RSN matches student volunteers with refugee families to help them settle into their new community.
The Refugee Support Network (Canada) started out as a passionate and idealistic group of multi-lingual students from the University of Toronto who help newly arriving refugees integrate into their new environment. The students, often of similar backgrounds to the refugees, act as a bridge between them and their new home. RSN has supported dozens of refugee families and their sponsors arriving in C
anada. Our goal is to help newly arriving families and individuals feel at home, very far away from home. We believe in the importance of building real friendships and sharing genuine love with the arriving families, even if it makes their transition to a strange and foreign country just a bit easier. We help sponsorship groups in many ways, including, but not limited to:
- Translation and interpretation (Arabic to English and vice versa)
- Medical Services (health cards, doctor visits, dentist visits, emergencies)
- English tutoring for refugees, Arabic tutoring for sponsors
- Job search, interview preparation
- School search and enrolment
- Housing (apartment/condo search, negotiation and closing with real estate agents)
- Legal advice, search for representation, court appearances
- Documents and paperwork
- Fundraising, finding donors
- Transportation
- Connecting families from the same or similar communities
- Anything else
The young volunteers of RSN come from a variety of countries, educational backgrounds, faiths, genders and ages. They speak numerous languages, including Arabic (most dialects), Farsi, Turkish and Kurdish.
