IRP INFORMATION POSTER

OUR FAMILY HAS ARRIVED!!

PLEASE JOIN US IN WELCOMING OUR NEWEST CANADIANS!!

We are so excited to announce that our sponsored family has arrived!! They flew from Jordan to Toronto's Pearson International airport on Thursday, January 28 ... and will arrive at YVR today at 4:00 pm!! Members of the IRP Committee have gathered at the airport to welcome them to their new home. 

Our family is comprised of a young couple with an adorable 10-month old baby girl – Mohammad and his wife, Heba, along with their baby, Jana! Thanks to the generosity of a benefactor in the community, we have already arranged permanent accommodation for them, and will continue collecting donated household goods to help them set up their home. 

If you have any lightly-used or new household goods or furniture that you can donate to help them set up housekeeping, please contact the Reverend Connie Thompson at (604) 853-0801, or send an e-mail to revconnie@hotmail.com. 

Of course, we are thrilled to receive our family of New Canadians into our community, but their arrival has also begun a flurry of activity to make sure they have everything they need. They are no doubt overwhelmed by their new – and very different – surroundings, but we are confident that with your support, we can help them feel welcomed and comfortable.

Thanks to Jennifer Mpungo and Edward Shigali of the Mennonite Central Committee, who have facilitated our sponsoring process!! We are just one of many groups they have been helping, and their contribution has been invaluable!!

Members of the IRP Committee gather at YVR 

to welcome our New Canadian family!

 **Keep watching this site for information on our family – and THANK YOU for helping us change their lives, as they start over in their new home country of Canada!

BABA BANDA SINGH BAHADUR GURDWARA DONATION!!

A big THANK YOU to the 

Baba Banda Singh Bahadur gurdwara!

____________________________________

On Saturday, January 23 the members of the Baba Banda Singh Bahadur gurdwara, at 31631 South Fraser Way, showed their generous spirit and their compassionate heart by collecting a total of $620 (plus $7 USD) for our Interfaith Refugee Project.

In addition to their wonderful financial support, many members have stepped forward with other offers of support – some offered transportation services, some offered child-minding and other child-related assistance, and many more offered to help in whatever other ways might be needed.  

We would like to say a proud THANK YOU to the members of Baba Banda Singh Bahadur gurdwara for their kindness and support. The slogan of “It Takes A Village” has never been more true – and our community of Abbotsford is certainly stepping up to exemplify that!

2ND FUNDRAISING UPDATE - TO JANUARY 20, 2016

We are excited to advise that 
our fundraising successes have
brought our January 20 total to

$27, 115!!

That means we are 

less than $7,000 

from our goal of $34,000 ...

Please help us reach our goal
by encouraging your family and friends
to donate to the cause.

Below, our thermometer graphic 
illustrates just how close we are:

   

==========================================

BURGER 'N BREW - FUNDRAISER FEBRUARY 24TH!

We are pleased to invite you to join us at the 

Town Hall Public House 

for an evening of fun and games, 

to raise funds in support of our 

Refugee Sponsorship project. 

(... see poster below, for info ...)

Please come out and support us 

... mark your calendar, and bring some friends.

It'll be FUN!!

            Remember - we need your help to make this happen,                 so please spread the word!! 

THANKS for your Support!!

==================================

1ST FUNDRAISING UPDATE - TO JANUARY 1, 2016

Some Updated Numbers

(as of Jan. 1, 2016)

(11,607 refugees have been approved so far)

5,307 refugee applications have been finalized 

(but they have not yet travelled to Canada)

  

6,300 refugees have already arrived in Canada
  

22 flights of refugees have arrived in Canada
  

85 communities are preparing to welcome refugees.

  

====================================

Interfaith Refugee Project
Fundraising Initiative

Government sources have determined that it takes approximately $34,000 to cover the first year of living expenses for a sponsored family of FOUR. Our committee has been working hard to raise the funds needed to provide for our sponsored family, but we still have a ways to go.
  

Can you help support the Abbotsford initiative to sponsor a Refugee family? Any amount will help, but tax receipts will be issued for donations of $20 or more. 

Please contact the project chair:
  Reverend Connie Thompson
  Telephone: (604) 853-0801 or 
  E-mail: revconnie@hotmail.com

Your assistance is both needed and appreciated. Here is an illustrative depiction of where we're at, having raised over $23,000 already:

HERE'S FIVE NEW ARRIVALS ...

Every time his three sons headed off to school, Sarkis Apkarian would say a prayer.

Zawenawedian Dawdian, 2, is held by his mother Mario
and was one of a group of sponsored Syrian refugees
who arrived in Toronto on Dec. 16, 2015.
(Michael Peake/Toronto Sun)

“We prayed to God to protect them,” said the 55-year-old father, who landed in Toronto last Tuesday with his family and dozens of other Syrian refugees.

Back in Syria, his sons were afraid and unable to sleep at night.

“We need peace, we need to live, we need to study,” Apkarian said. “Now we come here, we want to live in Canada, we want to work here.”

Apkarian was one of a plane-load of refugees who were greeted and fed at the Armenian Community Centre on Wednesday. The Toronto Sun spoke with some of these newcomers about their hopes for life here in Canada and their thoughts on Canada ending its involvement in the bombing mission against ISIS.

Back home in Aleppo, an explosion by their house injured Apkarian. There was no water, no electricity, and the family could not sleep at night with the bombs.

“We don’t know who is fighting with whom,” Apkarian said.

An electrical engineer with 28 years of experience, he is cheerful, bubbly, and looks forward to rejoining the workforce.

**********

Here’s what Syrians — some who just arrived in Canada and others who have been here for months – had to say at the Armenian Community Centre on Wednesday:

Zohrab Tutungian and his parents can’t wait to start a new life.

“I will start from zero but that’s OK as long as I’m safe,” said the 38-year-old.

Originally from Aleppo, he and his mother and father arrived in Toronto via Lebanon, where they lived for more than a year.

“I’m grateful for the Canadian government and for the Armenian community, that they gave us the chance to be here and to be safe,” he said.

When asked if Canada should continue its bombing mission against ISIS, his reply was swift.

“Yes, they should continue to bomb, without stopping,” Tutungian said. “Because ISIS is against humanity.”

---

Nanor Shohmelian steers clear of the news now.

“I’m only interested in the humanitarian side of the whole story because it’s been too much for us,” she said.

The 35-year-old mother of two landed in Canada last year with her husband.

Her aunt privately sponsored the family, to rescue them from the rapidly debilitating state of affairs in Syria.

The turning point was a mortar shell that hit so close to their home, it shattered all the glass inside.

“The sound was so frightening,” Shohmelian said.

Now, she doesn’t want to think or read about the utter chaos they left behind.

“We lived two years in the war in Aleppo, it was so hard,” she said. “So I keep myself away from this whole political mess.”

---

Kevork Keshshian and his wife are just grateful to finally be in a place where their one-year-old daughter can be safe.

Speaking through a translator while cradling his daughter Tsolin in one arm, the 33-year-old father is all smiles.

“He’s just very thankful to be in Canada and to be in a safe place where he can maybe give a better future for his child, obviously somewhere where it’s safe, where he doesn’t think his kid can die,” Anna said.