Update on our Community Assistance

Posted by Manon Mitchell
 
With 3,000 Syrian newcomers in Calgary, there is still a great need to assist these families. Our recent Mentor’s meeting held at Scout’s house on Thursday February 2nd attracted many mentors and, importantly, potential mentors who wanted to find out more about what it’s like to be a mentor. Ghada opened the meeting by reminding all of us how this program provides a platform for cultural understanding and transforming differences into similarities.
 
We then heard from Rita Khanchet, a Syrian newcomer, who stressed that the most important thing the newcomers need is to know and feel that someone cares about them. They don’t like feeling like strangers and want to be part of the community.  Sam Nammoura who is the lead for the Calgary Syrian Support Group thanked Rotary clubs for their assistance with the Syrian newcomers.
 
Sam also shared that a new warehouse is now in use and houses a community centre as well as space for donated items. Sam stated that the greatest need is jobs, jobs, jobs. Now they are talking about therapy jobs, which is any job that allows a person to have some dignity, to connect with others and get out of their dwelling, which may be very basic and isolated.
 
Here are some of the thoughts and experiences shared by the mentors who were in attendance.
“It’s great to see the kids blending as young Canadians. You become part of their family” (Dhalia Mostafa)
“It’s a lot of fun to be part of their family. They now have English classes and that is working well. (Barb Young)
“I have 2 families and I learned how to fly kits! My new family is getting language skills training. The 20 and 21 year old sons used to go to U of Cairo and are looking forward to getting back into their engineering studies” (Ralf Lundberg)
“Many of them are shell shocked and in survival mode. Many will never work at the professional level they were at in Syria; how do you get them to work in their field again?” (Michael Broadhurst)
 
There is much we can do as regular Calgarians and Rotarians. All it takes is just connecting with the family once a month and ask “How are you doing? Is everything OK?” so that they know that someone cares for them and is interested in their well-being.
 
That’s all it takes to make a huge difference in a family’s life. Please contact Garth Toombs or Ghada AlAtrash to be connected with a new Calgary family that just wants to be part of our wonderful community.