Members of the Refugee Steering Committee are, from back left, Fr. Neil Lustado, Brita Park, Enola and Cory Lee Mills, Trish Craik, and Dale Dodge. In front row are Sue Webster, Louise Szalay and Tracy Veintimilla. Missing from photo are Joanne Ruhland, Vicky White, and Mary-Lou Ellan. Photo by Tom Szalay
A group of local citizens is asking for the community’s help as it works to give a Syrian family, displaced by war, a home in Oliver.
On September 16 a refugee committee, operating under the umbrella of the Roman Catholic Parish of Christ the King, received word that its application to sponsor a Syrian refugee family had been approved.
According to Dale Dodge and Louise Szalay, spokespeople for the committee, a Syrian family of five will soon call Oliver home.
Mohammad Al Lwisi, his wife Nesreen Nehme and their children, seven-year-old Yazan, four-year-old Ghazal and two-year-old Manessa, have been living in a Lebanese refugee camp for the past two years.
The family fled Damascus after Al Lwisi was beaten, jailed and tortured in the midst of a deteriorating security situation in his home city. The family is Sunni Muslim and fear that their lives would be in danger if they went back.
Al Lwisi is a college graduate with a technical diploma in agriculture. He’s worked as a cleaner and hotel receptionist, while Nehme has worked as a hairdresser. They want to settle in a tourist area so Al Lwisi can build on his experience and improve his English.
The family’s move to Canada will be the result of months of hard work by the eight-person steering committee that has been trying since June to help a Syrian family.
Dodge said that a push from religious leaders this spring started their work, and although most are from the religious community, helping people in need is much more than just an obligation of faith.
“It’s the Christian thing to do. You see people in dire straits and you say ‘well, we’re going to help somehow,’ he said. “It’s the Christian thing to do and it’s the right thing to do.”
The crisis in Syria started in 2011, when hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets in demonstrations against their government. The brutal crackdown that followed has since escalated into an all-out civil war that has killed more than 220,000 people.
The United Nations says there are now more than four million Syrian refugees fleeing that conflict. Many first-hand accounts suggest the conditions they face are horrific.
In a recent interview on BBC radio a Syrian refugee named Hamza, an English teacher who had fled her home in Homs with her husband and three children, recalled travelling from Turkey to Greece by rubber dinghy in water that was up to their necks. They lost everything and had to hold the younger children aloft to keep them from drowning.
Later, they were sprayed with tear gas as they tried to cross the Serbian-Hungarian border. Hamza later wept as she recalled pushing her children forwards through razor wire to make sure they crossed—even if she didn’t make it.
The Refugee Committee has already secured a house for the family to live in and have set up a committee to involve as many community members as possible in preparations for their arrival.
They’ve also set up a group that will help integrate the Al Lwisi family transition into Canadian life by helping with everything from shopping to dealing with banks and government agencies.
But Szalay pointed out that a lot more community support will be needed. She guessed that, in total, it will cost about $20,000 to support the family as they find their footing.
“It sounds like a lot, but I was thinking: we’ve got 9000 population in the Oliver area and the surrounding area. If everybody, if every person, if they just gave up two cups of coffee for the whole year, that’s all we would require to get enough money to get this family established,” she said.
She also pointed out that the committee needs bookkeeping help, drivers, babysitters, and people who can come at a moment’s notice once they arrive, which Dodge guessed will likely be before the end of October.
Dodge and the committee invited anyone wishing to help to a planning meeting at the Catholic church on September 20.
Dodge said that, with millions of people fleeing to the western world in search of a better life, it’s important for communities everywhere to do what they can.
He recalled when the committee was first sent a list by the government of all the families seeking sponsorship. There were more than 400, he said, from all over the globe. The extent of the problem is staggering, but even the one family they can help is important.
“It may be just a crumb when you look at the entire picture, but all those crumbs when you add them up can become a loaf of bread,” he said. He explained that he has already heard from other parishes interested in sponsoring other families. Take one here, another there, and another somewhere else, he said, “and all of a sudden you get a slice of bread. Pretty soon you’ll have the whole loaf.”
By Trevor Nichols
