Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 02, 2015, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE B1 ZELCER DENTURE CLINICS 30YEARS EXPERIENCE . Friendly . Experience . Trusted 204.586.3725 ( WPG) 204.482.4235 ( SELKIRK) www. zelcerdentures. com SAVE 30% OFF SAVE 60 % TO 85 % OFF All 2015 Winter Apparel & Riding Gear SKI- DOO, FXR, SLEDNECKS, FOX & SCOTT! All Discontinued Winter Apparel & Riding Gear SKI- DOO, FXR, OAKLEY & SCOTT! Visit us at EnnsBrothers. com Cold day, warm helping hand / B2 CITY & BUSINESS CITY EDITOR: SHANE MINKIN 204- 697- 7292 I CITY. DESK@ FREEPRESS. MB. CA I WINNIPEGFREEPRESS. COM MONDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2015 B 1 AFTER being told it could take up to two years to bring three Syrian refugee families to Winnipeg, the group that's sponsoring them has learned they could arrive as early as this spring. " Things are really speeding up - at least for our families," said Rev. Loraine MacKenzie Shepherd at Westworth United Church. It spearheaded Refuge Winnipeg, a collection of multifaith and non- faith people and groups who've come together to raise money and support a handful of the 3.8 million refugees who've fled Syria. They've committed to supporting three families who have relatives in Winnipeg. There are six adults and 18 children. The group has raised just over $ 30,000 - a quarter of their $ 120,000 fundraising goal - to help them get settled and on their feet, Shepherd said last week. " We are very pleased and very scared all in the same breath," said Shepherd. " We don't know what is the time frame but it could be really soon... by the spring." For now, the three families being sponsored are living in makeshift shelters on the outskirts of Beirut. " They don't have the basic supports refugee camps have," said Shepherd. Volunteers in Winnipeg are on the lookout for housing for the three families in the West Broadway and Wolseley areas, close to where their Syrian relatives live. " In our experience, that is the single most difficult thing," said Shepherd, whose church has sponsored refugees before. Refuge Winnipeg is planning fundraisers, concerts and a workshop on Syrian culture, she said. They're also launching an awareness campaign and asking churches, mosques, synagogues and other organizations to post a sign saying " Open your hearts and hands to refugees." The group sponsoring the three families includes several United Church congregations in the city, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Winnipeg, the Manitoba Islamic Association, the Syrian Assembly of Manitoba as well as Jewish community members and private individuals, said Shepherd. Laila Chebib, who came to Canada from Syria with her husband, Farouk, in 1958, was happy to help. " The subject is important to me," said Chebib. " It is a humanitarian tragedy." She and her husband have been sending money though family members to help Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and to displaced people still in Syria, she said. " I heard horror stories about what has been happening there." She's looking forward to helping the families in person when they arrive, as they get familiar with the Canadian way of life. carol. sanders@ freepress. mb. ca Sped- up process means refugees may arrive from Syria by spring By Carol Sanders How you can help FOR more information on Refuge Winnipeg, contact refugewinnipeg@ gmail. com. Donations to help Refuge Winnipeg meet its fundraising goal are tax- deductible and can be sent directly to Westworth United Church, 1750 Grosvenor Ave. Winnipeg, MB, R3N 0H9. Donations should specify " refugee support." A tax receipt will be issued. JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Loraine MacKenzie Shepard emphasizes finding housing for refugees is crucial. W HILE terrorists with the Islamic State try to take over the Middle East and behead kidnapped civilians from abroad, they're uniting Kurds who oppose them - in places such as Kobani and Winnipeg - where they're coming together to party and push for their own state. On Saturday night, the Kurdish Association of Manitoba celebrated victory in Kobani - the Syrian border city overrun by Islamic State fighters last fall that was taken back by Kurdish peshmerga earlier this month with the help of airstrikes by the U. S.- led coalition. " This calls for togetherness," said Kurdish Association of Manitoba spokeswoman Glenda Lagadi. Her husband, Farhad Sultanpour, is a Kurd from Iran and president of the association formed this fall. He's travelled across Canada to meet with Kurdish community members to form an alliance to support the longpromised creation of an independent Kurdish state. " This is the only way they can have their unity," Lagadi said Friday before Sultanpour returned to Winnipeg, home to an estimated 260 Kurds from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Saturday's gathering was to celebrate the Kurdish flag flying high once again in Kobani, said Lagadi. " Kobani is a litmus test," she said. The fight to win back their town galvanized Kurds around the world waiting for their own state, she said. " They're going all the way until the Kurds have their own country in the godforsaken land." There are an estimated 30 million Kurds living in the region straddling the borders of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Armenia. They make up the fourth- largest ethnic group in the Middle East, but they have never obtained a permanent nation state. Kurds have an autonomous region in Iraq, and share a distinct culture, language and values similar to those in the West, but they still have no country of their own, Lagadi said. Thousands of Kurds died during Saddam Hussein's regime, and now they're being killed at the hands of the Islamic State they're trying to beat back. Kurdish forces in recent weeks have retaken parts of the strategic Iraqi town of Sinjar, whose Yazidi population was driven out in a humanitarian disaster last year that triggered U. S. intervention. There are an estimated 200 Yazidi people living in Winnipeg. carol. sanders@ freepress. mb. ca IS defeat at Kobani inspires Kurds Locals see victory as step closer to nationhood By Carol Sanders ' Kobani is a litmus test. They're going all the way until the Kurds have their own country in the godforsaken land' - Glenda Lagadi, spokeswoman for the Kurdish Association of Manitoba SARAH TAYLOR / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Zelal Guzelyikdiz, 7, dances with members of the Kurdish Association of Manitoba to celebrate peshmerga winning back the city of Kobani from the Islamic State. B_ 01_ Feb- 02- 15_ FP_ 01. indd B1 2/ 1/ 15 8: 52: 17 PM ;