Sponsoring refugees brings happiness to all

When a group at St. Hilda’s-St. Luke’s in St. Thomas, Ontario was asked to consider sponsoring a refugee family in honour of PWRDF’s fifth anniversary, “we just simply said yes on the spot,” says Nancy Lovelock.
It was early 2009 when Elizabeth Walton, Diocese of Huron refugee coordinator, made the request. Three weeks later a couple, Khalil from Darfur and Amina from Ethiopia, arrived via Egypt with their six-year-old daughter. And a month after that, Amina gave birth to a baby boy, with “14 grandparents” ready to nurture him.
It helped that the ecumenical group in St. Thomas had previous — and positive — experience in sponsoring refugees. “Having done it before we knew some of the ropes,” says Lovelock. Though the city of 35,000 had already lost 4,000 jobs due to the economic downturn in the auto manufacturing industry, the sponsoring community was undaunted about bringing in newcomers. Khalil already has a job that helps him support his family, thanks to one of the sponsoring group members who owns his own business.
The St. Thomas story is only one of more than 30 sponsorships that have been undertaken to mark the 50th anniversary of The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund. Similar stories are unfolding across the country, says Carolyn Vanderlip, 50th anniversary facilitator. The goal is to bring 50 families to Canada during the anniversary period.
“Large and small parishes, dioceses and ecumenical groups are enthusiastically embracing the opportunity to help refugee families begin new lives,” she says. “From British Columbia to Nova Scotia and many points in between, refugees are finding welcoming new homes in Canada, thanks to Anglicans who are honouring the Biblical call to welcome the stranger.”
For Archbishop Fred Hiltz, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada and president  of PWRDF’s board, the 50 refugees program is “one of the exciting aspects of the 50th anniversary, and it’s so much in keeping with what has been a priority with PWRDF since its beginning in 1960, the International Year of the Refugee. I think it’s going to be one of the lasting legacies of the 50th.”
No area has welcomed more families than the Diocese of Huron, where Elizabeth Walton has managed to get parishes and communities throughout the far-flung region to sponsor ten of the 30 cases undertaken so far. In the last year, Huron has had eight arrivals of 25 refugees from Iraq, Burma, Sir Lanka, Congo, Ethiopia and Sudan. Parishes are still waiting for families from Liberia and Somalia.
“I think they’ve gone pretty well,” says Walton, who has been encouraging sponsorships in her diocese for years. Having seed money from PWRDF and from Citizenship and Immigration Canada has been a motivator, she notes. In most cases, parishes work ecumenically or regionally. “They like being part of a bigger thing.”
In Clarksburg, near the Blue Mountain ski area, Rev. Stephen Haig heads an inter-church committee that agreed to undertake a sponsorship a year ago and, this past February, welcomed a Congolese family with four children. “It was a huge leap of faith,” Haig admits. Housing in the area is as expensive as Toronto. But so far, the sponsorship has been a “rewarding experience for everybody,” and the group has already raised $30,000 to support the new family.
People in Clarksburg and neighbouring Thornbury have a “great desire to reach out and help,” says Haig.
Sponsoring refugees has “opened us up to an understanding of need in the world,” says Lovelock.” Despite their own economic tough times, the people in St. Thomas are already thinking about bringing another family to Canada.
They’re not alone. Says Haig, “We’re already having conversations about what we’re going to do next.”
More stories of refugee sponsorship for the PWRDF Anniversaryhttp://www.pwrdf50.org/refugee-sponsorship