Roland Fund

Roland: The Man, The Need, The Skills....

 Can you imagine what it would be like to come to Vancouver island from a war torn country or having experienced torture and persecution?  How would you make a home here and offer your skills and talents to the community?  The good news is that an organization that could help you is Victoria based Vancouver Island Counselling Centre for Immigrants and Refugees (VICCIR). (https://www.viccir.org/)

 And what if you yourself were a counsellor with many years of experience working with refugees recovering from the many faces of trauma, and now found yourself a refugee?  This is Roland’s own story.  Let me introduce you to him.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwdoNW6V1gI

 VICCIR met and has worked with Roland online since 2023, bringing him into contact with their staff and clients.  Staff are very impressed with his compassionate, gentle but thorough welcome to clients.  They want him here!  And Roland yearns to relocate here with his wife and two adolescent children.  As with any refugee there are complications in leaving the country of temporary refuge, and satisfying all the queries from Immigration Canada about his own eligibility.

 Supporters of Roland are well on our way. The process was begun by Ian Gartshore and Julia Roberts, both based in Nanaimo.  Now St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Nanaimo has generously offered book keeping services to track fundraising to cover Roland’s first year salary of $60,000 at VICCIR.  The funds collected by St. Paul’s – which will be eligible for tax receipts -- will be released to VICCIR once Roland arrives and starts work. If Roland's application to come to Canada is refused, all funds will be donated to VICCIR to continue their refugee resettlement work.

Help us create a TRIPLE WIN:

• a win for Roland and his young family
• a win for VICCIR, and
• a win for Vancouver Island and Canada, as newcomers are proactively assisted to settle well

 Adrienne Carter co-founded the Vancouver Island Counselling Centre for Immigrants and Refugees out of her own experience as a teenage refugee, followed by many years in international service as a social worker.  With this depth of background, she states that we urgently need Roland’s counselling skills to be used in person on Vancouver Island to assist traumatized newcomers.

Questions:  Please contact gartshoreian@gmail.com or jmroberts449@gmail.com