The dystopian news cycle we have lived through over the last year has lurched from crisis to crisis with alarming speed. It’s been hard to catch your breath after being bombarded by a steady drumbeat of natural and manmade disasters.
How can one create positive change in this type of environment when the world population is 7.6 billion and you are just one individual?
My suggestion is find a cause that speaks to you and go all in. For me it’s the Syrian refugee crisis.
It’s a chilling reminder of the Holocaust, when most nations turned a blind eye to helping the Jews.
Personally, my grandparents lost several family members because of senseless xenophobic hatred, and now the world is watching as similar atrocities unfold right before our eyes.
According to worldvision.org, “… 5.1 million Syrians have fled the country as refugees, and 6.3 million Syrians are displaced within the country. Half of those affected are children.” CNN recently reported, an “estimated 400,000 Syrians have been killed, according to the United Nations” under the tyrannical leadership of Syrian President of Bashar al-Assad, during the Syrian civil war, which started in early 2011.
Last year, the Obama administration took in 10,000 Syrian refugees, while Canada with just a ninth the population of the United States, took in 35,000.
Late January of this year, President Trump suspended the US refugee program indefinitely, under the guise of keeping Americans safe from terrorism. In fact, according to CNN, “No person accepted to the United States as a refugee, Syrian or otherwise, has been implicated in a major fatal terrorist attack since the Refugee Act of 1980 set up systematic procedures for accepting refugees into the United States.”
Sifting through all this information my family decided to find a family in need from Syria and help them immigrate to Canada. It wasn’t easy but nothing worthwhile ever is.
I did a thorough investigation of U.S.-based organizations to help me find a reputable charity. What I learned is most American charities provide food or health care at refugee sites but aren’t engaged in resettling refugees.
The temple I belong to, Reconstructionist Synagogue of the North Shore in Plandome, is always engaged in social action.
At my request, RSNS Cantor Eric Schulmiller put out a volley of emails to his contacts in Canada on my behalf. After several follow up emails and introductions, I was put in touch with an organization in Toronto named Nadja Now Canada.
Once I spoke with Nadja Now Canada’s director, Siba Al Khadour, I promptly hopped on a plane to Toronto and drove an hour to Kitchener Ontario to meet with her.
Returning home the same day, due diligence complete, I was comfortable I found a reputable organization.
Siba followed up a fews days later by sending me the following description of a family desperate to immigrate to Canada: “The candidate is a 39 year old Syrian painter who lives with his wife and three-year-old daughter in Lebanon. Before the war, the candidate and his wife lived in Raqqa, a Syrian city that was taken over by ISIS in 2013.”
Because of his Kurdish origins, and the art classes he gave to adults, children and children with special needs, the candidate started receiving threats from the fanatics of ISIS and he feared for his life and the safety of his wife.
The couple had no other choice but to flee to Lebanon where their first daughter was born.
Today, the candidate still volunteers in refugee camps by teaching art to children, however his condition is becoming increasingly difficult, because he was diagnosed with “Chronic Spondylitis,” an affliction that requires a $2,000 monthly injection to slow its progress.”
The Canadian government does an extremely thorough expedited vetting process for special cases that takes about a year.
To sponsor a family to come to Canada 12 months worth of living expenses need to be provided, and Nadja Now Canada takes care of all the paperwork. The family highlighted in this article is already about a month into the application process.
I am heading back to Kitchener, Ontario in a few weeks, with a friend who is interested in sponsoring a family of his own. To learn more about sponsoring a refugee family to immigrate to Canada please email me at: AdamHaber1@gmail.com.
Until our xenophobic President opens our borders to those in need, helping a threatened refugee family is a wonderful way to be an agent of positive change in the world, in spite of all the political nonsense.
