Not looking away

Public meeting to consider sponsorship of Syrian refugee families to the County

More than half the population has either died, been displaced from their homes or fled their country in the past four and half years. About four million, about the population of Toronto, have fled as refugees. With no place to go, and few welcoming nations willing to allow them in, they risk terrible hardship in search of refuge.

The stories of bodies washing up on Mediterranean shores or trucks stuffed with suffocated victims are too frequent and too horrifying to ignore.

A group in Prince Edward County can no longer look away.

On September 15, they hope to attract others so that together people in this community might help ease the suffering for at least some of these families.

While family sponsorship programs target large urban centres such as the greater Toronto area, there are ways rural communities can participate.

One program is called the Group of Five— three people to act as financial sponsors, two to serve as volunteer sponsors. Together, they would sponsor one family for a year. The volunteer sponsors would help to arrange and manage housing, finding employment, arranging transit to and from classes and generally being friendly and helpful, says Carlyn Moulton. Collectively they must commit about $25,000 in cash or goods and services to support a family for a year.

Moulton has booked the Bloomfield Town Hall for September 15, hoping others will join with her to gauge interest in forming one or more Groups of Five.

“We’re lucky,” said Moulton, “while these people are in such desperate straits. I don’t feel I can read these stories anymore.”

She recalls being a young documentary filmmaker researching atrocities perpetrated during the Second World War and feeling perplexed by the fact that so many folks did nothing to stop the horror being inflicted all around them.

“It turns out, it is dreadfully easy to do,” said Moulton. “I believe, however, to do nothing corrodes your soul.”

She believes others are feeling the same frustration.

She announced her desire to coalesce a group or several groups to help on Facebook. Eleven people have already said they will attend and want to know more.

Moulton is encouraged. She hopes perhaps 30 people might come out.

Ideally, several Groups of Five could be formed in the County—each family acting as a support to the other.

“It is preferred that a rural group sponsor more than one family,” said Moulton. “You don’t want to be the only Syrian in the community—the only one who speaks Arabic”

This isn’t the first time she has responded this way to international tragedy. She learned that things don’t always turn out as expected.

When Cambodia fell into murderous civil war in the ’70s, Moulton joined a Friendship Group to sponsor a fleeing family.

“After that year, I thought we might become best friends forever,” says Moulton. “That didn’t happen.

Once on their feet, they had other horizons they wanted to pursue and off they went. That was fine by me.”

Canadians help for humanitarian reasons—but the impact has been felt more broadly—most of it positive.

A study of 60,000 refugees who arrived as Vietnamese boat people in 1979 found that that 10 years later the group had an unemployment rate 2.3 per cent lower than the Canadian average. One in five had started a business, 99 per cent had successfully applied to become Canadian citizens, and they were considerably less likely than average to receive some form of social assistance.

If you are interested in helping to ease the suffering of those fleeing their homes, or to learn more about the Group of Five family sponsorship program, join Carlyn Moulton at the Bloomfield Town Hall on September 15 at 7 p.m.