The plight of refugees around the world drives people to want to help out and sponsor refugees in their community. The New Arrivals Network was recently established to give area residents information on what they can do to help and what services are available. They recently hosted a meeting to get people within the community to meet and talk about the process and challenges of sponsoring refugees, with around thirty people coming together to get information on the issue.
Tom Seeley with the New Arrivals Network says that they had a suspicion that there were people interested in the subject.
“Dick DeRyk and myself wondered if there was an interest in the community in doing more about refugee sponsorship, and couldn’t really find any other group that was bringing people together, so we thought we would create one to do that. Be a conduit for information and a place to network.”
One of the groups at the event was St. Andrew’s United Church, which is sponsoring a woman and her young daughter from Eretria to come to the city, with the family’s arrival expected in January or February. Chelsea Grunert with the church says that she’s impressed to see the amount of people coming together who are open and willing to help.
“Some of the bigger cities are taking in a lot of Syrian refugees, and we’re not one of those cities, but we can still do our part in Yorkton by helping other refugees from other parts of the world.”
Grunert says their church was inspired to sponsor a refugee family after hearing stories of refugees through the news, and seeing what other people are doing in refugee sponsorship. While this is the first family St. Andrew’s is sponsoring, she says that the larger United Church has made it easier because they sponsor refugees across the country.
“We are doing this sponsorship as a church, but there are a lot of members of our group who are helping with the sponsorship who are not members of the church. We have about 40 people in our group that are a mix of community members... People who just want to help in any way they can.”
Grunert says that the evening was helpful as they prepare for the family’s arrival. One of the other attendees worked in settling refugees in Australia, so Grunert says that they were able to learn many things from her already.
“We can work as a cohesive group in Yorkton, and have resources and other people who can help.”
Seeley sees the group as continuing to make Yorkton a welcoming place for immigrants and refugees, and that people sharing their experiences can help make the process easier.
“Our suspicion was that there are a lot of caring people in Yorkton and area, and our suspicion was proved correct.”
Those who would like to know more about what the New Arrivals Network is doing and find information on refugee sponsorship can visit goodthingshappen.ca.
Information about St. Andrews’ program can be found at www.standrews
yorkton.ca/refugee.
