This frightened girl and boy had just fled Afghanistan to escape an arrest warrant issued because of the girl’s attendance at an underground school for girls and her participation in an International Women’s Day demonstration in Kabul. They are now resettled in Ottawa, attending Adult High School and working to save for college. OCRA was able to sponsor them to come to Canada because of donations from generous donors in the community.
At OCRA, our approach has been to do what we can to identify and sponsor Afghans, particularly women, who have fled since the Taliban takeover. This involves preparing and submitting detailed sponsorship and refugee determination applications and raising funds to support the sponsored refugees for the first year after their arrival. In addition to financial support, we provide support by finding housing, medical and dental care, employment and, importantly, committed friendship to ease adjustment to life in a new country.
In 2022-25, we raised the funds to sponsor and settle 9 Afghan groups to come to Canada. (37 individuals)
We are currently raising funds to sponsor a young woman from Afghanistan and her family of six. Due to security concerns, we are unable to provide specific information about the family.
To date, we have 30% of the $60,000 required to cover settlement costs after their arrival in Canada.
If you can help, please consider pledging a donation. Please contact us by email at [email protected] and we will send you a pledge form.