Mar
31
By Grant Kerr
Last fall, much of the Western world awakened to the gravity of the Syrian refugee crisis when the picture of little Alan Kurdi’s lifeless body, lying on a Turkish beach, was beamed around the world.
It was that image that was the catalyst for so much of the reaction to the ongoing crisis in the Middle East. It was that picture of the little boy in the red T-shirt that also spurred a group of people from James Bay United Church to work toward bringing refugees to Victoria through the James Bay Refugee Initiative.
The refugee initiative sprang from a simple question posed by a member of James Bay United one Sunday morning late last summer. Inspired by the morning sermon, she asked, “Could we sponsor a Syrian refugee?” The immediate answer was an emphatic yes.
“We decided that we would help by sponsoring refugees and to get the larger community involved in that effort,” says Aleksa Harkness, who is a member of the James Bay Refugee Initiative, as well as a church member. “As a church, we don’t operate in isolation. We’re part of the community, and we thought it important to invite the wider community to take part because we’re all in this together. This is how the James Bay Refugee Initiative (JBRI) was born.”
A call was sent out to the community to join the effort and the response was encouraging with more than 100 people attending the initial meeting of the refugee initiative late last year. The initiative’s volunteer base come from all over Greater Victoria, from as far away as Sidney.
The James Bay Refugee Initiative group has already raised about $25,000 to help bring a young man from Iraq to Greater Victoria, the hope being that he will arrive by May. But the JBRI is not stopping there. Its goal is to raise $75,000 overall with the last $50,000 covering a family of newcomers who will be looking to emigrate to a safe, peaceful country.
In order to raise money and awareness, a number of fundraising events are being held. The first one was held on a recent Saturday, a Teen Games Night. More than 20 people came out to play Monopoly, Risk, Clue, and other games, paying a toonie at the door and buying pizza and snacks, the money going to the refugee initiative. Thrifty’s and Superior Pizza sponsored the event.
A series of concerts at James Bay United Church, starting in May, will also help raise money for the refugee initiative. A big band concert is slated for May 15 at James Bay United, 511 Michigan Street, featuring the Bayside Big Band of Victoria. They’ll play a lot of the great tunes from the Big Band era.
Concerts in June and July will feature jazz and opera. An art sale and a Middle Eastern dinner are also in the planning stages.
A team of volunteers are also in place once the newcomers arrive to help out with accommodation, furniture, job supports, transportation, and anything else that is needed.
“This is such an important issue and is such a huge international crisis, we just thought, ‘How could we, as a church and as a community, not do something?’” Harkness said.
For more information on the James Bay Refugee Initiative, to get involved, upcoming events, or to donate, visit: jamesbayrefugeeinitiative.org, or call: 250 384-5821.