New Beginnings for Refugee Families
Date Published:
A couple years ago, we decided to say yes to a refugee who reached out to us for help. We knew it would be a life-changing commitment and it has changed our lives in so many ways. We do however find ourselves overwhelmed with all the costs.
In the summer of 2021 we received an email from a Syrian woman looking for someone to sponsor her family. She'd been looking for 3 years and nobody had given them hope until she spoke to Sonia at ANC (Association for New Canadians) in St. John's, Newfoundland. We called Sonia and learned we could sponsor a family of 4 for just $13,500 since we have an Inn, a place for them to stay. She thought rural Newfoundland would be an excellent place for them to settle. After several conversations with Jevine and her husband, we decided to jump into this and sponsor them and their two young children. We started a Go Fund Me page to raise money to cover the sponsorship and for the costs to settle here.
Then our project started to grow.
Samoh, a Syrian refugee who moved to Gander with her family 8 years ago, is a friend we met through a customer here at our Inn. She told us about her sister and husband and children stuck in a refugee camp in Turkey. She dreamed of sponsoring them, but to meet the requirements she had to be earning $80,000.00 a year. We decided to sponsor Saboh, Luay and their 4 children too.
Not long afterwards, we received an email from Mohammed, who had been following us on Facebook for a while. He explained how hard life is for he and his wife Layla and two young children. They've lived in the refugee camp for over 10 years, since their daughter was 1, and their son, at 8 years old, had lived his whole life in the camp. They've only had sporadic schooling, and their parents desperately want a better life for them. We really wanted to help, and it was so hard to tell them we unfortunately didn't have the funds to sponsor them. Shortly after that tough, we received an anonymous donation of $13,500 from someone who heard our story on CBC - the exact cost to sponsor a family of 4. It seemed like it was meant to be that we sponsor Mohammed's family.
We really want the families to settle here and build a new life. The little communities here on Bonavista Peninsula have so much room for growth and we've found many opportunities for small businesses that our families are interested in, like handyman services, a bakery, saw mill. We've also applied for 25 acres of land to plant apple trees and a garden and a greenhouse to help with food security on the Bonavista Peninsula. The local school in King's Cove, with only 23 students in total, is thrilled to have new children coming; 8 among the families.
Now that we have three families sponsored it was obvious we needed housing. There aren't any apartments in our area, and no houses for rent. We found a partially-built house in King's Cove for sale for just $18,000 and purchased it in late 2021. We've been renovating it into an upstairs and downstairs apartment since then - we put the new roof on this fall, new siding, windows and doors, and the upstairs unit is ready for painting. You can check out our Facebook page to see pictures of the house and our progress along the way: www.facebook.com/rounddabay.
All the costs have really added up though - to much more than we've been able to raise through our Go Fund Me page and other fundraising events. We decided to sell my huge dinky collection, a sports car I had for 30 years, and my original paintings. We raised almost $30,000 with the dinkys and the car, and $3,500 for for three of the paintings. We had a "Syrian Feast" Weekend special here at the Inn, and we received donations from friends and family.
We're grateful for any donations, large or small. We have a lot of my original paintings still for sale - if you know of someone who might be interested in my art (most are of Newfoundland scenes "back in the day"), we'll send a list along to them.
If you have any questions about the project, just let us know. We understand there are a lot of charities needing help, but we would be grateful if you would consider our project this year.
Thank you for your consideration.
In the summer of 2021 we received an email from a Syrian woman looking for someone to sponsor her family. She'd been looking for 3 years and nobody had given them hope until she spoke to Sonia at ANC (Association for New Canadians) in St. John's, Newfoundland. We called Sonia and learned we could sponsor a family of 4 for just $13,500 since we have an Inn, a place for them to stay. She thought rural Newfoundland would be an excellent place for them to settle. After several conversations with Jevine and her husband, we decided to jump into this and sponsor them and their two young children. We started a Go Fund Me page to raise money to cover the sponsorship and for the costs to settle here.
Then our project started to grow.
Samoh, a Syrian refugee who moved to Gander with her family 8 years ago, is a friend we met through a customer here at our Inn. She told us about her sister and husband and children stuck in a refugee camp in Turkey. She dreamed of sponsoring them, but to meet the requirements she had to be earning $80,000.00 a year. We decided to sponsor Saboh, Luay and their 4 children too.
Not long afterwards, we received an email from Mohammed, who had been following us on Facebook for a while. He explained how hard life is for he and his wife Layla and two young children. They've lived in the refugee camp for over 10 years, since their daughter was 1, and their son, at 8 years old, had lived his whole life in the camp. They've only had sporadic schooling, and their parents desperately want a better life for them. We really wanted to help, and it was so hard to tell them we unfortunately didn't have the funds to sponsor them. Shortly after that tough, we received an anonymous donation of $13,500 from someone who heard our story on CBC - the exact cost to sponsor a family of 4. It seemed like it was meant to be that we sponsor Mohammed's family.
We really want the families to settle here and build a new life. The little communities here on Bonavista Peninsula have so much room for growth and we've found many opportunities for small businesses that our families are interested in, like handyman services, a bakery, saw mill. We've also applied for 25 acres of land to plant apple trees and a garden and a greenhouse to help with food security on the Bonavista Peninsula. The local school in King's Cove, with only 23 students in total, is thrilled to have new children coming; 8 among the families.
Now that we have three families sponsored it was obvious we needed housing. There aren't any apartments in our area, and no houses for rent. We found a partially-built house in King's Cove for sale for just $18,000 and purchased it in late 2021. We've been renovating it into an upstairs and downstairs apartment since then - we put the new roof on this fall, new siding, windows and doors, and the upstairs unit is ready for painting. You can check out our Facebook page to see pictures of the house and our progress along the way: www.facebook.com/rounddabay.
All the costs have really added up though - to much more than we've been able to raise through our Go Fund Me page and other fundraising events. We decided to sell my huge dinky collection, a sports car I had for 30 years, and my original paintings. We raised almost $30,000 with the dinkys and the car, and $3,500 for for three of the paintings. We had a "Syrian Feast" Weekend special here at the Inn, and we received donations from friends and family.
We're grateful for any donations, large or small. We have a lot of my original paintings still for sale - if you know of someone who might be interested in my art (most are of Newfoundland scenes "back in the day"), we'll send a list along to them.
If you have any questions about the project, just let us know. We understand there are a lot of charities needing help, but we would be grateful if you would consider our project this year.
Thank you for your consideration.
