The second family of refugees from Syria is now on the Sunshine Coast. They arrived on Tuesday, July 26 – about a month after the first family, who arrived on June 22.
Pastor Jaz Ghag of the Christian Life Assembly in Gibsons, pastor Joel Defries of Crossroads Community Church and the first refugee family greeted the newly arrived family of four when they finally made it onto Canadian soil at the Vancouver airport.
“The main thing for this family – and for the family that’s been here now almost a month – is helping them to continue to get comfortable with the language, get comfortable with the culture, and then fitting in,” Ghag said. “It’s going to be a big benefit for them now, having these other folks that they know and being able to speak the language. Just to have more of a base of people who understand their culture better.”
The first family on the Coast “is doing really well,” according to Ghag. “They are well cared for, there are lots of people in the community. The working committee of local volunteers are all working together with the family, helping them with ESL [English as a Second Language]. The mother is now involved in a knitting group in Sechelt, lots of good things that way.”
The first family to arrive was a mother and son. The son, Daniel, is looking for a part-time job so he can continue learning English. Ghag said Daniel is open to any kind of work, but he’s been trying to find a job in construction.
“He wants to do something that he feels he can grow in,” Ghag said. “His background is in sales, so that [would be] a big change, but he’s really open and eager to get to being productive in the community.”
“The big thing we’re looking for right now is housing for him and his mom,” Ghag said. “They’re temporarily located right now – we’re trying to line up [housing] with work because they don’t have a vehicle.”
Ghag said that although the rental market on the Coast is challenging right now, he is confident that the community here will find something that will work.
“Ideally we’d really like for them to plug in here on the Sunshine Coast and thrive. That’s the goal, and I think that having the group of people we have who want to help out – that’s going to make a big difference towards seeing that happen,” Ghag said.
He wants to thank everyone who has been involved in the process of bringing these families here. “It’s been great,” Ghag said. “The people on the Sunshine Coast have been fabulous.”
