Who we are
In the midst of the surge of Syrian refugees, Dr. Mary Jo Leddy, the founder of Romero House, and strong Canadian advocate for refugees gave this advice: “Pay attention; don’t wait until you are ready; do what you can.” Listen to one of her powerful homilies here.
The Redeemer Refugee Committee strives to take Dr. Leddy’s advice. We are an interfaith group working since 2015 with the Anglican United Refugee Alliance (AURA) to settle refugees in Toronto. In the past six years, our group has settled two families and five individuals. If you are interested in being part of the settlement group and our next sponsorship, please contact Alison Colvin.
See the Redeemer e-news for information on upcoming sponsorships.
How you can help
- Donate to our current sponsorship. You can do so through Canada Helps.
- Become a member of our group. We can always use extra hands to greet people at the airport, orient them to Toronto, help with medical appointments and educational needs, etc.
- Please consider using this letter, as is or revised. It calls on the Canadian government to reactivate and increase the Blended Visa Office-Referred (BVOR) programme. Understandably, refugees coming with the support of sponsorship groups such as ours at Redeemer are more readily settled than those simply coming as government-sponsored refugees. The letter also calls for increasing admissions to Canada, to benefit both those displaced from their homelands and Canadian society at large. A large number of letters from constituents will indicate to our representatives that this is an important issue worthy of their attention.
Ukraine
At Church of the Redeemer, we support Ukrainians who have fled their country by donating or by providing resources or space. We invite you to do the same. Helpful websites include:
- Ukrainian Immigrant Aid Society
- Ukrainian Canadian Congress
- and for those who can help with housing
