City of Vancouver supports donation campaign for Syrian refugees

Dec 20 2017, 3:14 am

The City of Vancouver has announced that a new campaign by Vancity Credit Union to support Syrian refugees will receive its blessing.

Donations by members of the public, businesses, and organizations to the Vancity Humanitarian Fund will help support the financial costs of refugees moving to British Columbia.

“To help support the campaign, Mayor Gregor Robertson and Tamara Vrooman, President and CEO of Vancity, each made personal donations to the Vancity Humanitarian Fund, and issued a challenge to other Lower Mainland mayors and business leaders across BC to make a similar contribution,” reads a statement by the municipal government.

“The two also urged people to consider offering housing or employment to incoming refugees, or volunteering as a settlement host.”

The campaign began in September, with all funds raised going towards the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and matched by the federal government. All funds collected after December 1 will go directly to local charities to help refugees and up to $125,000 in donations will be matched by the credit union.

The federal government says 25,000 refugees will be settled in Canada by the end of February 2016, and British Columbia will be home to between 2,500 to 3,000 refugees

Including non-Syrian refugees, people who are in need elsewhere in the world, up to 50,000 refugees could come to Canada by the end of next year. The numbers will be comparable to the period from 1979 to 1980 when 60,000 Vietnamese ‘boat people’ arrived after the Vietnam War.

DH Vancouver StaffDH Vancouver Staff

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