Refugee Sponsorship at St. Paul’s

During its history, St. Paul’s has helped four different refugee families to begin new lives in Canada.   The Tan family was the first group sponsored.  They were part of the large number of refugees who fled from Viet Nam, after the Viet Nam War.  Members of this family have made very successful lives in Canada, and St. Paul’s members were proud to have given assistance.   Many years later, the church sponsored a family from the former Yugoslavia. During and after the Bosnian wars, it was very dangerous for a Serb to be married to a Bosnian. St. Paul’s supported a small nuclear family of three individuals, to help them re-settle in Canada.

Following the national uproar about the Syrian civil war, and of refugees who died during their attempts to escape their homeland, many church groups in Canada took up the call to support Syrian refugees.  A Refugee Committee was re-established at St. Paul’s. This committee was composed of five members from St. Paul’s and three members from Glen Abbey United Church.  Working diligently with the United Nations Refugee initiative, they were able to bring the Hre Family from Myanmar.

In December 2015, a young father and mother and their young daughter settled in Oakville.  By the summer of 2016, the family was assisted to move to the Kitchener area, where there was a well-established Myanmar community.  The family now consists of the parents and three children.  They are self sufficient, and reportedly doing well in Kitchener.  Although the sponsorship agreement with the Hre family was officially over as of December 2016, there have still been other opportunities to provide support to the family including help with resume preparation, job interviews, and financial advice.

In 2017 a member of St. Paul’s approached members of the Refugee Team to ask for support in bringing members of her extended family to Canada. These family members were Iraqi Christians, who in 2014, had fled the destruction of their homes, loss of jobs, and persecution during the Iraqi Gulf War, and the emergence of ISIS. They were living in Lebanon, but as refugees, they were unable to hold legal jobs or attend school.  A new Refugee Team was formed.  Once again the same three individuals from Glen Abbey joined members from St. Paul’s.  This team included Deborah Laforet, Selina Bajorek, Alice DesLauriers-Bunn, Matt Sheridan-Jonah, Bev Phillips, and Pat Mason from St. Paul’s and Gary Dobbie, Chris Middlebro, and Paul Peters from Glen Abbey.

The committee began meeting in July 2017, and in September, a submission was made to the St. Paul’s Chairs Committee for permission to begin the application process. Next, at the Council meeting in October, a motion was passed to support this new application process.  Subsequently, in the fall there was extensive time spent to complete the necessary paperwork for sponsoring eight members of a large nuclear family.  This sponsorship was undertaken with the United Church of Canada  (UCC) as the Sponsorship Agreement Holder.

In December 2017, the required immigration and sponsorship papers were submitted to UCC.  In August 2018, we received requests to redo much of the paperwork, as the government had modified the forms.  By mid September all of the new forms were re-submitted to UCC.  Then, following some additional revisions, the UCC submitted our applications to the department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).  In October, we received emails from IRCC to say that our applications had been received.  Remarkably, in November, we received notification that our four sponsorship applications for Juleet Barsoom Eeshoaa Eeshoaa, her son Salam Zaker Mansoor Sakaria, her daughter Mariam and her husband Salam Zuhair Hanan Awlo, and her daughter Suzan and her husband Anas Salim Ayshoa Kolan and their sons Tonee and Dani, were approved for sponsorship under the Private Sponsorship of Refugees program.   Their files were then transferred to the IRCC office in Beirut, Lebanon. 

Surprisingly, in February 2019, all eight members of the family had their initial interviews at the Canadian consulate in Beirut.   This is then followed by various medical and security clearances.

On May 13, Juleet, her daughter Mariam and her son-in-law Salam arrived from Lebanon. We were fortunate to find them temporary accommodations at the student residences at Sheridan College. On June 7, we were able to move them to a lovely bungalow on Maurice Drive in Oakville. This home is suitable to accommodate all eight members of the family once they all arrived. On July 8, Mariam’s younger brother Salam arrived from Lebanon to join them.

We are thrilled with how well they have settled and adapted to their new country. The family members already had some level of English skills so communication has been much easier. Within three weeks of their arrival in Canada, both young men were working forty hours a week at EPCM, a company with which a member of our congregation is affiliated. All reports indicate that the men are very happy with their work and the company is very happy to have them there.  When they first arrived, Mariam and Salam took English classes twice a week.   Since September, Mariam has been taking fulltime English classes during the day.  Juleet tends to stay a little closer to home.  

Juleet is the mother of nine children. An older daughter has been living with her husband and three children outside of Detroit for the past thirteen years.  She and her family spent quite a bit of time visiting over the summer and were very helpful in getting our family settled.  In addition, family members have also been able to connect with other Iraqi families in Oakville and Mississauga who immigrated to Canada, and were from the same area of Iraq.

We still have no word on when Juleet’s daughter, Suzan, her husband Anas, and their two sons, Dani and Tonee will be arriving.  They remain in Lebanon, which has recently seen significant political unrest.  We are hopeful that they will arrive soon.