LITTLE CURRENT—The Little Current Refugee Committee is eagerly awaiting word of the arrival of the Eritrean refugee family they will be sponsoring as part of an Island-wide effort to settle five families in Manitoulin Island communities.
“We were overwhelmed with gratitude for all the donations that we have received,” said committee spokesperson Linda Erskine. The committee’s Monday night meeting continued to make significant progress, she noted. “We are fairly certain that we have everything we need to set up the Little Current household, we may need one more dresser, and at this point we are going over things to determine if there is anything else that we need.”
Volunteers have stepped forward to help put the house in order and are planning to be cleaning on December 28 to 29, reported Ms. Erskine. “We hope to move furniture in on December 30.”
A list of volunteers has been drawn up “according to our expertise and experience” to tackle the tasks ahead, said Ms. Erskine. “We even have volunteers willing to move all the furniture.”
Transportation to Manitoulin from Toronto, where the refugees will eventually land, has been arranged. “The refugees are responsible for their own flights to Canada,” pointed out Ms. Erskine. “They will be responsible for paying the Canadian government back for the flights within a set period of time.”
There is another member of the family who may be joining the refugees in a year, noted Ms. Erskine. “She is not a direct member of the family, but they hope she will be eventually able to join them.”
On a practical note, Renata, a speaker of the refugee’s language from Little Current, assisted the committee members on the pronunciation of the six family members’ names and a tentative contingency plan has been drawn up in case the family is to arrive before the house is ready for them.
“We will have six days’ notice before their arrival,” said Ms. Erskine. “While we hope that they will not arrive until we have everything in place, we don’t want to leave anything to chance.”
Other Manitoulin groups are also well advanced in their preparations and will be meeting later this week.
