Outreach Worker:
Evonne Komaromi

MCC thrift shop
now open
in Toronto

call MCC Toronto 416-423-9229.

Refugee Sponsorship

Danforth has had one experience in Refugee sponsorship in the mid 80's. We at that time successfully sponsored a Vietnamese refugee who has since successfully become a part of the Canadian Mosaic.

In 2002 Aklile T., a member at Danforth Mennonite Church approached Church Council with a request to assist him in bringing his family to Canada from Ethiopia - Kenya as refugees. We as a congregation determined to become "Nominal Sponsors" in this endeavor, and things were set in motion.

Aklile died accidently in the spring of 2004, and since our sponsorship agreement rested hugely on Aklile's shoulders, we felt impelled to re-assess our involvement in this Sponsorship.

We are currently involved in this re-evaluation.

Nominal Sponsorship Agreement with Aklile

Request:
-Church Council requested Bob to:
A) put together a working group to investigate all the ramifications involved in Aklile's request for nominal sponsorship of his family.

B) to make a recommendation for responding to his request to council.

Action:
A) Doug B. will work with Bob on the leg work

B) Outreach Committee is being kept informed and offering suggestions regarding "how we proceed"

C) Have had several phone meetings with Betty and Adolpho regarding this.

D) Visited Aklile at his apartment and discussed "First Steps", got a feel for his living arrangement, tried to understand his expectations of our involvement, and tried to relay our expectations of him if we were to enter into a nominal sponsorship.

E) Clarified some of our concerns about such a relationship and provided him with questions we needed answered in order to asses the possibilities of moving forward.

F) Have agreed to a "game Plan" with Aklile
1. Aklile will fill out NLC in house form and Betty will determine whether his family qualify as "convention refugees"

2. Betty will also make other recommendations regarding this claim and how best to proceed.
- Apply for all 4 or less
- Viability of Aklile's proposed support arrangement
- Danforth's best action plan

3. In the mean Aklile will fill out extensive form from Danforth clarifying his Game plan, his resources & means, (no questions left unanswered)

4. Danforth (Doug & Bob) will asses returned form

5. Danforth (Doug & Bob) will meet with the group of friends who will assist Aklile, to assess their commitment and ability to adequately support Aklile.

6. Draw up working agreement with Aklile for sonsorship.

7. Asses all of the above and make rcommendation to Church Council.

8. Betty would involve Immigration Canada and MCC only after Church Council's approval

Time Line: - Slow and easy

1. They are arrested and detained many times by local officials, and are requested to pay bribes to each officer involved.

2. Constant fear of deportation, and beatings during these detentions

3. The young woman (T) has been asked on a number of occasions, for "sexual favours" to avoid deportation or imprisonment.

4. T is the fiancée of A, but has experienced pressure to marry a local official to end her grief. This is not her desire and she fears the growing intensity of this pressure and the resultant consequences of rejecting these advances.

5. The claimants are living with a local Kenyan rather then in the "camps". This requires a monthly fee of 500.00 + from Aklile. Aklile chooses to do this rather then have them stay in a refugee camp where, secret deportations and kidnappings are not unusual, particularly with family and relatives of former Ethiopian military personnel.

6. A and T intend to marry as soon as possible.

We are not sure how this information is to get to Immigration Officials, however, from our understanding of life, these situations seem significantly grave.

The intent of collecting the following information is to expedite the refugee claimant process. All information is in strictest confidence. As we move this claim to Immigration Canada it will be important to have accurate information so as to avoid time-consuming setbacks. The information requested below is probably much less detailed than that which Immigration Canada forms will require. Representatives from Danforth look forward to meeting Aklile and his sponsorship team, in the immediate future, to go over their responses and to get a hands on look at the proposed living arrangements We look forward to these responses ASAP so we can move toward a decision regarding this request for Nominal Sponsorship

Outline of Required Information

Refugee Information -
- Full Names
- Ages
- Relationship
- Health
- Educational Achievement
- Work experience & qualifications
- Current address and employ if applicable
- Statement of rationale for claiming refugee status
- Transferable assets (monies property etc)
- Goals and Achievement hopes in 2 yrs
- Game plan for first 2 years
- Long term goals

Sponsors Information
- Full names
- Addresses
- How long at those addresses
- Previous Addresses
- Status in Canada ie Citizen, refugee . . .
- How long in Canada
- Ages
- Health
- Education Level
- Employment Situation
(Employer, Length, income, Job
description, prospects or career
outlook, insurance info.
- Name, Address and phone number of employer
or human resources contact
- Financial disclosure - assets, liabilities, savings,
Investments etc
- Your guarantee?

