WINTER COATS ARE NEEDED FOR REFUGEES - PLEASE HELP AT THESE ADDRESSES

• Montrealers asked to donate winter clothes for Syrian refugees

Mona Cayer  > Phyllis Carter here is the whole article is a need for coats, sweaters, pants, boots, tuques and gloves for adults and children.

 

Donations can be made on Wednesday, Nov. 25, between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. at the main entrance of the Jewish General Hospital (3755 Côte-Ste-Catherine St.), and on Wednesday, Dec. 2, between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. at the main entrance of the CLSC Côte-des-Neiges (5700 Côte-des-Neiges St.).

 

Other ways to help:

 

Provide a home: Syrian refugees will need temporary housing — and then permanent homes. Lida Aghasi, the director of the Centre social d'aide aux immigrants (CSAI), is compiling a list of potential housing, which now includes a convent in Pointe-Claire, a CEGEP in Rosemont and a growing number of landlords with vacant apartments. Anyone with a room or an apartment can email CSAI at benevolat@centrecsai.org or call 514 932-2953.

 

Volunteer: Organizations in Montreal are already putting together lists of volunteers, especially those who speak Arabic and have experience working with refugees (or are going through the integration process themselves). Email infoparrainage@tcri.qc.ca.

 

The UNHCR suggests people who want to help should volunteer their skills: Can you teach French or English? In Hungary, a hairdresser offered free haircuts to refugee kids at the main train station, while a football coach in Italy started a team for refugees and migrants.

 

Aghasi says they will also need people, as well as vans or trucks, to help move families of refugees, once they find permanent homes.

 

Sponsor: Over and above the 25,000 refugees the federal government has promised to bring to Canada, Canadians are privately sponsoring refugees, and so can you. Groups of two to five people can ask to collectively sponsor a refugee, which would entail paying for their expenses over a year, for housing, clothing, food and furniture, for a sum of about $12,00o for an adult and $21,000 for a family of four.

 

Individuals can also partner with religious institutions — the neighbourhood church, synagogue or mosque — who, like some NGOs, may have pre-existing arrangements with the federal government that make it easier to sponsor refugees.

 

For more information on sponsorship and a list of religious and other organizations that can help, including by matching you to Syrian refugees awaiting sponsors, go to the Immigration Québec website.

 

The Table de concertation des organismes au service des personnes réfugiées et immigrantes (TCRI), an umbrella group for 140 community organizations, is compiling a central list of available housing, people who want to volunteer or sponsor, and donations in kind. Email them at infoparrainage@tcri.qc.ca

 

Donate money: The Red Cross, Oxfam Quebec, Care and other organizations have launched an appeal for donations to help Syrian refugees in the Middle East and Europe. Until Dec. 31, the Canadian government will match donations by individuals, up to $100 million.

 

The United Nations World Food Programme also launched an app last week — "ShareTheMeal" — to pay for meals for Syrian children living in refugee camps in Jordan. From your mobile phone, you can donate for one meal ($0.50) or to feed a child for a week or more. So far, some 1.7 million meals have been provided through the app.