City of Vancouver offers support for incoming Syrian refugees
Posted December 18, 2015 4:33 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The City of Vancouver has announced that it will be supporting a new donation campaign set up by Vancity.
Organizers are blown away by the generosity they’re seeing and Vancity says it will be matching all donations to its Vancity Humanitarian Fund by up to a maximum of $125,000. All contributions made to the fund after December 1st will be distributed to local charities around the city aimed at helping refugees settle here.
The Immigrant Services Society of BC is also playing a big role in refugee resettlement, and Chris Friesen with the organization says he and others at the ISS have been amazed by how many people in Metro Vancouver have offered to help by donating space in their homes and their time.
“It’s been quite overwhelming for us, to think that someone […] would open their home like that to a stranger”, says Freisen, who also adds that he is finding the generosity is stretching beyond the Syrian crisis with refugees from other countries benefitting.
The ISS is expecting the total number of refugees from around the world arriving in 2016 to hit 50,000, an historic number for Canada.
Vancity CEO Tamara Vrooman underlines the importance of helping refugees once they arrive, adding that they’re “twice as likely to start entrepreneurial businesses, they create employment, spend more in the economy particularly in the early years, and have a very positive effect on our economy and region.”