Proposal of full financial support
- Finances - Mini Budget?
- living arrangement
- emergency arrangements
- Your understanding of Danforth Churchs' Role
- Your understanding of your Commitment

1. REFUGEE CLASSIFICATION:
- FORMS MUST BE FILLED OUT
- SUBMITTED TO IMMIGRATION CANADA
- IF ACCEPTABLE AS "CR" REFUGEE, CONSUL WILL INTERVIEW CANDIDATES TO QUALIFY
- AT THAT POINT OUR CHURCH MAY APPLY TO BE NOMINAL SPONSORS


2. FORMAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN CHURCH AND AKLILE
- CHURCH WILL GATHER INFORMATION ON AKLILE AND HIS GROUP (FINANCIAL VIABILITY INFO INCLUDING INCOME, JOBS, ED, HOUSING PLANS ETC.)
- OUR JOB AS NOMINAL SPONSOR WILL BE TO DETERMINE WHETHER AKLILE'S GROUP CAN MAINTAIN REFUGEE UP TO CANADIAN STANDARDS.
- AS WE WILL ULTIMATELY BE RESPONSIBLY, THE MORE INFORMATION AND COMMITMENT WE RECEIVE, THE GREATER THE CHANCE FOR THIS RELATIONSHIP TO PROCCEED.
- SINCE THIS IS NOT A LEGAL AGREEMENT, THE TASK OF AKLILE AND HIS GROUP WILL BE TO CONVINCE US IN EVERY WAY POSSIBLE THAT NOTHING CAN GO WRONG. (GOODWILL AND INTENTIONS MUST BE STRONGLY SUPPORTED)

3. SIGNING OF DOCUMENTS AND THE PROCCESS BEGINS
- MCC CANADA WILL SUPPORT DANFORTH AS A QUALIFIED SPONSOR
- IMMIGRATION FORMS WILL THAN BE SENT OUT

IMPORTANT NOTES
(These recommendations come out of conversations with Betty & Adolpho.)

1. WE CANNOT BE DIRECTLY INVOLVED UNTIL "CR" REFUGEE STATUS IS ESTABLISHED.

2. AKLILE SHOULD FOCUS ON GOING THRU' THE PROCCESS WITH HIS BROTHER ONLY. THE CHANCE OF SUCCESS WITH ALL FOUR, SINCE THEY ARE NOT DIRECT FAMILY, ARE ALMOST NIL

3. AKLILE SHOULD ATTEMPT TO GET A "GROUP OF 5" TO QUALIFY AS SPONSORS SINCE HE IS GOING TO RELY ON THEIR SUPPORT ANYWAY. THIS SHOULD AT LEAST BE ATTEMPTED. IF NOT, THE COMMITMENT OF AKLILE'S FRIENDS WOULD COME INTO QUESTION IN CONSIDERING THE CASE FOR DANFORTH'S NOMINAL SPONSORSHIP.

4. DANFORTH SHOULD TAKE A HARD LOOK BEFORE GETTING INVOLVED AS NOMINAL SPONSORS IF THEY INTEND TO PROCCEED WITH THIS, IF AKLILE'S "GROUP OF 5" - DOES NOT MATERIALIZE OR DOES NOT QUALIFY

5. DANFORTH COULD AT THAT POINT BE APPROACHED TO CONSIDER ANOTHER LEVEL OF SPONSORSHIP.

Spring 2002
Recommendations Re:
Nominal Sponsorship for Aklile

Request:
-Church Council requested Bob to:
A) put together a working group to investigate all the ramifications involved in Aklile's request for nominal sponsorship of his family.
B) to make a recommendation for responding to his request to council.

Recommendation:
After considering
a) all the significant factors
b) meeting with Aklile, Ametide, and Katema
c) having continued contact with Betty P. regarding her interviews with Allele; - and considering her expert feel for the situation and her recommendations

Doug B. and Bob Martin feel confident in recommending Church Council move forward, as soon as possible, with the suggested "Nominal Sponsorship".

Background History and Information (as requested by Council)

Action:
A) Doug B. will work with Bob on the leg work

B) Outreach Committee is being kept informed and offering suggestions regarding "how we proceed"

C) Have had several phone meetings with Betty and Adolpho regarding this.

D) Visited Aklile at his apartment and discussed "First Steps" (Appendix 1), got a feel for his living arrangement, tried to understand his expectations of our involvement, and tried to relay our expectations of him if we were to enter into a nominal sponsorship.

E) Clarified some of our concerns about such a relationship and provided him with questions we needed answered in order to asses the possibilities of moving forward.

