Help us bring an Eritrean family of four to Canada

We need your support - again!

This year, our group is sponsoring an Eritrean father who was forced to flee his country over a decade ago and has been living in limbo in a neighboring country ever since. More recently, his three teenage children fled Eritrea to avoid upcoming forced military service, which is often indefinite and is subjecting conscripts to inhuman and degrading treatment.

They are now living in precarious circumstances in Ethiopia, awaiting their travel arrangements to Canada and the opportunity to reunite with their father after 13 years. 

Eritrea is widely recognized as one of the most repressive authoritarian regimes in the world, including widespread forced labor and conscription, and staunch restrictions on freedom of expression and faith. The country is at, or near, the bottom of every socio-economic and humanitarian index.

We need $50,000 to financially support this family in their first year in Canada. 

With your help, we have an opportunity to reunite this father with his three kids and to completely change the trajectory of their lives to one of hope and opportunity.  

Tax-receipted donations can be made online via the Rosedale United Church’s donation page at Canada Helps (please click here). 

Our group has successfully sponsored and settled four families and two men, a total of 21 people, from Syria, Eritrea and Myanmar since 2015. You can read about their incredible stories, and our group's journey, by scrolling through this blog. 

Our commitment to supporting refugees is ongoing.

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".

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

Despite the enormity of the global refugee crisis, don’t put your head in the sand

When the world marks World Refugee Day on June 20, we are reminded of how huge the number of people is who have been forced to flee their homes. On average, 20 people were driven from their homes every minute last year.  According to the UN Refugee Organization, 65.6 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide at the end of 2016.

The reaction of the international community to this unprecedented crisis has been pitiful. Most European countries are closing their doors to as many asylum seekers as possible. The number of refugees arriving in the United States has dropped sharply since the election of Donald Trump. 

And while the Canadian government prides itself on being exceptionally welcoming to refugees, the actual numbers do not confirm this: From 2015 to 2016, Canada has taken in about one refugee for every 2,000 people, compared to 30 in Sweden, 20 in Austria, or about a dozen in Germany, Finland or Norway, putting Canada in 20th place among industrialized nations accepting refugees, on a per capita basis. Furthermore, a recent study shows that Canadians as a whole are not more tolerant towards refugees than other countries.

Given the enormity of the displacement issue and the unwillingness of governments to do more, many of us feel helpless. But now, more than ever, is not the time to put our heads in the sand.

Here are a few things you can do:

Sponsor refugees

• If you live in Canada, consider forming or joining a private refugee sponsorship group
• If you are outside of Canada, petition your government to consider adapting the Canadian private sponsorship model

Help refugees settle into Canada (or other countries)

• Mentor or hire former refugees (e.g. through the Refugee Career Jumpstart Project)
• Join a welcome group of volunteers who support government-assisted refugees settle into Canada with the Together Project
• Become a newcomer mentor with CultureLink
• Check out other volunteer options to support newcomers in your local area. In Toronto, you can check out Volunteer Toronto’s Helping Refugees page. 
• Offer a (temporary) home to refugees – you can sign up on Roofs for Refugees or Airbnb’s Open Home platform, for example

Speak out

• Advocate for more refugees to come to Canada faster, and to clear the refugee backlog - for example by writing a letter to your MP. You can find more information on the Canada4Refugees website. 
• You can also check out the ‘Refugees Welcome ‘ campaign resources of the Canadian Council for Refugees 
• Sign a petition, such as Amnesty International’s petition to the Canadian government to rescind the third party agreement with the United States
• Share the UNHCR’s #WithRefugees campaign and other refugee-related messages on social media
• Speak out when you hear negative comments about refugees, migrants and newcomers

Donate

• Donate money to organizations working with refugees, either local ones such as Lifeline Syria or global organizations such as the UNHCR, Doctors Without Borders, ShelterBox, Save the Children
• You can also give in-kind donations such as furniture, clothes and household items to a number of local organizations. Remember to only donate items that are in excellent condition

Do you have other suggestions? Send us your ideas in the comment box!


By Claudia Blume