Slow progress frustrates refugee sponsor group

Apartment residents raised $65,000, but are still waiting for family to arrive in Canada

Haunted by images of the Syrian refugee crisis, retired teacher Sewell Russell decided to take action.

She posted a notice in her co-op apartment’s mailroom asking if residents in the Rosedale building wanted to sponsor a family. Almost 30 residents and supporters signed up and in October 2015, Kensington Group Refugee Sponsorship was born.

The group raised $65,000 and in February submitted a private sponsorship application for a Syrian family of seven stuck in Saudi Arabia through Ryerson University’s Lifeline Syria Challenge.

They’re still waiting for the family to arrive.

In late October, they were told the family finally got their police and medical clearances and are waiting for exit visas. They’re now hoping the family will arrive by the end of the year.

“Like other private sponsorship groups, we are all ready to go and have so much money and ability. But there has been a lot of frustration,” said Russell, 83.

“We look at the past year as unfinished and ongoing,” she added. “We talk in the corridor and we post notices in the mail room to keep people updated. It’s hard because people who donated keep asking when it’s going to happen.” Although most members of the Kensington group are retirees who have more free time to help, Russell said the slow progress is taking a toll on members, a few of whom have left to pursue other endeavours.

At the very least, they’re thankful they didn’t move quickly to rent an apartment for the family because it would have meant money wasted on unoccupied accommodation.

The effort, Russell said, reminded her of her work with a group in Wychwood Park who sponsored a Vietnamese family to Toronto in 1979.

“We all are looking forward to be actually helping the family. It will never be all over. We are committed to whoever we sponsor after the first year and will always be there for them,” she noted.