In July, they wrote this message of thanks to the Refugee Assistance Group at St. John the Evangelist in Ottawa and kindly gave Perspective permission to share their good news update:

“Today is the first anniversary of our arrival in Canada, and we are absolutely thrilled.

It has been a year since we found safety and security in a new home, with all the life essentials we could have hoped for. We now have fulfilling jobs that allow us to give back to our community, and we are overjoyed to have welcomed our twins into this new life.

This incredible journey did not happen overnight. It is the culmination of two years of tireless effort by our amazing sponsorship team, who truly appeared like a miracle in our lives.

We remember every act of kindness, every bit of support—both material and spiritual—that you have shown us. These memories will stay with us for the rest of our lives. Words cannot fully express our gratitude, but from the bottom of our hearts, we say thank you for everything you have done for us. We deeply wish for your friendship and relationship to continue with us into the future.”

Warm regards,

Wahida & Farzam

Related reading:

Clergy reflection: Remembering refugees with Saint Bernard de Clairvaux

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I was involved with St. Bernard from the beginning (1978) and have fond memories of this small community meeting at Saint James, Hull and informally gathered around the altar with Charlotte, as always, caring for the children, which at times seemed to outnumber the adults. When I was the Bishop of Ottawa and while the congregation was still in what was then called Hull and before it re-located to Aylmer and now to St. Alban’s, Ottawa, I made an annual visit and always, at their request, at the same time. It was Epiphany and I felt that it was because they wanted to share something with me, as well as their usual kindness.

In place of a sermon was the ‘Living Nativity Scene,’ and one might expect the familiar tableau of Christmas pageants and, of course, this was a part of it enacted by children and adults. However, the story did not end with the shepherds and Magi visiting Bethlehem. It continued with the flight into Egypt and it became clear why this part of the story was particularly important to the cast. Many of them and much of this congregation had come, some recently, as refugees from Africa. I then remember how, after the play, they would stand at the chancel steps and tell their story of having been refugees. It was so moving for me that I have shared the experience as I visited throughout the Diocese.

The Holy Family’s story was their story of escaping violence, of being displaced, of living in refugee camps, of having hopes and disappointments and waiting for a permanent and safe home. As The Word became incarnate in Jesus, it did so in the lives of the experience of these people, God’s people, in this case as refugees in Africa who would, in time, come to safe haven. Their story is a familiar one but sadly it is repeated and many have not yet found that haven. This story is also that of those who are displaced in our own communities by violence, rejection or for any cause and are homeless or otherwise vulnerable and also seeking that haven. They too have their story. “Those who have ears to hear…”.

The beauty of the Incarnation is that God enters our experience and accompanies us and calls us to accompany each other so many ways and on so many journeys. I just give thanks for those who have reminded me that this is so by sharing their story.

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An activist for women’s rights, Azizi advised women about their rights to be educated, to work, to avoid forced marriages for themselves and their daughters in her home province of Herat, but moved to Kabul after the Taliban threatened to kill her and her brothers.

She found work with an independent organization that monitored conditions for women working inside 33 departments of the Afghan government. But the situation wasn’t safe in Kabul either.  A bus taking female staff to work was blown up killing 20 people. “We had some bomb explosions. Every morning when we went to the office, I didn’t know if I would come back or not,” she said.

On the morning of Aug. 15, 2021, she and a few colleagues were in their office in a building that was normally filled with about 300 people. Azizi stepped into the corridor and realized the building was empty and they were alone. Her colleague checked her phone and said, “The Taliban is coming into Kabul.” The government of Afghanistan had been at war with the Taliban, but until that day, it had controlled the capital. Azizi called her husband Tajuddin Farzam, who was part of the Afghan president’s staff. “Leave your office as soon as possible,” he told her. Azizi and her colleagues left everything. “All the streets were blocked by the traffic jam,” she said. “All the people tried to run, run anywhere.”

