HELP CANADA AND HELP SOMEONE IN NEED

The Creston Refugee Committee is again active and seeking help to give a family a start in our community.

Who are they?They are part of the 19.2 million people at this moment cut adrift from country, home, and extended family. These refugees are under the eye of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

What's in it for us?The Rt. Hon. Pierre Pettigrew said recently that Canada to remain competitive on the world market needs to increase its population from just less than 32 million to more than 40 million. Our population, in spite of immigration is falling.

Not only is it a matter of remaining a competitive player in the world arena, but if we are to maintain our pension plan so that our children can have a chance of retirement when the time comes, this increase must happen soon.

The people the Creston Refugee Committee has brought in have, despite all the odds, done very well for themselves, their children and the communities they settle in. It is important to recognize that opportunities for making their way in the world are generally in large cities, not in Creston. They move on.

Their children now include a newspaper editor; an owner of a knitwear factory; a pharmacist; a doctor; auto body shop owners; flight instructor; nurse; restauranteurs. These are productive vibrant citizens paying taxes along with us, and helping secure our old age.

What's in it for them? Generally only a few people really know what the suffering of the world's refugees is. We can offer liberation for a family from the following;

• The camps are badly situated: Many are in the desert or jungle far from any kind of reliable help for providing shelter or medical assistance.
• For lack of any decent facilities these camps are often filthy, and always dreadfully overcrowded.
• Militias often blockade the camps, so that the inhabitants are starving.
• The militias and the army commit murder and rape freely without facing any punishment or control. In many places if a woman survives the rape, she becomes an outcast.
• These camps are often places without hope.
• Above all, we can offer a future for their children. We know this, because we have seen it.

What do we need? We need warm and loving people who can open their hearts to people who are eager to succeed, but who may be psychologically wounded by their experience. When they are psychologically wounded, this does not mean they are in any way abnormal. They are completely normal for people who have suffered as they have.

We need people who will help form a life support system, who will help find housing, bedding, food, heat and help the committee raise money.

What does it cost? The committee is responsible for these people for a year. For two people it costs $15,000. For four people, $22,400 -- and we are bringing in six. Raising this amount of money is serious business. It is money well spent on insuring Canada's future.

Who do you get in touch with?
1. Pat Smith at: (250)428-7094 Email: psmith@kootenay.com
2. Ed Turner: 428-4909 Email: esturner@uniserve.com
3. Denise and Wayne Harris: 428-9655 Email: