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Refugee Sponsorship Update – October 12, 2021
Our Syrian Family (Hassan and his wife Samira plus their three sons – ages 12, 14, 15) finally arrived on October 8, 2021 to a warm welcome from their extended family already living in Waterloo, their sponsors, members of the St. Michael Refugee Team and Father Jamroz. Hugs were not possible but warm greetings were exchanged. Food was shared quarantine style (family inside, welcomers outside) and social distancing was the order of the day. After 2 weeks of quarantining, the family will begin a more normal lifestyle: moving into permanent housing, school, employment and preparing for their first Canadian winter. There is much for them to learn and experience!
Another sponsorship from 2019 is nearing its next step. Sometime this fall, a young Iraqi woman currently living in Turkey should be joining her family in Kitchener.
St. Michael’s raised funds and submitted an application for a Rohingya family in 2017. When conditions in the refugee camp in Bangladesh became too dangerous, the family fled to India. There they discovered that anti-Rohingya sentiment in their region makes their life situation very uncertain. There has been a marriage and a new child since the application was submitted. Everyone is very anxious for the COVID-19 restrictions to be lifted so that they can safely travel to Canada.
The Office for Refugees at the Diocese of Hamilton encourages St. Michael’s parish to continue with its 20 year+ refugee sponsorship program and would like to see St. Michael’s submit an annual sponsorship request. The Refugee Sponsorship Team (RST) has learned a great deal during those 20 + years and welcomes the support of the Diocese. Because any sponsorship is a financial commitment to support the new arrivals for a full year as they resettle, the RST will only undertake one financial resettlement at a time. However, the parish often receives requests for assistance where the family/friends have the necessary funds to put in trust to fully fund the resettlement and are willing to be Co-Sponsors. The Syrian family and the Iraqi woman described above are such cases. Another sponsorship, a young Syrian male currently in Iraq, is just waiting for its final approval by the Office for Refugees in order to be submitted in 2021.