Toronto East End Welcome Project Syrian Refugee Sponsorship Group

The Toronto East End Welcome Project has one purpose: To help Syrian refugees fleeing the horrors of that country’s civil war start a new life in Toronto. We are a group of 23 Torontonians from different backgrounds with different motivations for sponsoring a refugee family. Some of us were moved by the heartbreaking photos of a Syrian boy washed up on a Turkish beach last fall. Other members of our group came to Canada as refugees or the children of refugees and are eager to pay their good fortune forward to another family in need. Most of us live in the city’s east end. Some of us go way back. Others of us met at an information session put on by Lifeline Syria last fall or found the group through word of mouth.

Although we’re a non-denominational organization, we have partnered with Eastminster United Church and the Anglican  United Refugee Alliance (AURA) to privately sponsor Syrian refugees. TEEWP has yet to be matched with our first Syrian family, but we hope that will happen sometime in the first quarter of 2016. In the meantime, we’re busy raising money to cover a family’s living costs for their first year in Toronto. The more money we collect, the more refugees we can help.