Refugee family safely landed in Castlegar Tuesday
By Contributor
This Tuesday the Castlegar Refugee Project Team was thrilled to greet a Burmese refugee family who arrived safely, after travelling for more than 24 hours from Kuala Lumpur. The young couple originally fled their Chin State in Myanmar and applied for refugee status in Malaysia. They have been waiting in crowded conditions in Malaysia a few years, where their 14-month-old daughter was born, hoping they would get a sponsor. The family are now settled into a home in downtown Castlegar. The young family will have lots of community support with English-language training, help with shopping and appointments, culture and integrating into community life.
The Castlegar Refugee Project, CaRe Project for short, wishes to acknowledge the generous support of our community in offering funds and the many supplies needed to set up a home. Many professionals in our area are also available as needed, including physicians, dentists, counsellors, CBAL and Kootenay Family Place. As many are aware, we will be settling a Syrian family very soon as well, though their date of arrival is unknown.
“I felt humbled to meet them – I will never know what they’ve been through,” said Julie Leffelaar, CaRe volunteer. “It’s happy for us, but it’s not a simple thing. We’ll never know what they went through and what they left to get here.”
Thank you to many individuals and the following organizations and groups: Zellstoff-Celgar, The Heritage Credit Union, Home Goods Furniture, Kootenay Columbia Teachers Union, RDCK Area I, RDCK Area J, RDCK Area H, City of Castlegar, CBT, USCC Ladies, Men’s, Youth Council and Choir, Pulp & Paper Woodworkers Local 1, Rotary Sunrise. Special thanks to St David’s Anglican Church for being the sponsor agency. Those who supported the International Culture Festival were essential to our efforts as well.
We are just starting further fundraising for the second family. Contact Julie Leffelaar jdleffelaar@yahoo.ca to help with this.
All other matters contact Rosemary Manarin at 250-365-6470