She and her husband had lots of documents in their home that showed we are employees and that she was a human rights activist. “We tried to put them in water to destroy them” or hide them, she told Crosstalk. But now the Taliban had access to their offices, computers, human resource databases. Some people fled to the airport to get out of the country, but Azizi and Farzam felt it was too dangerous to even try to get there. They stayed at home for about a month.

Until that point, the Taliban had said women were allowed to keep working, but Azizi and her collegues were not allowed to return to their offices. They organized a well-attended peaceful demonstration to call for women’s right to work and to education covered by the media. They kept their faces covered. The Taliban didn’t respond immediately, but later when Azizi and Farzam were not home, they came to their apartment looking for them. A neighbour called Azizi and warned them not to come home.

They stayed with friends and family, but they decided they had to try to get out of Afghanistan. Through some family members, they managed to get visas to go to Pakistan. Farzam’s brother gathered some documents and three sets of clothes from their apartment, and with Azizi disguised under a burqa, they drove to the border of Pakistan and made it out of the country.

They had hoped to make a new life in Pakistan, but when they finally got an appointment with the UN office for refugees, they were given only a case number. The UNHCR informed them that because there were so many refugees the Pakistani government would not allow them to give them refugee cards, which would have given them the right to stay in the country and work legally.

And so they were stuck in a tiny apartment in Islamabad with almost nothing aside from a small carpet, two plates and two glasses in 40 to 50 degree temperatures. “We had a fan, but most of the time we didn’t have power,” Azizi said. They tried to stay cool in the bath and tried to stay calm, but the stress was terrible. They couldn’t live in Pakistan with no income, and they couldn’t go home.

They were in contact with Farzam’s brother in Ottawa. Azizi told her sister-in-law, “We are in the worst situation in our life. I think our life is ending.” They didn’t have the means to sponsor them to come to Canada, but they looked for a way to help them and contacted a team at St. John the Evangelist in Ottawa, who have sponsored many refugees over the years in partnership with the Diocese, which is a Sponsorship Agreement Holder (SAH) with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

Azizi and Farzam were eligible to come to Canada under a special program called Operation Afghan Safety, created after the Taliban took power, but their sponsorship still took about seven months from the time the team put the application in until they arrived in Canada in late July.

“We love the people of Canada. They are so kind, they are so lovely. We feel we have new families here,” said Azizi, adding that they are eager to contribute to building Canada in ways they weren’t able to in Afghanistan.

Brian and Margot Cameron are part of the core team at St. John that sponsors refugees, which includes people from outside the church as well. The church’s history as sponsors goes back to the 1970s when “the boat people” came from Viet Nam. Over the last five years, they estimate they have helped bring more than 100 people to Canada from places such as Eritrea and Iraq.

Brian talked about the joy of seeing the newcomers succeed and and celebrating with them. In some cases, they stay in touch.

Once people are settled, they often want to bring their loved ones to safety in Canada as well, the Camerons said, so one sponsorship often leads to others.

As veteran members of a constituent group (sponsor), the Camerons say fundraising is a challenge and warn parishes considering doing a sponsorship that they may need to raise more money than the amount the Canadian government requires, particularly for accommodation.

“One of the ways we do it is by family sponsorships,” says Margot. “We co-sponsor with the family. The family raises the money. and we do the administration.”

Another option is to sponsor someone or a family with a Blended Visa Office-Referred program, in which the government shares the cost of supporting the newcomers during their first year in Canada.

The Camerons strongly recommend that anyone considering sponsorship complete the government’s online Refugee Sponsorship Training Program [www.rstp.ca], which provides a step-by-step guide. Margot also recommends getting in touch with groups who have sponsored refugees before.

The Refugee Ministry Office at Ascension House supports parishes considering or in the process of sponsorship. Case manager Ishita Ghose says she and her colleague Reem Abu Afieh can help by reviewing applications, ensuring they are complete and submitting them; following up if additional documents are required, and guiding applicants through the interview process. They can also contact the Immigration department if the family has faced any changes or adversities that might require the case to be expedited.

