Tag: syrian refugee

Should CFNA sponsor a Syrian refugee family?

Published on by cfna1 Comment

Next meeting: Tuesday, Sept. 29   7 p.m.   Downtown Community Centre

20551654978_ac83b1f321We’ve set up a special mailing list if you want to be involved in this conversation, if interested please subscribe at: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/cfna-refugee-family

We’re holding a special meeting because of the Syrian refugee crisis because the Syrian refugee crisis has caught the attention of the world and with that have come questions about how refugees are received into Canada.

Brad Watson, CFNA president, suggested at last week’s executive meeting that our neighbourhood sponsor a Syrian refugee family. As he stated, ” Currently, it is not easy to sponsor a refugee family, in fact, it is costly and time consuming.  A community is needed to make something like this happen. Perhaps a community like ours?  The Central Frederick Neighbourhood has proven itself to be an engaged and compassionate group of people, which is why we are wondering if we, as a neighbourhood and community, should take on the responsibility of sponsoring a refugee family?”

While there was plenty of interest around the table, we thought that we should first get some more information about how much interest there was in the neighbourhood to raise the money necessary and to help a family once it arrives. We also wanted to get a better idea on what was involved. Quick action was recommended.

To give people a chance to show their interest and learn more, a meeting is being held Tuesday, September 15 at 7 p.m. at the Downtown Community Centre. Sheryl Bruggeling from the Mennonite Central Committee is going to present about the process for sponsoring refugees.

This is an opportunity to learn about what would be required of us as a community and what it would take to make this happen. After this, another community meeting will be held at a later date (with much more notice) to determine if refugee sponsorship is something our neighbourhood believes we can do together. I hope you can join us Tuesday, and if not, at our next meeting on this. To do something like this will require a truly collective effort from our neighbourhood and we are excited to begin the conversation.

photo credit: #Syrian #refugee breaks out in tears of joy, arriving on the island of #Kos in #Greece on 15 August by #DanielEtter via photopin (license)