Unitarians helping Afghan family out

Congregation has also sponsored three other refugee families

A steering committee focusing on helping refugees in their time of crisis is sponsoring an Afghan family currently in Tajikistan immigrate to Peterborough.

The Unitarian Fellowship of Peterborough and its congregation started sponsoring refugee families in 2014 and have successfully sponsored three families since then.

When the Syrian crisis occurred a few years ago was when we started sponsoring people to come to Canada, said Rev. Julie Stoneberg, refugee sponsorship steering committee member for the Unitarian Fellowship of Peterborough.

“People in our congregation were wondering what we could do,” she said.

“So, we called a meeting of folks who had expressed some interest and had a large gathering of people who felt a lot of passion about it.” she added.

Stoneberg said when they sponsored the first family there was a lot they didn’t know and how to go about doing it.

“It was quite an adventure with learning about everything from the sponsorship agreement holder and how that all worked with the government agencies and our first refugee family,” she said.

“We’re working on a private sponsorship, so this will be our fourth sponsorship, but there’s a lot of

other things in the works.”

Before an application can be made through Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada the steering committee must guarantee a few things, such as monetary support, community supports and other supports vital to the refugee family’s success.

“Before we make an application, we must raise 80 per cent of the funds required to sponsor the family for a year,” said Arthur Herold, chair of the refugee sponsorship steering committee.

“Until we do that, we can’t do the paperwork, and there’s a whole matrix for figuring out how much is needed based on how many family members there are and what rental costs and all those kinds of things.”

He estimates it could cost $60,000 to support the family for their first year in Peterborough, and so far about $36,000 has been raised.

The family being sponsored left Afghanistan after the Taliban started an offensive that would see many people hurt or killed after the matriarch of the family was wounded in a street attack in late August when the Taliban seized control from withdrawing American troops after 20 years of occupation.

“The car she was riding in with her four-year-old daughter was ambushed by two people and she was shot four times in the abdomen,” said Donna Flotron, application writer and refugee sponsorship steering committee member for the Unitarian Fellowship of Peterborough.

A lieutenant-colonel in the Afghan special security forces, the mother of the family rose through the police services ranks, reaching her current rank before fleeing the country for her and her family’s safety.

“This is what happens to women in Afghanistan who rise up in the ranks of policing, journalism, law or any place of power,” she said.

“The family had a lot of threats made against them, while she recovered in hospital for three months, as soon as she was released, they fled to Tajikistan with the assistance of an American woman.”

Once funds are raised, applications can start, but no telling how long that process will take, Stoneberg said.

“There’s been a lot of frustration with how slow the vetting has been overseas, particularly for Afghans,” she said.

“Even Afghans who were employed by or helping the Canadian forces in Afghanistan are having difficulties getting vetted and immigrated to Canada,” she said.

Fundraising efforts are still ongoing to help sponsor the family and bring them to Canada, said Herold.

To donate go to the website peterboroughunitarian.ca.