Refugee Sunday Focus Is on Iraq

Robart Farho and his family arrived in Toronto recently from Damascus, Syria, where they had been living for several years after fleeing from the war in Iraq.

Brought to Canada through the efforts of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, with the sponsorship of his brother-in-law, Farho has had a hard time believing that he and his wife are finally safe.

“It’s like I am in a dream. I don’t believe I am in Canada,” Farho said in an interview, speaking through his brother-in-law, Aiser Sawa, who immigrated to Canada more than a decade ago after fleeing Iraq and living as a refugee in Turkey.

But Farho, who worked as an automobile salesman in Iraq, says he is slowly starting to believe that they are finally away from the strife, including death threats and kidnappings of friends and family members, that drove them from Baghdad and into an uncertain situation in Syria.

“I only hope now that I can support my family and be able to give a good education for my kids,” Farho said.

As part of Refugee Sunday, CRC congregations across Canada will be taking time this weekend to pray for people such as Robart Farho. Although the CRC, through the Christian Reformed World Relief Committeee, works with refugees from all over the world, the focus for this year’s Refugee Sunday is on the men, women and children of Iraq.

In the United States, the CRC works through PARA, a Grand-Rapids-based agency that helps in refugee resettlement. Congregations in the U.S. are not formally holding a Refugee Sunday this week, but they are being asked to consider the needs of refugees from Iraq.

PARA will be bringing its first Iraqi refugee family to the United States next week, with at least two more families set to arrive in the future, says Jotham Ippel, PARA’s refugee resettlement coordinator. “We are looking right now for a local (Grand Rapids) church to help sponsor this family,” to help the family in different ways make the adjustment to life in the United States, he says.

Two million Iraqis have fled their country due to violence and persecution and are now scattered across countries in the Middle East. The Iraqis are among the 10 million refugees in the world today, says Rose Dekker, CRWRC refugee program coordinator for the church’s office in Canada.

While the need remains great for all Iraqi refugees, Christian Iraqis are especially vulnerable, given that they are being particularly targeted and persecuted in Iraq by various Muslim groups, says Moses Moini, a refugee resettlement worker in the CRC’s Canadian office.

“It is so painful, so difficult to put yourself in the shoes of these Iraqis,” says Moini, himself a refugee from conflict in Sudan. “What we need to keep doing is advocating for them.”

Aiser Sawa, the brother-in-law of Robert Fahro, says that the number of Iraqi Christians is dwindling as they are killed or forced to flee. They have had no real protectors as the war rages between the United States and its coalition forces and various factions in Iraq.  Former dictator Saddam Hussein provided protection to Christians, but now that protection is gone, says Sawa, a Roman Catholic.

The CRC in Canada has also been active in resettling refugees from Afghanistan.

War and threats of violence forced Hasan Azim and his family to leave Kabul, Afghanistan, and seek refuge in Pakistan in the early 1990s. A family member eventually sponsored him to move to Canada with his family.

Today, Azim owns a restaurant in the Burlington, Ontario, area. Last year, with assistance from the CRWRC, he sponsored his brother-in-law, Fairdon Alu Ahmad, to immigrate with his family to Canada. Ahmad also fled Afghanistan, but ended up for several years in Russia.

“My life has changed a lot. All of the time in Afghanistan we were under pressure from so many sides,” says Azim.

Besides helping the United Nations in resettling Iraqi refugees, CRWRC is partnering with various organizations in Syria and Jordan to provide food aid, blankets and heaters, trauma counseling and education to Iraqi men, women, and children wounded by their experience of war and as a refugee.

Ken Little, a CRWRC international relief manager, recently met with several Iraqi refugees in Syria and Jordan. He is in the process of developing a reponse to help the refugees.

To learn more about CRWRC’s refugee programs, visit www.crwrc.org. In Canada, call 1-800-730-3490. In the U.S., call 616-241-1691 or 1-800-55-CRWRC. Email: [email protected]. For general inquiries about PARA, call 616.224.7540 or visit http://www.bethany.org.

For those interested in involving themselves in the Iraqi refugee issue, CRWRC and the CRC Office of Social Justice are encouraging people to participate in Iraqi Refugee Action Days in Washington, D.C., on April 14-16, 2008. For a story on Iraqi Refugee Action Days, visit http://www.crcna.org/news.cfm?detailid=3556&newsid=513.