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How to help: Two routes to sponsoring a refugee family

By providing financial and emotional support, Groups of Five help a newly arrived family to begin new lives in Canada.

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Denis Therrien fondly remembers when a Syrian family of three arrived in Canada and moved in with him and his wife, Sue Hart, for a week in 2013.

“It was a joyous and glorious time,” said Therrien, who took time off work from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., to help the family settle.

Therrien got involved through his church, St. Augustine’s, where he chairs the refugee sponsorship committee. Helping a newly arrived family make a home in Canada was nothing new to him. As a child in Quebec City, Therrien’s parents sponsored a refugee family from Hong Kong.

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“I like to do these things and they’re very close to our Christian values and ethics, of course,” he said.

The family — Fadi Al Khalil and Rimal Al Khoure and their son Bols, then four — are Melkite Christians, but in Therrien’s eyes, their religion doesn’t matter.

“A human being is a human being,” he said.

Therrien and Hart and other parishioners agreed to support the family financially for a year (later extended for another six months) and also assisted them as they navigated their way through Canadian culture and bureaucracy.

“Essentially you’re going up against the red tape of the government,” he said.

What does it take to be a sponsor?

“The big virtue is patience. You have to have patience,” he said, citing the three trips it took to Service Ontario just to get the family’s health cards.

“And you have to be able to reach out to those who you think may be able to help. You have to be resourceful.”

Once the families arrive and are settled in their own homes, sponsors are still frequently called upon.

“I may get a call that they got something in the mail and they sort of know what it says, but don’t fully understand it,” Therrien said.

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Other parishioners helped the family find pro bono dental care, do their taxes and find English courses and other training, and linked them with other Arabic community groups.

While sponsoring a refugee family through a church group or other organization is one way to help, it’s not the only method. Individuals can band together to sponsor a family in a “Group of Five.”

By providing financial and emotional support, these G5s help a newly arrived family begin new lives in Canada. The process is slow: Wait times range from five months to more than five years depending on the visa office involved, according to Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

Here’s how the G5 system works.

Who is eligible

G5 sponsors must be at least 18, a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, live in the same community in which the refugee will settle and commit to providing assistance for the length of the sponsorship, usually one year or until the refugee or family can support themselves financially. The sponsored person or family can’t already be in Canada and must be officially recognized as refugees by the United Nations or a foreign government. That can be a problem since few of the tens of thousands of displaced Syrians or Iraqis now flooding into Europe are considered refugees.

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Make the application

The necessary forms are available on the Government of Canada website at cic.gc.ca/group5 and require detailed information about the G5 members and the settlement plan, including financial commitments for shelter, furniture, food and other needs. The forms include estimated costs.

Decide who you want to sponsor

G5 groups can choose to help a specific refugee, for example, a family member of someone already in Canada or a person or family already known to be in need. Alternatively, the group can help an individual or family already identified by as eligible by visa officer abroad. The application process allows you to request a profile of an individual or family in need.

Responsibilities

The amount of financial support varies from community to community, but Citizenship and Immigration estimates it ranges from $12,600 for an individual to more than $32,000 for a family of six. In addition, G5 sponsors are expected to provide other support such as helping the new arrivals to find work, find a doctor and other health care providers, get set up in school and learn about the banking system.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada has a video that gives a good overview of the process.

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bcrawford@ottawacitizen.com

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