A community project has started in response to the Syrian refugee crisis with more than three dozen local residents in attendance at a pair of meetings at St. Timothy's Anglican Church in 100 Mile House on Dec. 3.
A second meeting to establish a working group was held Dec. 9 after press time.
“The main expressed interest was exploring private sponsorship as a community,” explains organizer Kimberly Vance-Lundsbye, the immigrant settlement services co-ordinator with Cariboo-Chilcotin Partners for Literacy.
“Whether this would be one [Syrian] family, or multiple families, or if this family would reside in the South Cariboo area or in another area (Williams Lake, Kamloops) is still to be determined.”
While the local group is still in the process of planning its next steps, Vance-Lundsbye says it's very encouraging to see so many people expressing their interest to help in a global crisis, as millions of Syrians have had to flee their country, plagued by an unrelenting civil war since 2011.
Large cities and small towns across Canada are moving forward with initiatives to welcome the expected influx of 25,000 refugees by February 2016.
The next step for the local working group – called the South Cariboo Refugee Response Project – is to clarify the vision of the project, explains Vance-Lundsbye.
“I think a lot of people have good ideas; they have passion; they're motivated to do what they can to help with the Syrian refugee crisis, but it's really important the group comes together with a clear vision of where people can donate their resources to.”
At the meeting on Dec. 3, Vance-Lundsbye said the group is being established not “for debate,” but “about how we can help.”
The government of British Columbia announced a number funding programs in support refugee integration recently, including $500,000 from a previously announced $1-million refugee readiness fund, toward the creation of five response teams to support main regions of the province where incoming Syrian refugees are expected to settle – Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island, the Okanagan and the Cariboo.
The teams are expected to include representatives from refugee settlement organizations, private sponsors, churches, educators, health-care providers and employers.