http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/2015/10/25/refugee-family-in-city-more-on-way
Refugee family in city, more on way
By Scott Dunn, Sun Times, Owen Sound
OWEN SOUND - One African refugee family arrived in Owen Sound in August and more refugees are anticipated to be brought to Grey-Bruce as local church groups and others get organized and raise money to help them.
Efforts to bring refugees to Owen Sound and the surrounding communities was sparked by the humanitarian crisis which has seen millions of mostly Syrian refugees fleeing their country, which has been devastated by a civil war now in its fourth year.
There has been an outpouring of support across Canada and the world in the wake of the procession of people from African and Middle Eastern countries into Europe by land and sea, some to escape war and others poverty.
Owen Sound Alliance Church Pastor Jeff Sensenstein confirmed by e-mail while travelling in Senegal that his church brought a family to Owen Sound in late August.
The family is from Sudan and includes a 38-year-old father, Habtoum, his six-year-old daughter Ruta, four-year-old son, Robiel, and their grandmother who is Habtoum's mother, Bahgus. Habtoum’s wife and the mother of the children died.
The family is staying in an apartment and the children attend nearby Bayview Public School part-time.
“We anticipated bringing a Syrian family but we couldn't find any on the fast track list that was sent to us,” said Donna Jansen, who with her husband Murray has taken the lead on a committee at the Alliance Church to bring the family to Owen Sound and take care of them.
The list is of federally pre-approved refugees for whom the government pays half the costs of resettlement for the first year, with the rest covered locally. Picking refugees from that list dramatically speeds up the processing time, which otherwise can take up to two years said Jansen, a retired associate dean at Georgian College in Owen Sound.
All four refugees speak Tigrinya, while father and daughter also speak Arabic. Efforts are being made to teach them all English by two Arabic-speaking men in Owen Sound. Neither they nor the family were available for an interview over the weekend.
The family came from Eritrea, a disputed part of Ethiopia in Eastern Africa where rebel forces defeated government forces and declared independence in 1991, supported by a referendum in 1993, a United States Central Intelligence Agency website says.
Eritrea's only president is described as “autocratic and repressive,” and the country is subject to several UN Security Council Resolutions which impose military and economic sanctions because it has supported armed opposition groups.
Jansen understands one the reasons for this family's departure, among thousands of people who fled Eritrea, is that they are Coptic Christians and didn't feel welcome there. “They love Canada. They think it's wonderful,” she said.
“They're anxious to tell their story,” said Jansen, who visits them several times a week.
“Habtoum (the father) was only a couple of years old when they left Eritrea, so he's lived his whole life basically as a refugee in Sudan. They lived in a mud hut and a thatched roof and everything is unbelievable to them here,” she said.
Nancy Umbach said she and her husband Doug's ongoing efforts to bring a refugee family to Owen Sound started in September. She heads a committee at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. It costs $20,000 to $30,000 to bring a family and keep them here for one year and fundraising has begun, she said.
“The Syrian crisis has been great in bringing to the attention of the world the number of refugees waiting in camps, waiting for a safe haven,” she said.
She said St. Andrew's is bringing in a family, the Lutheran church in Owen Sound is too. There may be three to five families who are brought to the city, she said. She understands efforts are underway in Meaford, Hanover and Port Elgin to bring refugee families.
Prime Minister-elect Justin Trudeau has promised to bring 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada by January. But the families may not be Syrian who come here.
“The faith groups, their head offices send lists of available families . . . Apparently there were two Syrian families on that list and they were just snapped up by other churches in Ontario,” Umbach said.
“A lot of the families, Syrians and Iraqis, are wanting to go where they already have relatives, or where they speak French, or larger centres.”
She understands there are three Iraqi families, not refugees, living in Owen Sound. “So we're hoping they will be at least language-supportive.” She also noted two members of the recently opened local mosque have offered support.
She said the list her church received contained the names of “a lot of single men, a lot with mental health issues. We're looking at families probably headed by a woman.”
http://storage.owensoundsuntimes.com/v1/dynamic_resize/sws_path/suns-prod-images/1297764247317_ORIGINAL.jpg?quality=80&size=650x&stmp=1445804934752
This refugee family came from Sudan to Owen Sound at the end of August. Bahgus, left, is grandmother of Robiel, 4, who walks with his father, Habtoum, and sister Ruta, 6, on their way to their first day of school here.
Received on Mon Oct 26 2015 - 05:41:56 EDT
