The whole world, it seemed, saw the heartbreaking image of three-year-old Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi lifeless on a Turkish beach.
His family had fled war-torn Syria to seek a better life in Europe when tragedy struck. Alan, his brother, and his mother were among those who drowned after the small, inflatable boat they were in capsized on its way from Turkey to the Greek island of Kos in September.
That powerful picture of Alan’s body on the beach struck a chord with North Vancouver moms Cynthia Bunbury and Shannon Muir. The refugee crisis came up in conversation during a regular morning walk with their dogs around the neighbourhood.
“That spurred us on, the image of the boy on the beach,” said Bunbury, a social justice teacher at Sutherland secondary. “We said, ‘We have got to do something.’”
The timing was almost like divine intervention, as Muir, whose husband Stephen is the minister at St. Agnes Anglican Church, was just about to launch a committee to sponsor some refugee families.
“So I was her first committee member, so to speak,” said Bunbury.
After doing some research they found four other church congregations in North Vancouver — St. Clement’s, St. Catherine’s, St. Martin’s and Gloria Dei — were on the same page as St. Agnes and in the process of starting a refugee aid committee. So they all forged into one group now known as the Regional Refugee Sponsorship Team.
“We recognize how privileged we are in Canada and that we have a lot to share, so we have taken action to provide a better life for at least some of those disadvantaged people who may be languishing in camps or in peril,” said Bunbury.
St. Catherine’s Church has extensive experience with refugee sponsorship, said Bunbury, figuring the parish has brought 16 households to North Vancouver over the years, beginning with refugees fleeing their country after the Vietnam War.
Sponsoring refugees is a huge undertaking with plenty of paperwork involved, Bunbury has learned. The newly formed committee has the backing of the Anglican Church of Canada so they can be refugee Sponsorship Agreement Holders under the federal government program.
For the past couple of months, members from the North Vancouver group have pored over 31 pages with name after name of refugees from various countries. The displaced have been vetted by a United Nations refugee agency that then sends the list to the Canadian government.
“All these claimants have been pre-approved by the Canadian government, with their papers in place, their security and health checks done,” said Bunbury. “They are simply awaiting a sponsor so they can start a new life here.”
The group is casting a wide net when it comes to which refugees they want to bring to North Vancouver: at-risk women with small children, large families, families with children of varying ages, families that may include elderly members, or some with medical challenges.
“We feel our community is pretty capable of managing these sorts of variations,” said Bunbury.
The committee is one step closer to sponsoring their first refugee: a 24-year-old blind Somali man named Ali.
“For this young man we can offer him a life, and opportunities he might not have anywhere else to reach his full potential,” said Bunbury. “He seemed to deserve a chance, so this will be his home, we hope.”
In a couple of weeks the committee will learn if Ali’s sponsorship has been approved. If so, he could potentially arrive in Canada by Christmas.
The remaining challenge is finding Ali an affordable place to live in North Vancouver.
The refugee committee can only cover Ali’s rent for a year, and then he will need to be self-supporting. Bunbury and fellow committee members are appealing to landlords in the hopes they would be willing to rent to Ali and other refugee families at a reduced, lower-than-market rate for at least the first three years.
“We are hoping somebody might give us a break, to give these refugees a chance to establish themselves here, with jobs, schooling and friends,” said Bunbury.
Looking to sponsor two households, the committee has completed another short list of possible refugee families. At the top of the list is a Sudanese family (a single mom with five children, plus her close friend who helps support her) followed by an Iraqi single mother with two sons, and then an Iraqi family with six children that could potentially be sponsored.
Any landlord that can help with accommodation or anyone looking to make a tax-deductible donation to support the refugee committee’s charity work can contact Bunbury via email at [email protected].
