The Creston Refugee Committee is a Constituent Group of volunteers that sponsors refugees under the authority of the Sponsorship Agreement Holders (SAH) - the United Church of Canada or the East Kootenay Friends of Refugees. Each SAH has an agreement with Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada, (IRCC) regarding all issues and procedures related to bringing refugees to Canada and providing support.
The Creston Refugee Committee is secular. All funds raised for refugee support are processed through Trinity United Church in Creston.
Mission Statement: The Creston Refugee Committee is a secular volunteer group committed to bringing refugee families to Canada and to providing financial assistance and social support for the first year of their residence in Canada. In doing so, we help families adjust to a different cultural environment and social norms. As best we can, we make allowances for trauma or strife which the family endured that led to fleeing their homeland and for the cultural isolation that comes from leaving behind family, friends and customs.
The Creston Refugee Committee is secular. All funds raised for refugee support are processed through Trinity United Church in Creston.
Mission Statement: The Creston Refugee Committee is a secular volunteer group committed to bringing refugee families to Canada and to providing financial assistance and social support for the first year of their residence in Canada. In doing so, we help families adjust to a different cultural environment and social norms. As best we can, we make allowances for trauma or strife which the family endured that led to fleeing their homeland and for the cultural isolation that comes from leaving behind family, friends and customs.
WHAT WE DO
We are all volunteers.
We raise money which will financially support a refugee family for a year when the family arrives in Creston. Fundraising is an ongoing activity.
When the family’s arrival date approaches, we search for and secure a rental home for the family. We also are required to find a family doctor and dentist for them as part of our agreement with the Federal government.
We obtain household effects and other needs for the family’s new home : furniture, bedding, kitchen items including dishes, cutlery, utensils, cookware etc. Many items are donated or provided by members of the community wanting to help. We provide bicycles for their transportation needs.
When the family arrives, such as at the Cranbrook Airport, we greet them and introduce ourselves as they enter the airport terminal. After introductions, we bring them to Creston. The Government of Canada requires that the refugee family must pay the airfare and hotels for their travel from the refugee camp to Cranbrook or whatever other closest airport is used to get them to Creston. Our families can be large, so the loan can amount to a lot of money and it is only interest free for the first 2 years. The refugees cannot become Canadian citizens until their loan is paid.
We bring the family to their new home and explain that members of our group will help them get to know the town of Creston. We help them to become established: telephone, banking, groceries, employment opportunities, doctor, dentist, community centre, school system etc. We introduce them to members who are trained as tutors in English language training and we try to provide one tutor for every family member. We assign individual committee members to be responsible for “on call” responsibilities and we encourage the new family to seek assistance from these individuals for any problem they might experience where they need our help.
Usually, we care for the family in its first year in Creston while we are fundraising for the next refugee family. As we help and get to know the family in its first year, friendships develop. These are lasting friendships. At the end of the first year, our financial commitment ends but our moral obligations to the family continue as long as they need us for translations, advice etc.
We raise money which will financially support a refugee family for a year when the family arrives in Creston. Fundraising is an ongoing activity.
When the family’s arrival date approaches, we search for and secure a rental home for the family. We also are required to find a family doctor and dentist for them as part of our agreement with the Federal government.
We obtain household effects and other needs for the family’s new home : furniture, bedding, kitchen items including dishes, cutlery, utensils, cookware etc. Many items are donated or provided by members of the community wanting to help. We provide bicycles for their transportation needs.
When the family arrives, such as at the Cranbrook Airport, we greet them and introduce ourselves as they enter the airport terminal. After introductions, we bring them to Creston. The Government of Canada requires that the refugee family must pay the airfare and hotels for their travel from the refugee camp to Cranbrook or whatever other closest airport is used to get them to Creston. Our families can be large, so the loan can amount to a lot of money and it is only interest free for the first 2 years. The refugees cannot become Canadian citizens until their loan is paid.
We bring the family to their new home and explain that members of our group will help them get to know the town of Creston. We help them to become established: telephone, banking, groceries, employment opportunities, doctor, dentist, community centre, school system etc. We introduce them to members who are trained as tutors in English language training and we try to provide one tutor for every family member. We assign individual committee members to be responsible for “on call” responsibilities and we encourage the new family to seek assistance from these individuals for any problem they might experience where they need our help.
Usually, we care for the family in its first year in Creston while we are fundraising for the next refugee family. As we help and get to know the family in its first year, friendships develop. These are lasting friendships. At the end of the first year, our financial commitment ends but our moral obligations to the family continue as long as they need us for translations, advice etc.
OUR HISTORY
The group started in 1978 with the Vietnamese "Boat People", ethnic Chinese and North and South Vietnamese people fleeing the conquering communist North Vietnamese. These former "enemies" of each other in Vietnam chose to work together and help each other in Creston. The United Church of Canada had a master agreement with Canada Immigration and they were kind enough to allow us to bring families over to Canada under that agreement. Though the group was and is today secular, all donated monies are channelled through Trinity United Church in Creston so that donors can receive a tax-deductible receipt. Some of the refugees who came to us were not sponsored by our committee but were government-sponsored. We became their "receiving and resettlement sponsors". This lessened the financial burden for the committee members, but was still every bit as much work and sometimes more.
In those early years, there were many Vietnamese and Cambodians. Later came Bosnians, Iraqi Kurds and then Sierra Leonians. You can imagine the challenge we have meeting and greeting a large family from another country who speak little or no English and who sometimes have little or no "formal" education.
These people have lived in survival mode for years in a refugee camp and have often seen unspeakable horrors, doing and saying whatever is necessary to survive. Some have even been born in a refugee camp and have never lived outside that environment. So it takes patience, understanding, listening and explaining on both sides for everyone to become comfortable. In the end, it is a win/win situation: sometimes frustrating, always rewarding and often lifelong friendships are formed.
