LJ Roche has spearheaded Stairs Cares, our Refugee Sponsorship Program, below is a timeline of events that led to one refugee coming to Canada and settling in Dartmouth; we are still awaiting another one.
Stairs Cares Team awaiting Amadou at the airport and his citizenship ceremony.
| September 2, 2015 | Spoke to Khwaka Kukubo about the possibility of Stairs sponsoring a refugee |
| September 7, 2015 | Received a list of refugees from Bev MacDonald (Maritime Conference) |
| September 15, 2015 | Attended presbytery meeting to hear Bev MacDonald’s presentation on Syrian refugee crisis |
| September 17, 2015 | Made a presentation to Stair’s unified board. The proposal was to sponsor one refugee, given the congregation’s limited capacity for fundraising |
| October 15, 2015 | Made a second presentation to the unified board |
| October 18, 2015 | Paola Morales spoke to the congregation in the hall after worship. I organized the sponsorship for her and her family in 2005 when I was at Port Wallis |
| November 18, 2015 | By this time. we received almost enough donations to sponsor one person. We held our first meeting of Stairs Cares: L.J. Roche, Jim Bauld, Marlene Kemp, Wendy Sullivan, Sarah Reaburn, Shirley Godfrey, Bruce Fraser, Christine Eidt, Lynn Thurber, Gail Stevens, Susan Kolesar |
| December 10, 2015 | Stairs Cares planning meeting |
| January 14, 2016 | Stairs Cares planning meeting – discussed whether to sponsor 1 or 2 people, decided for financial reasons to sponsor just 1 |
| January 20, 2016 | The unified board approved plan to sponsor one person |
| February 1, 2016 | Wendy Sullivan and Shirley Godfrey participated in training workshop offered by ISANS |
| March 2, 2016 | Stairs Cares met to discuss refugee profiles. There were four individuals but only one was listed as urgent – that is the one we chose, a Gambian living in Senegal. I immediately notified Bev MacDonald |
| March 4, 2016 | I received, filled out and submitted the required forms for the sponsorship |
| March 12, 2016 | Alex Ripley, church organist, hosted a fundraising concert in the sanctuary |
| March 21, 2016 | I initiated contact with Amadou Jallow while he was still in Senegal |
| April 5, 2016 | Jahu, a lesbian refugee from the Gambia who was sponsored by Rainbow Refugee Association, came to my home for dinner with Paul Ingram and Sarah Reaburn |
| April 6, 2016 | 2 reps from the Rainbow Refugee Association of NS met with Stairs Cares to discuss some of the issues LGBT refugees face in NS |
| April 6, 2016 | We found out Port Wallis is also sponsoring a gay man from the Gambia |
| April 16, 2016 | Received notification that Amadou would arrive on May 4, 2016 |
| May 4, 2016 | Amadou arrived and we began helping him to settle here in Dartmouth |
| February 22, 2018 | Port Wallis gave us the funding to sponsor another refugee |
| March 28, 2018 | We reconstituted the Stairs Cares committee |
| April 25, 2018 | Stairs Cares met with Linda Demings from Port Wallis to confirm the funding |
| October 29, 2018 | Lenora Timmins (Maritime Conference) sent an email indicating there is an urgent need for sponsors of LGBT refugees in East Africa. Up to this date, there have not been any single people in the refugee profiles. I asked her to forward us profiles so we could select one. |
| December 27, 2018 | We received 4 refugee profiles. |
| January 16, 2019 | Stairs Cares met to review the profiles. We had little to base a decision on, so we chose the first one on the list: Mohamud, a 30-year old Somali living in the Dadaab refugee camp |
| March 22, 2019 | I received and filled out the required paperwork |
| March 31, 2019 | The board approved our refugee sponsorship project and I submitted the required paperwork |
| June 5, 2019 | Our application to sponsor Mohamud was approved by the IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) |
| August 9, 2019 | Mohamud indicated to me he was living with a partner |
| September 9, 2019 | Mohamud was interviewed by the UNHCR as part of the steps of coming to Canada |
| October 3, 2019 | Amma Youzbashi from the UCC advised me that the UNHCR confirmed Mohamud had a partner, and Mohamud would be able to sponsor his partner after arriving in Canada, once he was in a financial position to do so |
| October 7, 2019 | Mohamud was issued a permanent residence visa for Canada |
| February 3, 2020 | I received notice that Mohamud would receive his itinerary within a few weeks |