By Greg Nikkel
A new community organization is laying the ground work to sponsor two Syrian refugee families to Weyburn, and have begun the long process of making preparations to make this a reality.
Weyburn lawyer Don Horner is the chair of the Weyburn Syrian Refugee Committee, which has begun holding meetings to gather information about what is required to bring refugee families to Weyburn, with another meeting slated for today, Jan. 27.
In an interview, he and wife Diane began to think of how the Weyburn and area community could help out as they watched the news coverage of the flood of refugees taking perilous rides across the Mediterranean and walking across Europe by the thousands as they fled the destruction of war in Syria.
“I put the idea out to the Rotary Club, and as a member of the board of Prairie Sky Co-op I brought it up there. We ended up calling a meeting just before Christmas with Diane and I, Ray Hamm (of Rotary), Doug Loden (of Calvary Baptist Church), Rev. Barnabas (Weyburn Ministerial) and a few others, and it turned out everybody was thinking the same thing,” said Don.
“It’s not going to unfold overnight. You think initially it’s a sprint, but it’s really a marathon,” he added.
“This is a community project, and we are kind of overwhelmed with who wants to help and be involved,” added Diane.
Since that initial gathering, more community organizations and groups have indicated an interest and are on board, including Marga Cugnet, CEO of the Sun Country Health Region, Lynn Little, education director of Southeast Cornerstone School Division, Southeast College, the Weyburn Ministerial Association and the Co-op among others.
“Our job is to come up with a resettlement plan,” said Horner, noting that as they made contacts to find out what is involved, he soon found that there is quite a lot of preparation work required for the community to prepare the way for a refugee family to come here.
Contact was made with organizations such as the Open Door Society in Regina, and the Saskatchewan Association of Immigration Settlement and Integration Agencies, as well as MP Robert Kitchen and MLA Dustin Duncan, and the Newcomers Service based in Estevan but which serves the entire southeast.
One of the requirements for the Weyburn committee will be to line up a sponsorship agreement holder, and to have a certain amount of funding in place. A fund of $27,000 will be needed for a family of two adults and two children, and more for a larger family, with the goal to initially bring in two Syrian refugee families.
The funds are to help cover off the startup costs for a new family, including for food and clothing, furniture, household effects, school supplies for children, and so on.
Also, the Weyburn committee will need to be registered as a charitable organization before they will be able to take any donations of money or of furniture and household items, said Horner, noting they are not in any position to take donations at this point.
“We have to have all this in place, including names of organizations and people who are committed to helping out, before they can line up a family or families. We have to get our settlement plan together,” said Horner.
“We’ll probably raise much more than what’s required, so there might be a second family brought in.”
The government requires the community to be able to cover everything for at least one year, including provision of employment and transportation, child care, and a living allowance for the family.
“We are going through the process of who will be responsible for what,” said Horner, noting some of the committee members, such as Cugnet with the Regional Health Authority, have experience with bringing immigrants into the community.
“The government has done a very good job in terms of identifying the things that need to be covered off in order to bring in a family,” said Horner.
He noted that initially some larger communities in Saskatchewan were chosen to host Syrian refugee families, including Regina, Saskatoon, Prince Albert and Moose Jaw.
“It takes a lot of organizing to get to the point we are accepted by the government to bring in a family,” said Don.
“It’s exciting,” added Diane. “We’re just so lucky here. We live in a wonderful, safe community.”
Any residents or organizations that want to help out with this community committee are encouraged to contact Don or Diane Horner for more information.
