Our refugee
family arrived in Toronto from Turkey on Wednesday evening. They were in a
state of exhaustion, having been travelling for over 25 hours. Mary Jean
(another member of our Annex Support Group which is sponsoring them) and I
waited in the arrivals area for a couple of hours while a member of the
facilitating organization, Humanity First, assisted them through the immigration process. I received a phone call about 9:30 that the
family was cleared and waiting for us near the tall blue clock standard. And
there they were: a family of four – parents and two daughters aged twelve and
sixteen. We had so little information about them, other than their names and
ages, and of course they had none about us, so that our coming together in that
moment shared in both a real and physical reality, and, a strangely mysterious
combining of people who from that moment began to share an important and
on-going relationship of family and of citizenship. It was truly like being part
of a birth.
We were all
tired but happy and still had lots to do before the family would be settled. I
had come to the airport by TTC and MJ had brought her large van. We had not
expected that the family would have much baggage in tow but we were oh, so wrong.
Sixteen bags filling four of the airport carts stood ready for transportation.
Oops, what to do? MJ would take the family. I would get a taxi to transport the
luggage and me to my condo on Christie. There we would separate out the pieces
that were required for immediate needs, leaving the others in my apartment. But
just a moment: another unexpected twist – a childhood friend of the dad and his
twelve-year old son had also come to the airport to greet the family.
Confusions and missteps ensued but within an hour or so the luggage was piled
in my building’s lobby; MJ arrived with the family and with the friends right
behind. A new plan: the friends would take the excess baggage to their place
and all of us, in the two vans, would proceed to the Neill Wycik residence, the
family’s first place of entry. At the residence we checked them in to their
four-bed bedroom, one room of a “quad” of five bedrooms, complete with two
common bathrooms and a common kitchen. MJ had provided food and drinks for them
in the kitchen and had left a rotating fan in their room as air conditioning
was not laid on. We left them in their room shortly before midnight sitting
about on two of the beds with their friend and Sam, his 12-year old, enjoying just
being on the ground, and having a bite to eat before giving in to their
inordinate tiredness.
Our family
originated in Iran. As Christians, they had experienced increasingly difficult
conditions as the country had becoming more militantly Islamic. Five years ago
they fled to Turkey and until a few days ago lived in a refugee camp near
Ankara. They experienced discrimination in Turkey as well. At school the girls
were harassed to such an extent that their parents decided to keep them at home.
Because of this, the girls are several grades behind their age
cohorts. Saba, the younger girl will be placed in a grade consistent with her
age and will be given extra help at her school to bring her up to speed. Sadaf,
the 16-year old will be given a day-long battery of tests in early September to
assess her skills. She will also be placed in an age-appropriate class and
given the help she needs. The girls are somewhat anxious about starting school
but were relieved to hear that there are hundreds of children their ages in
Toronto going through similar transitions. Both seem bright and ready for new
adventures. Sadaf alone in the family, has some working knowledge of English.
Happily, their friends, especially Sam, the 12-year old is quite fluent.
Though we
had begun our quest to sponsor a family over a year ago, we were assigned one
only a couple of months ago. A week before their arrival we were notified of
the date. Then began a scramble for housing. We were able to secure a
two-bedroom basement apartment in a house close to the Downsview subway
station, owned by a couple who themselves are children of immigrants – one Korean
and the other Philippian. They accepted the family in the spirit of helping out and giving back. Unfortunately the apartment is not available until
September 3rd. Thus the Neill Wycik arrangement. That will last until
August 28 because Ryerson students will then take over the building. We had
been looking at a few options to span the intervening six days but their
friends plan to keep them at their place. Problem solved.
The morning after
the arrival Mark, Linda, Arel and I came to the residence to have a meeting
with the family. The wife of a friend of Mark’s, Meeshy, who is also from Iran
came along with a couple of Persian friends of hers who are visiting from
Germany. The family friends were there as well. With the help of Meeshy’s
Farsi, we were able to run through some of the information that they needed:
the housing plans, school, ESL classes for the parents, and, the government
guidelines with respect to housing and maintenance costs and how they would be
facilitated. We asked if they had questions for us or things they wanted to
tell us. It was during this exchange that we learned about the reasons they had
sought asylum and about their concerns regarding the girls’ education. They
asked what organization we belonged to and were very pleased to learn that we
were a group of Canadians who had joined together to sponsor their way. Their
faces lit up with recognition that we had chosen to bring them to Canada, that
we wanted as private citizens to welcome them and to befriend them.
After the
meeting Mark, Meeshy, and I took the parents to a close-by bank to help them
open an account and get debit cards. The girls were taken off by Sam to walk
about the downtown area. When we were finished at the bank, we offered to take
them back to the residence but Majid, the dad protested. No, he was clear about
where they were and that they would find their way back on their own. The
energy and humour in his face as he said this underscored the sense that I had
already that these people will in fact find their way into life in Canada.
Tonight
Linda is hosting a party at her place for them, the invaluable friends, and the
support group. It promises to be fun. Tomorrow morning Kathleen, Bob, and I
will go with them and their friends to the Humanity First office for a meeting.
Sam will likely be the interpreter. There the government guidelines and
expectations for the family will be outlined with respect to learning English,
schooling, and gradually getting employment and becoming self-sufficient. Over
the next few weeks there will lots of other things to attend to: moving, even
getting rid of some of the excess furniture that our group has collected and
stored around the GTA; moving the family into their new apartment; getting the
kids into school and arranging ESL classes for their parents; and etcetera. I
think that we and they have made a good beginning and we look forward to
getting to know each other better.
Thank you to
all who have contributed in a variety of ways to our bringing the family into
our truly wonderful country.
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