Dear Divine Infant friends and parishioners,

As announced in April 2019, the Divine Infant Parish has undertaken a Government private refugee sponsorship to resettle the Abo Saad family of three to Canada. They are refugees temporarily living in Lebanon. Our parish Refugee Sponsorship Committee has been working toward their arrival for almost two and a half years but efforts were delayed due to the COVID pandemic. Most recently, the Abo Saad’s completed a selection interview with our embassy in Beirut, and their medical results have been received. Our parish can now proceed confidently.

This letter is to announce the launch of a fundraiser on February 27, 2022 to finance the sponsorship of the Abo Saad family in our community for twelve months. This sponsorship will begin on their arrival, the date of which has not yet been confirmed.

The amount required to fund our sponsorship is estimated at $45,000; this will cover the costs of housing, feeding, clothing and supporting the Abo Saad family for one year; coinciding with limited housing availability and accelerating inflation costs.

Commencing the weekend of February 26th and 27th, blue envelopes will be provided to parishioners for the specific purpose of financing the sponsorship of the Abo Saad’s. In addition, parishioners may make their financial donations using “Canada Helps” which you can access from our parish website Home Page (divineinfant.on.ca). These options will remain available to parishioners until we reach our goal.

At this time, our Sponsorship Committee will NOT be accepting donations of furniture and household items, as this decision cannot be made until we know the estimated date of arrival of the Abo Saad family. Please be assured that as soon as we can identify specific needs for furnishings and household goods, we will communicate this to our parishioners and supporters.

Effective November 2021, both George and Rita Abo Saad received their respective second vaccines, allowing them to travel to Canada and to gain Permanent Residence (PR) as soon as their immigration processing is finalized.

Thank you for your ongoing support to date and your demonstrated support previously of the Alhurira family, who have been successfully resettled and integrated into our parish community. I cannot thank you enough!

On behalf of your parish, the Refugee Settlement Committee and the Abo Saad family, we look forward with tremendous gratitude and hope to those of you who will respond with prayer, generosity, encouragement and ongoing support. May God bless you!

Sincerely in Christ,

Fr. Waldemar Podlasz, S.D.S
Pastor, Divine Infant Parish