Thanks to you, we have brought 20 refugees to Canada

The Ripple Refugee Project is very pleased to announce the arrival of our latest privately-sponsored refugee family.

The father, Khaled, is a Syrian citizen who fled the civil war in 2012 and has been residing in precarious circumstances in Ethiopia since then. Our application to sponsor him, his wife Abeba, and their daughter was submitted on March 31, 2016 and we are thrilled that they finally arrived in mid-October and are quickly and easily settling into their new home.

We also wanted to let you know that after 12 months, our financial support for the Eritrean mother and her 5 children has now formally ended. However, a number of our volunteers have become close friends with the mother and quite attached to the kids so will continue to remain engaged with the family and helping out where we can.

Because of your generous support, in some cases going all the way back to 2015, and our careful stewardship of your donations, our group has been able to sponsor, help settle and integrate 4 families and a single young man for a total of 20 people altogether! We are also happy to announce that several of these families had babies this year - a testament to their feeling safe and hopeful in their new environment.

At our recent Ripple member meeting we started discussing new sponsorship opportunities and will be in touch in the coming year about our plans. In the meantime, we would welcome any further donations you may wish to provide.

Tax-receipted donations can be made online via our Sponsorship Agreement Holder (SAH) with the Canadian Government - which is the Rosedale United Church (please note that Ripple is a secular group). Please select "Ripple Project Fund" from the drop-down box titled Apply your donation to a specific fund or indicate in the message box that the donation is for: "the Ripple Refugee Project".

The Ripple Effect

A living room meeting leads to a BVOR sponsorship group 

Yosief Araya, Director of the Refugee Sponsorship Training Program (RSTP), remembers the first time he heard from what later became the Ripple Refugee Program, a Toronto group that has since sponsored 17 individuals, including two BVOR families. 

“I got a call from Andrew Fitzgerald inviting me to speak about refugee sponsorship to some of his friends and neighbours,” Yosief says. He has spoken about refugee sponsorship to groups across Canada, but “it was the first time I’ve ever been invited to speak in someone’s living room.” That was early in 2015, before the Canadian government committed to bringing 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada. 

Andrew’s motivation was straightforward, “These are global problems. I can do something to relieve the sense of despair I have … I can help at least one family.” Aware that the group’s help might be “just a drop in the ocean,” members focus instead on the ripple effect of that drop, hence their name. The Ripple Refugee Project helps others learn from its sponsorship experience through a blog, which includes everything from articles on the sponsorship experience to recipes and reflections from the newcomers. 

Members frequently speak with the media to raise the public’s awareness of the continuing need for refugee sponsors. Ripple Refugee Project’s first BVOR family of eight arrived in late 2015. In December 2018 their second BVOR case arrived, a young Eritrean family of five led by a single mother. Members of this family became social media stars when a video of the children enjoying snow for the first time went viral. UNHCR profiled the family and Ripple Refugee Project’s sponsorship activities in a video.(see video) Ripple Refugee Project now focuses on sponsoring BVOR cases with the help of its partner, Rosedale United Church. As frequent sponsors, they appreciate the faster arrival times and lower costs of BVOR sponsorship. 

If you know a group of people considering refugee sponsorship through the BVOR program, RSTP will be happy to talk with them. Please e-mail them at bvor@rstp.ca.

Yosief Araya's article was first published in the RTSP's BVOR newsletter (February 2019)

Refugees in need of sponsors

Two of the three families we helped settle in Canada, including the Eritrean family of five who arrived in November 2018, have come here through the BVOR program.

The program is designed to resettle refugees identified by the UNHCR that have been referred to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).The BVOR program is a “blended” program because it is a cost-sharing arrangement whereby the Canadian government and private sponsors contribute financially to support the refugees. Private sponsors are also responsible for providing settlement support to the refugees for 12 months.

Our group decided for a number of reasons to focus on BVOR-refugees rather than on named-case sponsorships. Although bringing in refugees through this program is fast, and doesn't require to raise a lot of money, there appears to be a shortage of community sponsorship groups who are putting up their hands for BVOR refugees.

The Canada office of the UNHCR produced a video, featuring the Ripple Refugee group, to encourage other Canadians to welcome refugees through this unique program. If we can do it, so can you!

New Year's Visit from Minister Hussen

It was a New Year’s Day that our Eritrean newcomer family and we, their sponsors, will not soon forget. January 1, 2019 began with a visit of very special guests: Ahmed Hussen, Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship and Mohamad Fakih, Lebanese-Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist.

Minister Hussen first reached out to us after seeing the adorable video of the two eldest children of the family enjoying their first snowfall in Canada that our group member Rebecca had posted on social media in November. The video went completely viral within hours, was picked up by media around the world and even retweeted by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Minister Hussen (right) and Mohamad Fakih interact with the family

The Minister’s visit to the family’s new apartment coincided with the birthdays of mum Jamila and her two eldest children, who turned eight and six. January 1 is a birthday they share with many newcomers to Canada who used to be refugees. Many people who flee their homes and don’t have birth certificates get assigned this date of birth when they register as refugees, and carry it over when they fill out forms in their new home country.

Minister Hussen not only brought lots of gifts for the family and helped us sing Happy Birthday, he also discussed the benefits of Canada’s private sponsorship model.  Together with the UNHCR and other partners, the government launched the Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative two years ago and has successfully promoted the community-based sponsorship model to a number of countries around the world, such as the UK, Germany and New Zealand. The minister said that we need to normalize the support for refugees. He urged all Canadians to amplify positive stories about immigrants and the enormous benefits Canada is reaping because of the contributions of the many newcomers who are coming here each year.

A case in point were our two visitors. Minister Hussen arrived in Canada as a teenage refugee from Somalia. Mohamad Fakih founded Paramount Fine Foods, a chain that now has 80 restaurants around North America and has more than 150 Syrian refugees among its employees, only a few years after arriving almost penniless from Lebanon. He is now partnering with the UNHCR and is talking to other businesses in Canada about hiring and sponsoring refugees.

It seems hard to believe that less than two months ago, Jamila and her four small children were living in a refugee camp in Sudan, unsure about their future. She did not know that a sponsorship group was waiting for her at the airport in Toronto and expected in fact to be settled in yet another refugee camp (the information sharing with privately sponsored refugees prior to their arrival is something that definitely needs to improve!). 

Today, the family experienced the kind-heartedness and openness not just of ordinary Canadian citizens but even a high-level government official. It is hard to think of a better way to start a new year, and indeed, a new life.

By Claudia Blume