FACES: Refugee sponsorship and support

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Urgent need:

FACES is currently sponsoring a refugee couple, who while waiting to be processed to come to Canada, have been directly affected by the February 2023 earthquakes in Turkey. Funding is required to help them with shelter costs and provide living expenses until they can travel to Canada. FACES appreciates financial donations at this time to help with these additional expenses. Read how you can donate.

About FACES

Formed in 2016, FACES’ name stands for First Avenue Churches and Community Embracing Sponsorships.

The group consists of churches uniquely connected by their proximity to First Avenue in the Glebe: St. Matthew’s Anglican, Glebe St. James United and St. Giles Presbyterian, as well as members of the Ottawa community.

FACES believes in working together to “make justice” by assisting refugees to come to Canada and supporting their transition to a new life here. FACES seeks to be inclusive and open in refugee sponsorship regardless of faith, ethnicity, health condition or sexual orientation.

FACES’ refugee sponsorship history

FACES’ original refugee sponsorship goal was to sponsor three families under a shared cost program with the federal government. The group put in place a budget of $10,000 per family and a team of volunteers to assist them. However, it quickly became evident that it takes a lot more money and volunteers to support newcomers to Canada than initially estimated. And the group’s sponsorship goal grew.

To date, with the help of generous donors and many fundraising activities – including at St. Matthew’s – FACES has raised over $300,000, all of which has been put to work assisting eight formally sponsored refugee families (equalling 26 newcomers) as well as helping more than 50 additional refugees through various programs and at various stages of their integration process.

What sponsorship involves

A typical sponsorship is 12 months but FACES’ involvement usually extends beyond the first required year of financial assistance.

Newcomers first stay with a welcome family and FACES helps start the process of being documented as landed immigrants. A volunteer team helps register newcomers for support services and benefits in Canada. Another team finds appropriate housing for the family, gathering furniture, clothing and staples needed by the family. Other members of the team offer language training, help any children get settled in school and potentially get them involved in extracurricular activities. FACES also supports adult newcomers prepare for employment. Social events are organized to help them make new friends and contacts, and aid with integration into their new community.

Each newcomer and each family are different, with differing abilities and needs. Integration is not easy. Newcomers to Canada likely need to learn a new language. They may need to go back to school, complete a degree or seek re-training. Skills may need to be upgraded to become employable. At the same time, adult newcomers need to provide and care for their family. All of this needs to be done while dealing with their own personal challenges. Many newcomers require emotional support and medical help. Some may suffer from PTSD or depression or have mental and physical health challenges.

For all of these reasons, FACES has seen that with some newcomers, 12 months is not enough time to become independent and self-sustaining and the group continues to support newcomers as it is able.

FACES’ current sponsorship: Noor and Omar

FACES most recent sponsorship is a young Iraqi couple, Noor and Omar. They are currently in Turkey waiting to be processed and travel to Canada. They have waited almost 16 months since being identified for sponsorship. They live in Gaziantep, a city near the epicenter of the February 2023 earthquake. They escaped at night unharmed but with only the clothes on their backs. Their apartment is uninhabitable. Through efforts here and in Turkey we have been successful in accelerating their refugee application processing. As is standard process for refugee claimants, they were interviewed at the Canadian Embassy and had medicals completed. The next step is a security review. We are hopeful they will soon receive security clearances for travel to Ottawa.

The situation in Turkey is dire, and has been an unnerving, horrific experience for the couple. We are relieved they are safe and will help them as much as we can from abroad, advocating for them and assisting financially with accommodations and living expenses. Any financial assistance we send prior to their arrival in Canada is in addition to our original sponsorship commitment costs. The FACES team is now on standby preparing for their arrival. We pray this will be imminent.

How you can get involved

Donate

FACES is always in need of funding and welcome financial donations of any size. St. Matthew’s handles some administrative tasks for FACES. Please make cheques payable to St. Matthew’s Anglican Church, with “Refugee support” written in the memo line.

Volunteer

It takes a large team to sponsor a family and there are many different activities and tasks that can make use of a range of abilities and skills. But it mostly takes just a kind heart to start!

Contact FACES

If you want to volunteer your time, or have further questions about FACES, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Last updated: March 1, 2023

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