A group of caring people, young and older, have come together on Saturna to follow the example of our neighbours on Pender Island and become part of the Syrian Refugee Sponsorship Project. This follows the very successful food, clothing and cash drive for refugees put together near Christmas last year by Lions Club members Aleah Johnson and Katie Dentry.
Many have asked “what are your resources, how can you take on a project of this size?” Well, we have an island resident who speaks fluent Arabic, who has acted as a translator for the Pender family. Another resident, who has recently retired from a career as an Immigration Consultant, is part of our island committee. There is a young woman, very connected with the digital world, who knows how to fundraise, and possesses the energy and drive to wake the old fogeys up and remind them of their youth when things were possible.
Our biggest resource is the committee on Pender who have led the way, bringing in one family already, who have the knowhow and the connections to ease the way for the Saturna group and have pledged their co-operation and material help.
At first I thought, how can we bring these folks to Saturna Island? We’re so isolated, there are so few job opportunities, house rentals are few and far between, they would feel trapped here cut off by language, culture and distance from family and friends who have already come to Canada.
The first meeting I attended, at the start of this committee, it was made clear that these families, with up to six or seven children, some multi- generational, have been living for years in overcrowded refugee camps in a ten by ten tent; yes all in one tent. They line up for the bare necessities of life from the United Nations and other non-governmental organizations. There are no amenities and little to do but sit and wait; their situation is worse than being in any prison in Canada. And their crime is fleeing the country of their birth, where they had jobs, careers and homes, to escape a truly terrifying civil war where atrocities and war crimes are everyday stuff. Even a part of the life that we live on Saturna Island will seem like deliverance to them.
And yes, they may not stay for longer than a year. Saturna may be a stop along the way, a place to start again, a beginning of coming to terms with the past, establishing themselves in a new country: and that is okay too.
We can’t, as individuals, re-settle everyone in the refugee camps, dispossessed and driven out by the Syrian civil war but we can do this one thing for one family. Given the comparison between our lives and theirs, how can we not do it?
My thanks to the members of the Saturna Syrian Refugee Project for their inspiration and commitment. Look to hear more from us about this project and how you can help make it happen.
John Wiznuk March 11, 2016
