When I first joined Metropolitan United's Refugee Committee, I had just returned from a trip to India.

I came home to Toronto with two bulging suitcases, both over the airline's luggage allowance, filled with clothes, gifts and all sorts of things I wanted, but certainly didn't need.

Not long afterwards, I met the Bakour family, the first refugee family I became involved with through the committee.

Two parents. Five children.

They had left behind their home, their community and everything familiar to them. They arrived in Canada to begin again, with two suitcases between seven people.

Around the same time, I was also volunteering with another Syrian family, two parents and four children. I remember their belongings arriving in garbage bags. One bag each. Some pink, some blue.

I still remember those bags.

And I thought about my two overweight suitcases.

Mine were filled with things I had chosen to bring home from a holiday. Theirs held what they had been able to bring from the lives they had been forced to leave behind.

It really brought home to me the difference between want and need.

I had joined refugee work because I thought I could help someone else. What I hadn't expected was how much the experience would change me.

It gave me perspective on what is important in life; possessions, home, security, family and the things we sometimes take for granted. It was incredibly grounding.

Over the years, I've also learned that refugee sponsorship is about so much more than helping someone get to Canada. Arrival is really just the beginning. It is about helping someone navigate a new city, new systems and often a new language; helping them establish a home and a community; and supporting them as they build an independent life here.

The Bakours were the first family I met through this work.

I thought I was there to help change their lives. I didn't realize they would change mine.

 

Gitanjali (Gita) Verma

Outreach
Refugee Support