The Creston Refugee Committee provides social support for all incoming refugees in the program. This includes: job hunting, household needs, arrangements for English language training, introduction to shopping and gaining familiarity with all things that are new. Over the years, financial support has taken a few forms: private sponsorship, full government sponsorship, sponsorship solely by the Creston Refugee Committee and shared sponsorship (government and Creston Refugee Committee).
As of 2022, a total of 101 refugees have come to Creston through our committee's efforts. The length of time our new families remain in Creston varies and ranges from a few months to years. The people who have come through our sponsorship and assistance are doctors, a pharmacist, a flight instructor, trades people, care workers, a forester— the list goes on. Many are now residing all over Canada.
In those early years, there were many Vietnamese and Cambodians. Later came Bosnians, Iraqi Kurds and then Sierra Leonians. You can imagine the challenge we have meeting and greeting a large family from another country who speak little or no English and who sometimes have little or no "formal" education.
These people have lived in survival mode for years in a refugee camp and have often seen unspeakable horrors, doing and saying whatever is necessary to survive. Some have even been born in a refugee camp and have never lived outside that environment. So it takes patience, understanding, listening and explaining on both sides for everyone to become comfortable. In the end, it is a win/win situation: sometimes frustrating, always rewarding and often lifelong friendships are formed.
The Creston Refugee Committee provides social support for all incoming refugees in the program. This includes: job hunting, household needs, arrangements for English language training, introduction to shopping and gaining familiarity with all things that are new. Over the years, financial support has taken a few forms: private sponsorship, full government sponsorship, sponsorship solely by the Creston Refugee Committee and shared sponsorship (government and Creston Refugee Committee).
As of 2022, a total of 101 refugees have come to Creston through our committee's efforts. The length of time our new families remain in Creston varies and ranges from a few months to years. The people who have come through our sponsorship and assistance are doctors, a pharmacist, a flight instructor, trades people, care workers, a forester— the list goes on. Many are now residing all over Canada.
Refugee Arrivals in Creston
- 2022 - Pong Kam and his family of eight arrived from Myanmar.
- 2018 - a Kurdish family of 6 (sponsored by the Creston Refugee Committee) arrived here from a refugee camp in Iraq.
- 2017 - a family of 7 Karen Burmese refugees (sponsored by Creston Refugee Committee). The father in this family is a brother to the father of the families of 7 who arrived in 2012.
- 2014 - the extended family of 5 Kachin Burmese refugees (Sponsored by Government of Canada (50%) and Creston Refugee Committee (50%))
- 2012 - the extended family of 7 Karen Burmese refugees (Sponsored by Creston Refugee Committee)
- 2011 - a family of 5 from Palestine via Syria. (Sponsored by Creston Refugee Committee)
- 2007 - a mother and 3 children and 2 sisters of the mother from Guinea via Sierra Leone (sponsored by Creston Refugee Committee)
- 1995 - a mother and 6 children, Kurdish refugees from Iraq (Sponsored by Government of Canada under Women at Risk program, supported by Creston Refugee Committee). The brother was privately sponsored by a group from Nelson, B.C.
- 1994 - family of 4 from Yugoslavia (Sponsored by Creston Refugee Committee)
- Late 1980s - a family of 10 from Cambodia (Government sponsored/Creston Refugee Committee)
- Mid 1980s - 1 adult male and his sister and her 2 children from Vietnam (Government sponsored/Creston Refugee Committee)
- Early 1980s - 2 adult males and 3 adult females from Vietnam (Government Sponsored /Creston Refugee Committee)
- Early 1980s - 2 young men from Vietnam (Government Sponsored/Creston Refugee Committee)
- 1979 - a family of 8 from North Vietnam (Private Sponsor-LDS Church)
- 1979 - a family of 14 from South Vietnam (Private Sponsor-Creston Community)
Home
by Warsan Shire (a Somali refugee)
no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city running as well
your neighbors running faster than you
breath bloody in their throats
the boy you went to school with
who kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factory
is holding a gun bigger than his body
you only leave home
when home won’t let you stay.
no one leaves home unless home chases you
fire under feet
hot blood in your belly
it’s not something you ever thought of doing
until the blade burnt threats into
your neck
and even then you carried the anthem under
your breath
only tearing up your passport in an airport toilet
sobbing as each mouthful of paper
made it clear that you wouldn’t be going back.
you have to understand,
that no one puts their children in a boat
unless the water is safer than the land
no one burns their palms
under trains
beneath carriages
no one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck
feeding on newspaper unless the miles travelled
means something more than journey.
no one crawls under fences
no one wants to be beaten
pitied
no one chooses refugee camps
or strip searches where your
body is left aching
or prison,
because prison is safer
than a city of fire
and one prison guard
in the night
is better than a truckload
of men who look like your father
no one could take it
no one could stomach it
no one skin would be tough enough
the
go home blacks
refugees
dirty immigrants
asylum seekers
sucking our country dry
niggers with their hands out
they smell strange
savage
messed up their country and now they want
to mess ours up
how do the words
the dirty looks
roll off your backs
maybe because the blow is softer
than a limb torn off
or the words are more tender
than fourteen men between
your legs
or the insults are easier
to swallow
than rubble
than bone
than your child’s body
in pieces.
i want to go home,
but home is the mouth of a shark
home is the barrel of the gun
and no one would leave home
unless home chased you to the shore
unless home told you
to quicken your legs
leave your clothes behind
crawl through the desert
wade through the oceans
drown
save
be hunger
beg
forget pride
your survival is more important
no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear
saying --
leave,
run away from me now
i dont know what i’ve become
but i know that anywhere
is safer than here