Ghose says the pace of case processing has picked up again since the pandemic. As of mid- November, the diocesan Refugee Ministry Office has helped 123 newcomers to Canada from 42 sponsorship cases.

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Leaving your home and bringing your children to a new country where you don’t speak the language while your husband stays behind is difficult and painful. But Mariana Kateryniak and her sister-in-law Oksana Kateryniak and their four children get by with a little help from their friends at St. Thomas the Apostle in Ottawa.

It all started with a St. Thomas parishioner talking with her Polish neighbours, who had assisted several families and individuals to come to Canada from Ukraine. “They reached out for some financial help and support, so we were doing that, and then they contacted us to see if we could actually sponsor these families,” Cathy Munroe, a parishioner and warden at St. Thomas, told Crosstalk.

St. Thomas said yes. Munroe, Sara Jordan, and Maureen Tracy (who is not a parishioner but a long-time friend who frequently volunteers for activities) formed a core planning team and then reached out to the church and other volunteers for help.

Munroe says this was a new situation for St. Thomas parishioners, who had helped sponsor refugees before. Ukrainians are considered displaced people, not refugees. The federal government created a special program for Ukrainians, the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) that allows displaced persons from Ukraine to come to live and work in Canada for three years.

One of the major differences, she explained, is that sponsors of refugees must raise a certain amount of money before the people being sponsored can come. The Ukrainians could come as soon as they had their documents ready, they had a way to get to Canada and arrangements for someplace to stay.

The St. Thomas group provided five flights with donated Aeroplan points and purchased the last one. They had raised about $24,000 so far.

Accommodations came as a godsend online when people offered donations and other necessities for Ukrainians coming to Canada. Cate Soroczan offered free accommodations for all six of the family members in her Old Ottawa South home for nine months. “She is wonderful and a key part of our success to date,” says Munroe.

One challenge was that the house only had one bathroom for seven people, but two volunteers, Serge Choquette and David Tracy, converted a large closet into a bathroom.. St. Thomas set up a table at the community farmers’ market that takes place on the church property on Saturdays (except during the winter). One couple from the church made little blue and yellow ribbon pins that they gave to everyone who put their name on a list to help or donate to the families. Donna Hicks, formerly the CEO of Habitat for Humanity for the NCR connected the St. Thomas group with Cundell Plumbing and Heating and Enertron Electric who provided free plumbing and electrical work.

Christine Habrowych and Myron Momryk, a couple with Ukrainian background who live in the neighbourhood, also provided a valuable gift when they offered to translate. Myron was with the St. Thomas group to meet one of the families when they arrived at the airport in Montreal. They also attend the same Ukrainian church.

The adage that it takes a village to raise a child (and help an uprooted family settle in a new place) is lived out as a big team of volunteers helped get the children enrolled in school, take nine-year old Davyd to soccer practice and help their mothers get to appointments and navigate their way through government and health care systems as well as preparing their resumes.

The three priorities now are helping the women find jobs, housing for after May 1 and fundraising, Munroe said.

They hope to find a new housing situation where their two families live together or close together, so they can help each other with child-care.

Munroe said their group would greatly appreciate help from volunteers with fundraising skills and experience as that is a looming challenge. Providing for six people since July has used up much of the initial funds raised, ““We’re trying to figure out what the biggest bang for the effort that we can do. My hope is that if they are moving out in May, I’d really like to get the first $20,000 fast so I can say to them, “Don’t worry.”

The families have developed good friendships with St. Thomas volunteers. “We’re dealing with them on a daily basis. Honestly, they are like my extended family,” Munroe said. “I was so behind, the kids came over and decorated my Christmas tree for me.  I feel like I have two more daughters and more grandchildren. They are very close to a group at the church who have been working hard with them.”

Donations to the voluntary effort at St. Thomas may be received three ways: by cheque to St. Thomas the Apostle Anglican Church; via Canada Helps; by etransfer to stthomasenv@outlook.com.

PHOTO: CONTRIBUTED

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