The Barbars’ long wait is nearly over

Coming up on two years after first making contact with their sponsors, the refugee Barbar Family is on the verge of finally making its way to Canada. According to Hope Community Church in member Paul Mclean the family, originally from Iraq and now living as refugees in Jordan, will be flying out on May 29 and hopefully settling into a new home in Lennoxville shortly afterward.

“We don’t know if they’ll arrive on the 29th or the 30th, but we do know that they will be leaving there at some point in time on the 29th,” Mclean said, explaining that the family does not yet have the exact details of their flight times. “At this point in time we’re just waiting on those times.”

While the road to Lennoxville has been particularly long for the Barbars, who fled attacks on their home in Iraq, the local sponsor group has also faced a long wait and struggles with bureaucracy in their efforts to lend a helping hand.

“The first time we spoke to them was August of 2015” the church member said. “We’ve been ready for a while.”

Since the process began, Mclean has traveled to visit with the family several times, bringing messages of hope and support to help the Barbars with the wait. For a time, the church hoped to sponsor as many as four families from the group the Barbars were a part of, while helping another nine with finding new homes. Over the course of the time it took for the Barbars to get approval to come to Canada, however, all of those families were accepted by refugee programs in other countries.

Mclean said that the church has now condensed the furniture and equipment that they’d prepared for four families down to the best options for the family of four to start their next chapter here in Canada

“We went through it and took the best of what we had,” he said. “Whatever we give them, that’s what they start with.”

Although there is still uncertainty about the timing of the flight out of Jordan and how direct it will be, Mclean said that the local community will be working to prepare the new apartment days in advance to make sure everything is ready. When the flight does come in, he said that the Barbar family can count on a warm welcome.

Once the family has arrived and settled in, Mclean said that the sponsoring community will get to work on helping to set up key documents and registration for things like language courses, schools, and the ins and outs of daily life in Quebec.

“It will be a challenge, but at the same time if they want to that can just go outside and walk down the street and not have to worry about that,” He said, pointing out that the feeling of easy safety is not something that has been present in the Barbars’ lives in recent years. “That’ll be a change.”

On the front page of yesterday’s Record the title “Hardy supports buying Northern Pass Hydro line” on the top left of the page should have read “Hardy supports burying Northern Pass Hydro line.” The Record apologizes for any confusion this may have caused.