Help Resettle a Refugee Family

My Dear Friend Gary Gladstone asked me to post this and I am proud so to do!

Like thousands of other Canadians, we were shocked and saddened by photographs of the body of little Alan Kurdi, who drowned while trying to flee Syria. On the news every day we watch refugees struggling to reach safety and freedom, often herded into inadequate camps or even inhumanely left exposed to the elements. As Canadians, we cannot sit passively and watch as other human beings suffer and children die.  

We cannot solve the world’s problems. But we can make a difference to individual lives. We have decided to do what's needed to sponsor a refugee family to come to Canada and to help them build new lives here.

As a group, we have some of the skills and experience needed to resettle a refugee family. But the process is daunting and we quickly realized we would need help. We reached out to organizations that specialize in navigating Canada’s refugee admission bureaucracy. Although we are not all Jewish, we have chosen to work with Jewish Immigrant Aid Services www.jiastoronto.org, as our Sponsorship Agreement Holder. Thanks to that agreement, all donors will receive charitable tax receipts through JIAS. The agency will match us up with a family from Syria that already has some family here and will be classified under the “Family Reunification” category. They are already proving to be both helpful and efficient

And now we are reaching out to you, because we need other forms of help. The most pressing need is money, because Canada will not consider an application until we can guarantee support of a family for one year. We now need to raise between $30,000 and $50,000 – the more we raise, the more people we can bring over.  Once that process is underway, we will need many other forms of assistance – of goods and expertise and time – to welcome our sponsored family and ensure Canada becomes not only a safe haven but also truly a new home for them.

Donating is easy. Just go to: https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/jias-jewish-immigrant-aid-services-toronto/ where you will find two options to direct your donations. One is to support their general work, including the settlement of refugees. The second one is for the sponsorship of Syrian refugees – this is the one to select. There is a “Dedication or Message Box” found under the amount donated. To be sure your generous gift is part of our campaign, please type in "A New Beginning" in the message box. Your email address will be needed as part of the Canada Helps process. You can expect two emails in the ensuing weeks, one confirming your donation has gone through successfully and the second one to provide your tax receipts to print for your record.  It would be appreciated if you could also send back an email to Gary Gladstone at gary@gladstoneconsulting.ca  indicating that you have donated – so we can track the donation.

We thank you for your consideration of this request - and we are confident that, with the generosity of spirit that represents our country, we will be able to make a real difference for a family in desperate need. Together, we can save a family.