The Creston Refugee Committee is hard at work raising funds to bring two refugee families to Creston in the next year or so.
“We have been working hard on the fundraising because there is a good possibility that the Burmese family could be here in 2016,” said committee spokesperson Linda Price. “The Canadian quota for Syrian refugees for 2016 has been reached so we just have to hope that the Syrian family we want to bring from the camp in Iraq comes in 2017.”
The two families include a total of 13 people, nine of which are children.
Price said that the committee sold all 250 rhubarb pies made during a bee at Christ Church Anglican on May 28. Joining the pie makers were two members of the Burmese family sponsored by the committee last year. Kuny and Mwee Gay took part in rolling crusts.
“Pies are something they never ate until they came to Canada,” Price said. “It is Kuny’s brother who we will be sponsoring. He has been in the refugee camp in Thailand for 15 years. He met his wife there and all five of their children have only known life in camp.”
World Refugee Day is June 20 and this year focuses on the fact that there are more than 60 million refugees in the world, and more than half are children. The committee has a mammoth garage sale planned from June 24-26 at MW Millwork at 1606 Northwest Blvd.