Centretowners are banding together and opening doors for a Syrian refugee family to reunite them with relatives already living in the city.
The family of four has been living in Lebanon for several months, with no access to healthcare, schooling or work, says Downtown Ottawa Organisation for Refugee Settlement spokesperson Tara Hogeterp.
DOORS includes about 30 members all living in and around Centretown, and are connected through work, friends or their children.
Hogeterp says media coverage of the refugee crisis was one of the “sparks” that captured the attention of members of the group and led to its genesis.
DOORS found its sponsored family through a similar group in Little Italy, which is also sponsoring another branch of the extended family. Hogeterp says having family already in the city will help the refugees adjust when they first arrive in Ottawa.
“They have no rights in Lebanon,” Hogeterp says. “At least they have a place to stay, but they don’t have access to anything and they can’t work, so they’re dependent on money being sent from their family.”
The mother and father have been unable to work since arriving in Lebanon in October and the children—a boy, 12, and a girl, 9 — cannot attend school, she says. With the paperwork submitted, the Syrian family is expected to arrive in Ottawa within the next six months.
In the meantime, Hogeterp says the group is focused on fundraising in order to ensure the family has sufficient funds for their first year in Canada, and preparing for their arrival. She says it was initially difficult to communicate within such a large group, but a steering committee was created and different people are now in charge of certain duties, such as paperwork, housing, healthcare and English training.
“Everyone in the group works full time, so we need to have that large group so we can actually do all of the work that’s required once the family arrives,” she says.
Hogeterp says DOORS is trying to secure housing for its sponsored family near their relatives in the city. She says the family members in Ottawa have been busy making arrangements to bring their relatives here.
With federal sponsorship, church organizations and neighbourhood groups such as DOORS, a need has been recognized to craft a list of all sponsorships taking place in Ottawa.
The question of Ottawa’s sponsorship capacity has come up a number of times, says Don Smith, chair of the Anglican Diocese Refugee Working Group. He says federal and corporate capacity is known, but the number of privately sponsored refugees hasn’t been adequately tracked.
Smith is a member of Refugee 613, the three-month old organization behind the call for an online database of private sponsorship groups in Ottawa. He says this will strengthen the communication between groups.
Leslie Emory, a member of Refugee 613, said in an email the database will also allow settlement agencies and other service providers to share information and resources with private sponsors.
By adding their names to the list, Smith says the sponsors will stay informed when surplus supplies, such as beds, are available for distribution to refugee families in need.
“This is a way of making sure no one gets left out from the services they should be getting,” he says.