The Board of Missions has now approved the sponsorship of a Christian Iraqi family through ORAT(the Office of Refugees for the Archdiocese of Toronto). The family consists of a husband, wife and 3 daughters (17, 14 and 10),  currently in Lebanon.  ORAT has already completed some of the paperwork and they believe that  the family could be here in 9-12 months. Most of the settlement costs will be paid by Project Hope, a fund of the Catholic Church.

I cannot thank enough those volunteers who came forward to commit to helping with the resettlement work, thereby convincing the Board of Missions that we could mobilize enough support. This sponsorship is only possible because of you - and because of you, this family with their 3 precious daughters can have some hope. I know that more volunteers will come forward once the family arrives but you made it happen! Thank you! 

We have been asked by ORAT (Office of Refugees of the Archdiocese of Toronto) if we would sponsor a Christian Iraqi family (2 adults and 3 young daughters) currently refugees in Lebanon. This sponsorship would be funded by Project Hope, an ORAT fund, and thus there would be no, or only mnimal, cost to the members of YPBC. We know nothing else about the family.
This sponsorship was discussed at last night's Board of Mission meeting and the Board was supportive. It would however like to be sure that volunteers would be forthcoming to support the various resettlement activities such as:

• Applying for Government documents (OHIP, permanent resident card etc);
• Finding accommodation;
• Shopping;
• Registering children in school;
• Facilitating medical, dental treatment;
• Navigating the TTC;
• Enrolling in English classes;
• Connecting them to the Iraqi community;
• Driving to appointments, etc

If a sufficient number of volunteers comes forward the sponsorship will almost certainly proceed, given that there will be no cost to the church. So please let me know as soon as possible if you would be willing to volunteer and lets not hesitate to make this sponsorship happen. Please send me a note (mwills@chartwellconsulting.ca) if you are willing to volunteer. Thank you!

The Syrian family who we are co-sponsoring with a Group of Five arrived safely last night from Lebanon via Istanbul. Rashid and Amal and children Haya (6 year old girl) and Sam (one year old boy) were greeted by some of the Group and by Amal's sister Taghrid who is a settlement worker with the Arab Community Centre of Toronto, They are in good hands!

Most Syrian refugees have experienced trauma which manifests itself in different ways in different people. For those who might come into contact and work with Syrian refugees - and indeed with non-Syrian refugees who may also have experienced trauma - the following resource is a very helpful guide. http://trauma-informed.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Trauma-informed_Toolkit.pdf

For background information on Syria and Syrian refugees please go to http://lifelinesyria.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/EN-Syrian-Population-Profile.pdf

We are preparing to sponsor another refugee family, this time from Syria. Barbara Wood, Arvo Alfred and I met yesterday afternoon with a Syrian couple who have 3 children here - the family was brought here about a year ago under the Government Assisted Refugee (GAR) program. The family has an adult son and an adult daughter in Lebanon and they are under threat of being deported back to Syria where the men would almost certainly be forced into military service - both son and daughter are married with a 1 year old each. The family here is desperately seeing a sponsor so that the families can be re-united and so that the families still in Lebanon can be brought to safety.

World Renew (the Relief and Development arm of the Christian Reform Church in Canada) has agreed to be the Sponsorship Agreement Holder for the families. There is a mass of paperwork to be prepared and we need a volunteer translator to help with that work, starting immediately. If you can suggest anyone, please let me know as soon as possible.