or lost family, or been exposed to war or violence or risk, and I couldn't figure out how to feed myself. I am saying a prayer that their extraordinary courage sustains them through the hard transitions to new lives. And that someone is able to guess at whatever their version of Tootsie Rolls is, and can give them some familiar comfort at the places they arrive."

Our new government appears to be sticking to it's promise to bring 25 000 refugees to Canada before years end and it seems more and more likely that our Syrian family might arrive in just a few short months. If all goes well we'll be matched with our SAH* in the next week or so, and to a family shortly after.  To think, when we started this process two months ago, we thought we might have to wait up to 4 years to be matched!  

With our fundraising well in hand, we will soon start reaching out to our community with other ways that they can help us.  Hopefully, as Carrie mentioned, we will be able to give them the comfort and support they so badly need.

*Sponsorship Agreement Holder

Fresh Start

Today Canada is waking up with a renewed sense of optimism. Or at the very least, less of a sense of dread. In electing our new Prime Minster, here's hoping we can undo what the last guy's fear mongering and  divisive politics have done.

It's good news for the PEERS Group* as well. We certainly hope that refugee claims will start getting processed more quickly now and that our country will step up and show itself as the compassionate nation we know it to be. Our fund-raising got off to a fantastic start with us raising almost $20 000 in less than a week. That's enough to move our application forward and hopefully soon we'll be matched with a SAH**. 

But there's still a lot of work to do. We need to raise another $34 000 if we want to seriously be able to support a family of four for a year as we are committing to do. and it's not just the financial support we need to think of. We will be the families first contact with their new community and help them with all aspects of settling in a new and strange country.

There is no way to know at this point what our family will be like. Every Syrian currently has refugee status as designated by the UNHCR***. They maybe urban university professors, or rural farmers, Muslim or Christian. It doesn't matter, they all deserve a shot at a life free of terror. My group and I may have our work cut out for us. There may be language barriers  and cultural differences at the very least.  I know our lives will be made richer and the world made a bit smaller by getting to know them and accepting them into our community. I hope they learn to love Canada and see a future for themselves here.

If you would like to contribute financially to our effort, please visit us here.  If you are unable to contribute at this time, please consider posting the link to your Facebook page.

*People of the East End Refugee Support Group. Join us on Facebook

**Sponsorship Agreement Holder. An organization that has signed a sponsorship agreement with the federal government. An SAH can be a local, regional or national organization. It assumes overall responsibility for the management of sponsorships under its agreement.

***UNHCR The United Nations Refugee Agency.

Family Reunions

This year, for Thanksgiving, instead of heading home to see my parents, I opted to join some of my extended family in Prévost, Québec. Nine of us travelled from different corners of the province (or another province altogether, in my case) to meet at a rented house in the Laurentians for the weekend. For geographical reasons, I don't know my family as well as I'd like to.  First, they're far away and second, there are so gosh darn many of them. Facebook has done much to narrow the gap between us, but there's nothing quite like sharing a meal together and being face to face to make you feel part of something. I went, not only because I thought it'd be fun, but because I felt it important to strengthen my bond with my family.

This evening, one night after getting home from my trip, the newly named PEERS group (People of the East End Refugee Support group) had its second meeting. While everyone knew at least one person in the room, many of us were still strangers to one another. In order for us to succeed we will need to get to know and trust each other very well, and if tonight's meeting is any indication, I have no doubt that we will succeed,

One of the first decisions we had to make was which approach we wanted to take in being matched with a refugee family.  The two options to consider were the Blended Visa Office Referred case (BVOR) and the Family Referred case.  In a nutshell;  BVOR cases are already deemed eligible by VISA post, are almost travel ready and therefore have a shorter submission time. The costs are also covered in part by the government. They are typically higher needs cases that will require a higher degree of support from their sponsors in their first year. A Family Referred case means that they have at least one family member or friend already in Canada who has flagged them as needing aid. These cases take longer to process and  receive no financial support from the government, but having at least some family here means they generally settle in more easily. How do you decide who to help? Personally, and maybe only because of my recent Thanksgiving experience, my heart sings at the thought of reuniting a family. But a strong argument can also be made for reaching out to whomever needs the most support or has the most immediate need for help. Tonight, we took a good look at our group and weighed our strengths and weaknesses to be realistic about who we could best serve.  As a group, we decided that while we are probably best suited to help a Family Referred case, should a BVOR case be offered to us, we would absolutely consider it as well. The will to adapt and do what it takes to help our  refugee family is already really strong in our group, and we don't even know them yet.

I am really looking forward to this experience and the bonds that will be forged by our group not only with each other but also with a family, yet to be named, but already, in our minds, part of our community.

Taking That First Step

I don't know what happened in the last year, but somehow I got over my fear of taking risks.
Ok, well maybe not the big crazy ones like jumping out of planes or high stakes investment banking but the smaller, more nuanced stuff like  being silly in public (improv clases), and falling in love (He likes me! He really, really likes me!). Maybe it was the advent of my 40's but these days I find myself more able to take that first scary step.

In early september the impact of the Syrian conflict was made crystal clear to us in one single photograph. I felt anger, frustration, and anguish that from where I stood, in my priviledged Toronto life, there was so little I could do on a personal level to help. My feelings were echoed back to me wherever I looked and by whomever I spoke to. On the news, I watched as Germany opened it's arms wide to welcome their new arrivals.  I saw ordinary German and Austrian citizens showing up at train stations simply to greet Syrian refugees and offer a welcome handshake and some food. With fear in the pit of my stomach and the dread that I would try and fail, I decided to take a first step and enter the world of Canadian Refugee Sponsorship

Clearly, welcoming refugees to Canada would not be as simple as the Germans made it seem, and not only for geographical reasons.  I knew right away that this was not something to ever be attempted single-handedly. So I did what we do now, in the age of social networking: I created a Facebook page and asked if anyone was interested in joining me.  Within minutes a few brave souls had linked arms with me and the rest, well, a bit of it is history, but the majority of it still lies before us.

It's been roughly one month since that first step was taken. Today our Facebook group added it's 150th member. That means 150 people have taken that first step with me. With any luck, we will have managed to bring a refugee family safely home to Toronto in the next 3-12 months.

This blog will document our groups journey. If it inspires even one other person to step out of their comfort zone for the benefit of someone else, I'll be so very, very happy.

P.S. This is also my very first blog. I don't even keep a journal, so bear with me as I navigate format changes, bad punctuation and typos.