ERIN – A local volunteer group needs community and financial support to bring a sixth refugee family to Canada by 2026.
An Erin-based volunteer community group sponsoring Syrian and Afghan refugees in town since 2016, Erin Refugee Action (ERA) recently raised $20,000 of their $45,000 goal to sponsor a Syrian family of five sheltering in a two-bedroom apartment in Lebanon.
Five families have been supported through one-year sponsorships since the group formed in 2016- families of four in 2017 and 2019, two couples and their children in 2021 and a single man in 2023.
Eight refugees the group helped have become Canadian citizens so far.
"For me, it's a bit of a mixed emotion...We're excited that we get to put the application in early because we want to try and get them out of that situation and yet at the same time for me it was like a real reality check of how crappy it is," said volunteer Deney Delfosse. "And it's not just them, we just get a window into one family."
The family to be sponsored is made up of the husband, Mustafa – a 38-year-old professional soccer player who ran a store before the Syrian war and is related to the first family ERA brought to Canada, his wife, their eight-and-four-year-old daughters and a "full of life" grandma.
Mustafa currently works undercover as a welder in Lebanon, accepting under-the-table labour work to make ends meet as his wife, a hairdresser, can't work.
"Seeing the courage and resilience of the families when they come here...it's very inspiring," said volunteer Susann Palmiere. "Since (the first family I met), seeing the young people, the children, they're just wonderful young people and you can just feel the potential that they have and what they can offer to Canada."
If the family is pushed back to Syria, Delfosse said Mustafa will be taken by the army immediately where he'll either be forced to fight or killed. The group also can't sponsor the family from Syria which would leave them "destitute" because there's no work.
As there's an additional threat of the war expanding into Lebanon, which would shut down the embassy and the group's ability to get the family Visas, Palmiere said the group feels in many ways that they're "racing against time" for the embassy to get their end done in Lebanon.
"We really hope for the sake of the family here who are so anxious and ourselves that we can progress and get them out," said Palmiere.
Down to four permanent volunteers post-pandemic, Delfosse said ERA's sponsorships help refugees with things like food costs, rent and other day-to-day living expenses, learning English, furniture and clothing, and finding employment.
Beyond medical issues, Delfosse said housing and learning English are often refugees' biggest challenges. Anti-immigrant rhetoric from community members can also pose a problem.
"It's (sometimes) really hard to have discussions with people because they are very opinionated and every immigrant gets lumped into a box and that I find quite discouraging and disturbing ... but I think we need to keep doing what we do because there is a place in Canada to do good for the world and this is what we're doing," said Delfosse.
Comparing the sponsorship process to having a baby, Delfosse said the next steps for the group involve applying to bring the family to Erin.
ERA anticipates the family will arrive in 2025 or 2026 as applications through the Canadian Federal Government can take up to three months and the process in Lebanon can take up to two years, although they can and do come sooner.
Delfosse said the best way to help the group is to give them money or time by volunteering a necessary service like driving.
"(The families we've sponsored are) quite hardworking people and this is their chance to make it in life...(and) it just means a lot to me to be able to help people like that," said Delfosse. "I come from immigrants, we all come from immigrants...and refugees are a different form of immigrant but I think that that's where we can help in the world and it gives me great satisfaction to see them progressing and safe, especially when we hear the stories that they're not safe (where they come from)."
More information is available here.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