F) Have agreed to a "game Plan" with Aklile
1. Aklile will fill out NLC in house form and Betty will determine whether his family qualify as "convention refugees"

2. Betty will also make other recommendations regarding this claim and how best to proceed.
- Apply for all 4 or less
- Viability of Aklile's proposed support arrangement
- Danforth's best action plan

3. In the mean Aklile will fill out extensive form from Danforth clarifying his Game plan, his resources & means, (no questions left unanswered) (Appendix 2)

4. Danforth (Doug & Bob) assessed returned form and felt comfortable with details provided.

5. Danforth (Doug & Bob) met with the group of friends who will assist Aklile, to assess their commitment and ability to adequately support Aklile. This was done in several interviews and home visits

A) A....- will provide for two of proposed refugees
- she's a great lady and Doug & I were
impressed with her down to earth view
B) K..... - will provide for one refugee (his cousin)
- He's a real self starter with good contacts
C) Aklile - very committed to making this work without
burdening anyone

6. Draw up working agreement with Aklile for sonsorship. This will be done after Church Council gives go ahead. Betty has a form for this that we will use.

7. We recommended to Church Coucil to Move forward with this "Nominal Sponsorship" In informal meeting Mar 3, 2002

8. Betty will involve Immigration Canada and MCC only after Church Council's approval. We will have some forms from MCC to deal with.

Sponsorship was set in motion and the waiting began.

Present:
From MCC: Deb Simpson. From DMC, Tim Reimer, Bob Martin and Doug Blackburn
The Ethiopians attending were:
- T. (Aklile's widow)
- K. (friend of Aklile who has been part of the sponsorship agreement from the start)
- S. (K. brother)
- Another Ethiopian who as wants to be part of this agreement but could not attend Tuesday's meeting for reasons of work is Z, (a female friend of T).

All the Canadian Ethiopians are conversant in English though T is most comfortable in Aramaic. All are employed and seem to be living in stable situations.

This meeting was convened by Tim in order to gain more information about our current refugee sponsorship process in the light of the unfortunate passing of Aklile, in particular to become better informed so that DMC and MCC could assess if and how to best continue the current process.

Deb, Tim, Bob and Doug met first to get up to speed on the situation. T, Kand S joined later.

For Deb and the DMC people except Tim, this was our first meeting with T. We took the opportunity to express our condolences on the passing of Aklile and to pray with T and Aklile's friends. Bob had met K previously with Aklile in K's home when we were first considering support of the process.

There are three people in the current refugee sponsorship process sponsored by DMC. There was initially four people, but at the request of Aklile, one was removed early in the Spring of 2004. All three are Ethiopian refugees living in Nairobi, Kenya. Aklile was supporting them by sending funds from Canada. Now, T has told us that she is supporting them but it is difficult for her. The people being sponsored and their current status (as reported by Deb) are:
- A T- brother of Aklile: no refugee application interview date set - a date to be set sometime in the next 24 months
- T G. G - fiancé of A: interviewed, accepted, medicals completed. Could have file called forward as early as January (and could be on a plane to Canada shortly after that).
- W B G - distant cousin of Aklile and A; also a cousin of K: had an interview scheduled for the day after interview of T (this past Sept) but seemingly did not receive letter so did not attend. Did however receive "no-show" letter saying that he would be removed from the process for not attending the interview. This was followed up on and his interview will be rescheduled. His file was to be reviewed Dec 2 of this year. (we are told it is not unusual that some letters do not get to their recipients in their situation).

There was much discussion about the current situation of the refugees. In particular, an interesting but inconclusive discussion on the relative pros and cons of A and T marrying now, in Nairobi (if it is their wish to marry) in order to assist A in his refugee claim given that T has been approved. The discussion was inconclusive as it could work to their mutual advantage or not. There seem to be examples of both. It also appears that Aklile had been encouraging the two to marry for some time. The Canadian Ethiopians were going to put the case to them by phone once again and it is ultimately up to the couple to make that decision.

There was also some concern expressed by T that T had not told her in recent telephone conversations that she had been approved. It was decided that the Canadian Ethiopians would also talk to the Ethiopian refugees about this by phone and let us know what they learn and how they view the situation.

Deb presented us with what she saw as four options given that Aklile was DMC's "connection" to the refugees we are sponsoring and he is no longer with us.

Note: the agreement DMC entered into with Aklile is a very well researched and clearly documented agreement in which the basic elements are Aklile and some of his friends (K being one) were to assume financial and primary personal support for all the refugees. There was even a list of where the refugees would live upon their arrival and dollar figures of anticipated support needed were spelled out. DMC was there more as a guarantor to the group and would also provide personal support when the refugees arrive.

The four options given to us by Deb are:

1. DMC assumes everything: finances, logistics, personal support, etc. Deb, knowing our situation, ruled this option out.
2. At the other end of the spectrum, DMC could drop the sponsorship. Given the delays and the change in situation re Aklile, this would likely be possible legally. However, particularly in the case of T who is close to being through the process, this would be a loss.
3. We could cancel the existing sponsorship application and agreement with the Canadian Ethiopians, and have the Canadian Ethiopians resubmit the sponsorship application as a "group of five." This is another sponsorship avenue which does not require the support of an institution such as a church. In this scenario, it would in some ways mean starting over again but Deb would intervene in an attempt to ensure that such a path did not create excessive delays for the applicants.
4. DMC proceed with the agreement, with the new grouping of Canadian Ethiopians replacing Aklile and the previous group he had brought together. In this case we would create a new agreement with the group of Canadian Ethiopians to replace the agreement we had with Aklile. Deb brought to the meeting a draft of such an agreement should we want to go this path.

