{"id":1845,"date":"2014-03-14T13:41:36","date_gmt":"2014-03-14T20:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=1845"},"modified":"2014-04-14T13:46:20","modified_gmt":"2014-04-14T20:46:20","slug":"tibetan-refugees-will-receive-help-from-momo-minyan-to-resettle-in-british-columbia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2014\/03\/14\/tibetan-refugees-will-receive-help-from-momo-minyan-to-resettle-in-british-columbia\/","title":{"rendered":"Tibetan refugees will receive help from Momo Minyan to resettle in British Columbia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Members of the Momo Minyan. (photo by David Berson)<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sometime in the next three months, two Tibetans will arrive in Vancouver from Arunachal Pradesh, a poor, remote region in the far northeast of India. When they get here, a group of Jews from Vancouver\u2019s Or Shalom Synagogue will be waiting for them, ready to aid with their resettlement in this country. The group, which calls itself the Momo Minyan \u2013 momo after a Tibetan steamed dumpling \u2013 formed in June 2013 with the sole purpose of helping these Tibetans create a new life in British Columbia. In February, they completed and filed the sponsorship papers. Now, they wait. When the newcomers arrive, their work will begin in earnest.<\/p>\n

The group will be supporting the two Tibetans financially, but their involvement will go beyond hard cash. \u201cIt means receiving them at the airport, finding a place for them to stay, ensuring they get registered for health benefits, helping them learn the language and find a job, and assisting them as they integrate socially,\u201d said David Berson, a member of the minyan. The group will be responsible for accommodating the Tibetan refugees and ensuring they can access the services they require. It promises to be no small undertaking.<\/p>\n

Back in 2010, at the urging of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Prime Minister Stephen Harper agreed to allow 1,000 Tibetans from this rugged, contested area to resettle in Canada. Arunachal Pradesh is claimed by China as \u201cSouth Tibet\u201d and for the past 55 years the strip of land along this border has been home to thousands of Tibetans. To determine who was chosen to go to Canada, a lottery was held in the village\u2019s public square, eventually granting a new life to one-sixth of the Tibetans from this area. The first wave of 55 arrived in Canada in December 2013. By the program\u2019s conclusion, there will be approximately 200 refugees in British Columbia and others in Calgary, Ottawa and Toronto.<\/p>\n

To make the transition to Canada possible, each one required sponsorship by a Canadian group or individual before they could obtain special travel documents and enter the country as landed immigrants.<\/p>\n

Vicki Robinson, a facilitator for the Momo Minyan, said Or Shalom is the first synagogue in Canada to sponsor Tibetans under this program. The minyan has partnered with the Tibetan cultural society in this project. The United Church of Canada, a government sponsorship holder, has also helped to get the applications completed. \u201cThe United Church has a lot of experience in resettlement, working with the Canadian Immigration Committee and getting all the permits lined up,\u201d Berson said. \u201cThey\u2019re a conduit more than a partner for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Momo Minyan will be responsible for the Tibetans\u2019 entire integration package, including finding and paying for an apartment, paying for health insurance and food. \u201cUntil we know who we\u2019re absorbing, it\u2019s difficult to know what kind of work will be appropriate,\u201d Berson said of the process. The refugees, who have varying levels of education, come from poverty-stricken villages in this region, where they have limited access to medical care and often have to send their children away to school. \u201cTheir lives are threatened and they are a stateless people living in a disputed territory,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

The Tibetans have neither Chinese nor Indian citizenship. Some have more work experience than others, said Berson, who recently learned the Tibetans in this area tried to cultivate apple orchards for the past 10 years, but were more successful growing kiwi. Some worked in the agricultural sector in Israel, as foreign workers, he added. \u201cThe Canadian government is going to Arunachal Pradesh this month to interview them, so we\u2019ll hear very soon about the Tibetans we will be receiving.\u201d<\/p>\n

The minyan has begun fundraising in the Or Shalom community and will extend its efforts to the wider community once more is known about the particular immigrants they are sponsoring. Eligibility for social assistance is not a possibility under the agreement with the Canadian government, which estimates sponsorship costs at $12,000 per person per year. With the cost of living in Vancouver, that won\u2019t be enough, Berson said. \u201cIt\u2019s guiding our efforts in terms of fundraising, but we think we\u2019ll need more than that. The government is very nicely providing them with landed immigrant status, but not any other aid, per se, in the process. After five years, they will be eligible to apply for Canadian citizenship like any other landed immigrant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Members of the Momo Minyan united in a mutual agreement to participate in this humanitarian effort, one that resonated with many in the synagogue, Berson said. \u201cThe opportunity for us to be able to extend our hospitality to another group that has suffered exile and have a diaspora is probably one element why I got involved. The Tibetans are amazing people but they\u2019re very reserved and shy in their mannerisms,\u201d he added. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be big cultural differences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson was eager to step forward and join the minyan after visiting Tibet in 1994. \u201cThe Tibetan people stole my heart,\u201d she admitted. \u201cThey are amazing, beautiful, spiritual, good people who are struggling in a very difficult situation. Since my visit there, I\u2019ve been involved working with the Tibetan community in exile. I spent time working with the Tibetan Women\u2019s Association in India for a year, where I met Tibetans from Arunachal Pradesh.\u201d Robinson\u2019s family came to Canada fleeing persecution, which was another reason she wanted to get involved. \u201cI thought this would be good work to do \u2013 a way of giving back to the country that welcomed us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Those interested in contributing to the resettlement efforts can contact Berson by email at dberson@telus.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lauren Kramer<\/b>, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond, B.C. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of the Momo Minyan. (photo by David Berson) Sometime in the next three months, two Tibetans will arrive in Vancouver from Arunachal Pradesh, a poor, remote region in the far northeast of India. When they get here, a group of Jews from Vancouver\u2019s Or Shalom Synagogue will be waiting for them, ready to aid […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[709,706,705,704,703,269,710,708,707],"class_list":["post-1845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-canadian-citizenship","tag-dalai-lama","tag-david-berson","tag-momo-minyan","tag-or-shalom-synagogue","tag-stephen-harper","tag-tibetan-womens-association","tag-united-church-of-canada","tag-vicki-robinson"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}