ABOUT US

Our committee formed in 2016.  We have sponsored three families who are now settled and living independent lives as Canadian citizens in our community. Although the immediate crisis in Syria has abated, there is still a need to help refugees.   

 

Many are now living in Turkey, Jordan or Lebanon where they are safe from war but lack basic rights of citizenship and freedom to travel. They are not granted access to higher education or jobs in their field, and they are the first people to be threatened with violence or deportation when tensions rise. 

 

We are currently working to bring two families to Wolfville. The first is a family of four. The father was a teenager when he fled Syria in 2014.  Since then, he has married and started a family while living in Turkey, surviving on menial jobs. The town where they live was severely damaged in the earthquake of 2023. His sister and family died in that tragedy.  Recently, he has been attacked by armed gangs and threatened with deportation. His older brother, sister, and mother, all live in the Wolfville area. They are desperately worried about his safety. 

 

The second family is a married couple with three children.  The parents fled to Jordan in 2012.  They both had good jobs in Syria but have not been able to find work in Jordan. They have family in New Minas who are very concerned about the insecurity and tensions that make life in Jordan very unstable and unsafe for Syrian nationals.  

 

We are a Community Sponsorship Group.  After identifying the families we wish to sponsor, we apply to our Sponsorship Agreement Holder (SAH), the government-recognized body that acts as a liaison between our group and Immigration and Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).  Our SAH is the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada, and we work under the auspices of the Wolfville Baptist Church. The SAH holds the final legal and financial responsibility for the sponsorship.

 

Together with the families and the SAH, we raise the necessary funds and submit the paperwork for final approval to the Government of Canada. Sponsored families have to undergo extensive security and health clearances and must prove that they have no other durable settlement solution where they are living now. 

 

Once paperwork has been approved, there is often a long period of waiting.  Our application for the first family was accepted in 2020 and the second in 2023.  We are still waiting for both families to arrive.

 

The minimum required amount for a family of four is $28,700.00.  We know from experience that this is not enough. Our goal is to raise at least $42 000.00 for each family and we are close to achieving this. 

 

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