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The power of grace
Like many Canadians, the community of Tweed responded with eagerness and generosity after the plight of Syrian refugees fleeing their war-ravaged country was personified in such a heart-rending way by the image of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi’s lifeless body lying on a beach in Turkey last year.
Very soon afterward, a group coalesced with the goal of sponsoring a refugee family in their community. Raising money proved to be the easy bit. Navigating an ever-shifting river of bureaucracy proved harder. So, too, was finding a suitable home for the family in the village.
Tweed Elementary school students raised $460. The local theatre company donated $1,000. Altogether the Tweed Refugee Sponsorship Committee raised more than $27,000. Yet the group struggled to find suitable housing.
Then in March, the federal government suddenly announced it was putting a deadline on applications for sponsoring families arriving in 2016. Private sponsorship groups had just 24 hours to complete their applications. Still without a home, the Tweed group were beat. They had run out of time. They concluded the dream of sponsoring a family in their community would not happen.
Still, they had this pot of money raised in the community. The group canvassed the region’s refugee-sponsoring groups. Most didn’t need the money—but instead were waiting on their sponsored families to arrive.
In Prince Edward County, they found an eager recipient for the donated funds in PEC Syria. The County organization has already settled 26 people from three families. Another 50 are expected before the end of the year. PEC Syria has learned what all large families know—that a steady stream of expenses must be funded every week. Dental, medical, school, sports and recreation. The list is long. And circular.
“It is especially heart-warming that the funds raised by the TES (Tweed Elementary School) students have been transferred immediately so that children can be enrolled in sports and recreation activities,” writes the Tweed Refugee Sponsorship Committee on their website.
“There was an overwhelming desire of our group to support another nearby sponsorship group and PEC Syria was a top choice because we recognize their good work to date and have complete trust in the organization,” said Barbara Goode of the Tweed Sponsorship Committee.
Carlyn Moulton thanked the Tweed community for their kindness and generosity—pledging to use the money to improve the lives of refugee families.
“PEC Syria is so very grateful that they considered our group worthy of this generous donation,” said Moulton, co-chair of PEC Syria. “Through this gift, the Tweed Refugee Sponsorship Committee has given PEC Syria the ability to do much more in assisting families to resettle in our area. The dedicated volunteers and donors of the Tweed Refugee Sponsorship group can rest assured that every cent will go to the families, to helping the new Syrian-Canadian children grow and prosper, and to their families’ overall health and wellbeing.”
That’s the story. It’s a good story, with a moreor- less a happy ending. But it seems incomplete. It touches on the hurdles facing those who seek to help—some unexpected, some seemingly arbitrary. It speaks of a groundswell of generosity squelched by plodding bureaucracy. But it doesn’t fully explain why it should be so hard.
There can be no question that the screening of folks emerging from this troubled nation and elsewhere around the world must be thorough. It is necessary. Yet questions remain: Why can’t this process scale up? The need is great. The desire to help is profound. Shouldn’t we be working harder to secure the safety of folks who have been bombed out of their homes? By their own government? Why has the urgency over the plight of these folks dissipated? The need certainly hasn’t. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reported this week that one in 113 people in the world now live each day as a refugee, asylum seeker or internally displaced person.
There is a photo of the Tweed Refugee Sponsorship Committee on the group’s website—a dozen or so volunteers gathered at a town hall on a winter’s night. Notepads and laptop computers ready on the folding tables before them. Caffeine fuelling the effort.
These are ordinary folks doing extraordinary work. Consider the power of this group of individuals, multiplied by the small towns and neighbourhoods just like it across Canada. It is an astonishingly rich resource. Yet this energy, enthusiasm and experience struggles to find purpose on the big issues that shape our world and our country. That should be worrying to all of us.
The Tweed Refugee Sponsorship Committee is a great story—with a bittersweet ending. Like other great stories, it features an important message tucked just beneath the surface.
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