LOCAL NEWSTo Sponsor or Not to Sponsor?

On January 26, the Niverville Ministerial hosted its first meeting in response to the possibility of sponsoring Syrian refugees as a community. Niverville Christian Fellowship pastor Chris Marchand chaired the meeting, which was attended by a variety of church representatives and community members.

The meeting opened with the introduction of Arnisel Mesidor, coordinator for the Mennonite Central Committee’s (MCC) Migration and Resettlement Program. Mesidor, himself an immigrant to Canada, began with some basic facts about the refugee crisis around the world.

By the end of 2014, there were 20 million refugees, 4.5 million of which were Syrian. Over 50 percent of refugees, regardless of their nationality, are children or youth. Though many of these refugees have found temporary homes in camps, the developing countries that host them are struggling with their own populations and economic difficulties. Worldwide sponsorship of displaced people amounts to a mere one percent.

Mesidor continued with the three C’s of refugee sponsorship: cost, community, and commitment.

The average cost of sponsoring one person is $12,600. For a family of four, it is $27,000. The government will kick in about a third of this cost.

The word community, in this context, refers to the group of volunteers whose purpose it would be to see to the needs of the family, assisting them in establishing a home and providing them with the fundamental tools of living as Canadian citizens.

The commitment to the family is a legal obligation for one year, according to the government’s sponsorship policies. Mesidor suggests that most sponsorships go far beyond one year.

There are other options for sponsorship. Those include sending supplies, healthcare, and education directly to the refugee camps via MCC, or finding a local settlement agency to volunteer at, thus assisting refugees who’ve already been sponsored by another group.

On February 16, a follow-up meeting was held to determine, after the three-week break, the level of “buy-in” for those in attendance, as well as the churches and friends they represented.
Discussion ensued and stories were shared of personal immigration experiences, as well as the joys and cautions of past sponsorships.

Josie Fast, Niverville resident and employee of Eastman Immigrant Services in Steinbach, answered many difficult questions. Her passion for refugee families is a testament to her years spent helping people settle into their sponsorship communities.

“This is such a great opportunity for a community to need each other,” says Fast. “It’s a common fabric that joins us together, like a quilt. We will be better people for it.”

Through first-hand experience, Fast appealed to the group to consider carefully the extreme cost of time and energy required when a new family arrives.

“It’s exhausting,” she warned, and takes more than just a few keen individuals to see it through. “I think when we look outside of ourselves and how we can better other people’s lives, it becomes a great way to grow a community.”

Chris Marchand will be inviting a member of Altona’s Build a Village organization to a future meeting to offer logistical insight into sponsorship. Altona has so far sponsored 15 families, and more are on the way this year.

The next meeting in Niverville is scheduled for March 29 at 7:00 p.m. at the Niverville Community Fellowship. Marchand would like to extend a welcome to anyone who has not yet attended a meeting to show up and make their voice heard.