The Canadian Ethiopians -- T, K and S were united and quite clear that they would like DMC to proceed with the fourth option. They expressed a clear willingness to, as a group of four including Z, assume all the responsibilities that Aklile was assuming (K expressed that his wife, W, is also supportive of this).

K, in particular, spoke very eloquently and passionately about wishing to honour Aklile's desires, about his own desire to help fellow refugees (he was himself a refugee and has sponsored family members including his wife and brother in their immigration to Canada) and about the importance of new Canadians working and supporting themselves (both now and in previous meetings with Aklile's friends it has been obvious that there is a very strong work ethic and understanding that Canada is a land of opportunity and there will be no tolerance for people who are not willing to take advantage of opportunity when here). K politely challenged us to honour our agreement and Aklile's desire to bring these family members (who Aklile had brought from Ethiopia to Kenya and who he, and now T, have been supporting in Kenya) to Canada. He was very clear that he would assume Aklile's responsibilities and that he had the conditions to do so, so we as a church should be able to continue with our part of the sponsorship agreement.

It was a good conversation all around. For DMC, we expressed appreciation to the Ethiopians for coming to this meeting and for being so patient and open in talking about all of this. We expressed that with the change in the situation due to Aklile's passing, we as a church, needed to have this meeting and may need more meetings to get information and make a decision on how best to proceed. We talked about how decisions are made in our church and that a next step for us would be to talk to church council. We also expressed that the financial situation of the church is very tight so that we must be prudent and, in any case, we know we cannot assume much financial responsibility in the sponsorship. All this seemed to be well understood by our Ethiopian friends.

The meeting ended with the following decisions:
- The Canadian Ethiopians would be in contact with the refugee applicants to discuss the current situation and clear up any questions the Canadian Ethiopians have.
- On Monday, the 13th, Doug will call T, K and S to hear what they have learned and get an update on their position so Doug can take this information to the church council meeting.
- On Tuesday, Tim, Doug and Deb (by phone) will bring the information from the meeting on the 7th and any new information gleaned after this meeting to church council to decide on next steps for the church.
- Following this, we will get in touch with the Canadian Ethiopians to discuss next steps. We discussed the possibility of a next step, should we decide to proceed with the fourth option, being another meeting with the Canadian Ethiopians, including , to discuss and finalize a new agreement. (The draft copy of an agreement was left with them to look at.)

Telephone numbers were exchanged and we ended the meeting.

Final notes:

Deb, Tim, Bob and Doug did not formulate a recommendation. But, and I would ask any of the four of you to please correct me here as needed, there was a general sense among the four of us of confidence in the Canadian Ethiopians and a general feeling that we would like to continue with this process via option four and establishing a new agreement with the Canadian Ethiopian group. We would only do so with another agreement similar to the existing one being drawn up with the Canadian Ethiopians.

We also decided we that if we go ahead with this route, given our delicate financial situation, we would like to see if we can lessen our exposure to risk by including other partners. Our agreement with the Canadian Ethiopians does not involve financial responsibility for us, but should something go wrong, we and MCC would be responsible. So we need to have a contingency fund available for that possibility. We discussed approaching other Mennonite churches and groups in the area to see if they would be interested in "sharing the opportunity" with us. Even if each group just agrees to be responsible for a portion of support in case it is needed, it will reduce our exposure. Doug is exploring with TUMC and the New Life Centre their interest in such a partnership. Tim is exploring the same with ….

Meeting January 20th
Met with Toronto Ethiopian contingent, Deb, Barb, Doug & Bob. Outlined new possibilities including passing sponsorship of first unrelated refugee to her family in Winnepeg and an interested church there.

Outlined new agreement with Toronto Ethiopian contingent.

Ensuing Events
Winnepeg connection has been made and firmed up.
First refugee will go directly to Winnepeg.
Deb thru' her contacts has found a church in Winnepeg to take over sponsorship responsibilities of first refugee, and has put them into contact with the Ethiopian contingent in Winnepeg, to work out details and an agreement.

Second refugee has received his notice to appear before Canadian High Commission to be interviewed.

Toronto Ethiopian Contingent is considering new agreement Danforthhas presented.

Although we are certainly not "OUT OF THE WOODS" we are feeling comfortable with how things seem to be coming together.

Your prayers and support are cherished as we move forward and seek God's wisdom and direction in this matter.