·         I had a very helpful meeting with the Office of Refugees of the Archdiocese of Toronto (ORAT) yesterday which was attended by Dr Martin Mark who heads up ORAT. He is the one who first identified the sisters as candidates for sponsorship, when he was visiting the Krisan refugee camp in Ghana.  He is very relieved that we are sponsoring the sisters as he believes that as single women they are very vulnerable in an unsafe environment. He will be visiting the Krisan refugee camp again in April and fully expects to see the sisters and to visit the Visa Officer at the High Commission in Accra. He says that the Visa Officer is  sympathetic to the plight of single women in the camp.

·        All the necessary paperwork has now been submitted to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC). The original paperwork on the sisters was submitted by ORAT to CIC in June 2014 (presumably at Martin’s instigation). Martin says that the situation in CAR has not improved (which suggests that they will not be sent back there) and he also confirms that there is no way the sisters could be expected to stay in Ghana.  I am optimistic that given all these factors, particularly with Martin visiting Ghana in April, perhaps it will not take too long before there is positive news on the application. We had better get ready!