Preparing a warm welcome

By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express

Questions like the when, the where, and the how many are still unanswered.

As for the who and the why, both of these have clear answers – Syrian refugees need help as they flee their wartorn homes, and that knowledge has been enough to launch many of Oshawa’s kind souls into action.

“This has nothing to do with religion, race or any of those things. It’s just a cause for humanity,” says Siraj Patel, a director at the Islamic Centre of Oshawa. “Everybody sort of recognizes the human concern that is involved here and the need for all of us as human beings to come forward and open our arms and embrace these individuals in any way we can.”

And members of Oshawa’s Muslim community are not the only ones getting involved, as the Oshawa Syrian Refugee Alliance has sprung up with churches, social organizations and citizens across the city looking to bring 100 refugees to the community, along with coordinating the efforts of those wanting to help.

“So many people, by nature, are compassionate and concerned and want to help. The issue that they run into is sometimes there aren’t channels they can direct that toward and find actual ways of helping,” says Derek Giberson, a founder with the alliance who is looking to change that.

With newly elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau following up on his campaign promise to bring 25,000 Syrian refugees into the country by year’s end, a plan was expected to be released Tuesday (Nov. 24) that will give a better idea of the logistics behind such a massive undertaking.

Preliminary reports show that nearly 900 refugees a day will start arriving in the coming weeks from the hardest hit regions of Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. The majority of these refugees will be women, children and families due to ongoing security concerns of unaccompanied males.

Over the past six weeks, Canadian authorities have processed approximately 100 people a day overseas, with more being accessed by the United Nations.

The majority of refugees are expected to land in Montreal and Toronto, but it remains unclear how many will end up in Oshawa or other surrounding communities.

Regardless of the unknowns, many in the Oshawa community want to be ready to make the transition as easy as possible.

A community within a community

At the Islamic Centre of Oshawa, helping with the Syrian crisis has been going on for years.

Before the body of three-year-old Syrian Alan Kurdi washed up on the shore of a Turkish beach, pictures of which shocked the world and showed the cruel reality of the refugee crisis, launching many into action, the Islamic Centre had already been acting as a sponsor for families for years.

“As an organization that works with charities, we collect from our Muslim congregants and we’re established in helping the poor with that for a number of years,” says Shakir Pandor, the imam at the Islamic Centre.

A facet of the Islamic faith known as zakat sees Muslims provide 2.5 per cent of their income be given to the poor. Pandor says the centre partners with registered charitable organizations to provide the funds wherever they are needed across the world. Most recently, it has been used to assist those involved in the Syrian refugee crisis.

But for Patel, he thinks it’s time for everyone to take the next step.

“We’ve got to do the Canadian thing, which is open our arms to those effected individuals and families,” he says. “Part of this is financial, but a large part of it is just getting volunteers to make sure that basic necessities are there when they arrive in Canada.”

And for immigrant families, those necessities could be numerous, depending on their situation.

Along with immediate health, accommodations or dietary needs – which the Islamic Centre is looking to address by recruiting doctors, physicians and psychiatrists to volunteer their time – the resettlement process goes beyond that, Patel says, and this is where the Oshawa community can come forward to help.

“We need people to teach them how to take public transport, we need people to register their children in schools, we need people to take them grocery shopping or get them involved in the various programs that are taking place in Oshawa,” he says.

And for the Oshawa Syrian Refugee Alliance, the goal is to make sure those programs and people looking to assist know where to direct their good will.

“One of the most important parts of successful refugee resettlement is helping them get on their own feet and getting them to the point where they’re able to care for themselves,” Giberson says, and regardless of the federal government’s plans, the goal will be the same in Oshawa.  “I think that some of the things we’re doing in terms of getting interested individuals and community groups linked up, I think that that is not going to change regardless of what the federal government’s plans are.”

Reverand David Moore of Simcoe Street United Church is also working with the alliance to assist in its efforts. His church isn’t the only one assisting either, Moore says, with a response coming from the United Church of Canada.

“There’s already, on a national level, an infrastructure in place that we can kind of plug into,” Moore says.

Along with discussions taking place at the local level, Moore says families have already been raising money and gathering clothing, personal items and furniture for any refugees who settle in the area.

However, even with the assistance and programs in place, the immigration process can be shocking and isolating for many refugees.

“Immigration itself brings a lot of challenges, and amongst them is typically the new culture, to integrate into society,” says Pandor, whose parents immigrated to Canada from India in the 1970s, adding that assisting with that isolation is a big part of what the Islamic Centre is hoping to achieve.

“That’s one of the important aspects of us helping them, not just their physical needs, but keeping them encouraged and keeping them motivated and keeping them feeling like they are a part of society and a community,” Pandor says.

For that reason, Giberson says the Islamic Centre is an invaluable resource for the Oshawa community and any possible refugees who resettle in the city.

“They have a community within our community that includes language resources, cultural resources and religious resources that when somebody is coming partway across the world to a foreign country, there’s a very good chance it’s going to be in the dead of Canadian winter. That’s a huge culture shock,” Giberson says.

Preparing for the unknowns

Moving forward, the Islamic Centre is working to find those in its congregation who have possible accommodations for any refugees who are potentially looking to call Oshawa home.

“I think that’s what the biggest challenge is right now,” Patel says.

It is also a challenge for the federal government as they search for temporary housing for the mass of refugees soon to be arriving on Canadian soil.

Tentative plans have some placed in temporary housing on military bases.

Despite the challenge, Patel says the support from the community has been heartwarming.

“The outpouring has been really good from the community, from the congregation,” he says.

And people are ready, whatever the federal government’s plan may be.

“People are just kind of waiting to say, ‘When you’re ready, we’re there,” Moore says.