The leadership has stepped forward on at least two fronts, now it’s the respective communities turn to respond.
The congregation at Vernon’s Trinity United Church has decided to sponsor a family to do its part in the global refugee crisis, just as the Armstrong Spallumcheen Refugee Project had earlier done the same.
“We have been moved by the magnitude of the crisis that has engulfed individuals, families and entire nations,” said Trinity’s Marilyn Erdmann. “Members of the congregation are mobilized to do their part but we can’t do it alone.”
The commitment is for one year, once the family has been sponsored, and funds and assistance will be required to support all of the family’s needs.
That will include funds, of course, but also transportation, translation services, English as a second language training, as well as medical services.
They say it takes a village to raise a child, the same could be said for sponsoring a refugee family and that’s where the rest of the community comes in.
In Armstrong there have already been several meetings towards the ultimate goal of helping refugees and the North Okanagan has done its part in the past during a crisis in the 1980s involving similar circumstances.
So it can be done and with the respective community’s support, it will be successfully accomplished once again.
If you live in the Armstrong/Spallumcheen area and want to help support the refugee project, call Ron Brinnen at 250-546-9535 or Chris Pieper at 250-546-9725.
And if you live in the Greater Vernon area and want to ensure the Trinity United Church’s bid to help is a successful one, call the church at 250-545-0797 and offer your support.
