Damascan impressions Part 1

Here are some pictures taken during a 2009 trip to Damascus, the city where the family we sponsor comes from. These are meant to provide glimpses of how thriving, utterly beautiful, and welcoming the city was before the war.

Syria, I love you

Umayyad Mosque, Damascus, 2009

My name is Katherine Blouin and I am an Associate Professor in Roman History at UTSC (Historical and Cultural Studies) and UofT (Classics).

Room for More -- Sponsoring a Syrian Refugee Family

If social media is good for anything other than Drake Parody Videos, it's good for bringing people together who unexpectedly share interests and concerns.  Our group started with a facebook post at the beginning of September, 2015, amid a wave of stories about the desperation of refugees fleeing Syria.  A somewhat random group of Toronto co-workers, relatives, neighbours and friends got together on September 6 to talk about what we could do locally, and  we decided to try rolling out the welcome mat of Canada's Private Sponsorship of Refugees program.  Launched in 1979, this program has apparently brought over 225,000 refugees to Canada over the years. Any group of 5+ Canadian citizens or permanent residents can play. We'll tell the story here in case you're thinking of doing this as well (or in case you're outside Canada and wondering how it works, and whether you could get a system like this started where you are).

Room for More

This is the official blog of Room for More, a group sponsoring a family of refugees from Syria to resettle in Toronto, Canada.