I want to pass along some really good news to you. Today on our behalf the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa submitted our sponsorship applications to Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada for both Rouba and Dani.
Rouba is a single woman who is a refugee from Syria presently in Lebanon. She has already had family members arrive here in Ottawa, so we are hopeful that we will receive a positive response to her application. Dani is a single male presently in Jordan. He too has family members being sponsored by another congregation here in Ottawa and though they have not yet arrived in Canada, their application has been approved. We are also hopeful that his application will be approved soon. It has taken a long time to get all of the paperwork completed satisfactorily, but we are pleased the applications have been submitted and I will certainly keep you informed about their progress.
In addition to these two individual sponsorships, we are planning to sponsor another family from Syria who have family members here in Ottawa. Along with these sponsorships of Syrians, we still waiting to hear news of the planned arrival of two families we have sponsored from Afghanistan. We have submitted an application for another Afghan family, and are in the process of completing the applications for two more Afghan families as well as a family from Iran.
We thank everyone who attended and helped with our fundraising concert at The Glen restaurant on Saturday February 20. Everyone had a great time and we raised $1,340 from donations and the raffle items, and the Glen gave us another $200 from a portion of food sales.
I also want to congratulate the members of St. John’s Anglican South March and all of those who have been part of the “Forward March” campaign to sponsor Syrian refugee family. The family arrived early in the new year, and through the efforts of many, are adjusting to their new life here in Canada.
This is all really good news, and I look forward to keeping you up to date with further developments.
Yours In Common Purpose,
Rev. Grant Dillenbeck
(Rev. Grant Dillenbeck from Stittsville United Church chairs the Kanata Stittsville Refugee Sponsorship Group. He can be reached at 613-836-4962.)