Tibetan Resettlement Project
coastreporter.net
Caitlin Hicks
December 3, 2015
As the Liberal government struggles to live up to its campaign promise to bring 25,000 Syrian refugees into Canada, here on the Sunshine Coast a small group of good Samaritans has dedicated their time, resources and goodwill to bring 17 Tibetan refugees to resettle here and become our neighbours. Since 2013, what they have done demonstrates the complex array of services, human care, time and money required to resettle refugees from any country.
Since the 1950s when Communist China occupied Tibet, there has been a diaspora of Tibetan refugees spread out all over the world. These refugees are essentially stateless, living in poverty in a limbo of resettlement camps outside of Tibet, temporary settlements that have been home to displaced Tibetans for so long, that a generation of these people have been born there.
In Canada, the Tibetan Resettlement Project began in 2007 when the Dalai Lama met with then Prime Minister Harper and asked that 5,000 of these impoverished Tibetans in northeastern India in the state of Arunachal Pradesh be admitted to Canada. In 2011, the Canadian government agreed to welcome 1,000 Tibetans from that region over the following five years.
On the Sunshine Coast, Spirit Dance Centre, a multi-faith charity, began the Tibetan Resettlement Project. Janet Cotgrave began by taking workshops and training sessions once per month in Vancouver from Project Tibet Society, the United Church and the Refugee Sponsorship Training Program. Since 2013, Cotgrave and a handful of others have taken responsibility for these 17 Tibetans and created a community in the process. Two more families will be resettled here in 2016.
It hasn’t been easy. Each refugee family coming into the community needed sponsors willing to house them, clothe and feed them for a year.
“We sign a legal agreement with Citizenship and Immigration Canada. We agree to support them for a year,” Cotgrave said. “We transition them to independence.”
In addition, a group of at least five volunteers with various levels of commitment was matched to each refugee family to provide a backdrop of cultural learning and sense of family and community connectedness.
“In the first year in Canada,” Cotgrave said, “each refugee needs help with language and problem solving, basic skills training, financial assistance and finding work to become self-sufficient. They need help getting their social insurance and MSP number. They need to learn such basics as taking a bus, using an electric stove, opening a bank account, budgeting and shopping.”
Locally, some dentists offer free basic dental care. Eligible and qualified Tibetans landed jobs at Strait Coffee, Rapid Edge, GBS, Coastal Craft and Sechelt Hospital.
The cost in cash for a family of one is $11,800; for two, $19,800; for a family of three $23,000; and a family of four $26,000. Spirit Dance has conducted several fundraisers, but has had more success with private donors on the Coast with enough money themselves to be generous.
“Families we get [to the Coast] need more support because of their lack of English skills,” Cotgrave said. “Single people with more skills generally go to the cities. Each host situation is different.”
Other host locations in Canada are: Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, Ottawa and Victoria. In some places, refugees start out in transition houses. In some cities the refugee can be self-sufficient in three months.
“The families feel a sense of community here,” Cotgrave said. Even though there is a timeline of a year to become independent, “none of us are going to be cutting off anyone.” During this year, the sponsor group helps the family transition to their own home. This means providing them with low cost and donated/available provisions to set up house: beds, kitchen provisions, clothing, etc. Once each family is independent, they participate in events to welcome new families -– where everyone gathers to celebrate the community.
What does Canada provide? Low-interest travel loans that must be repaid by the refugees, and permanent resident status.
“They’re full of hope and joy when they first get here,” Cotgrave said. “After the initial euphoria of finding a country where they can belong, after about six months, they begin to ask themselves, ‘What have I left behind?’ ‘Will I ever see my elderly parents and friends again?’”
Help comes from volunteer counsellors in the community as well as Lama Tsundu, a refugee who came to Canada 20 years ago and was the first Tibetan to settle on the Coast. He listens to and counsels his people, often consoling them by chanting and praying with them.
