September Update

Welcome to the start of another school year. The York Local Committee will continue to work hard, so please continue to give us your support. There has been a gap since our last update, but we hope to summarize events within the past few weeks in this post.

Glendon

The WUSC delegation at the Glendon Campus welcomed their sponsored student, Jean Paul, earlier last month. Since then they have made efforts to secure all the government documents that Mr. Jean Paul requires, and have taken him on a number of different activities including a bicycle ride, visit to the Tower, a hiking trip, and a cottage getaway to name a few.

A big welcome party was arranged for Mr. Jean Paul towards the end of August and it was held at Mme Lewin's residence on the Glendon Campus. Faculty who were familiar with the WUSC sponsorship program were in attendance, including staff from the Centre for Refugee Studies.

The Glendon delegation has been very supportive and has been a source of motivation for the Keele delegation. For more information about the Glendon delegation please contact:

Mr. Kamal Farmaly (farmaly[at]yorku.ca) or;
Ms. Tammy Maclean (tammy_maclean[at]hotmail.com).

Keele

The Keele delegation was off to a slow start due to obstacles that the newly elected executive members constantly ran into. Insufficient explanation, information and assistance had been given to the new executives, which resulted in a lot of frustration and stress in the days leading to their sponsored student's arrival.

The new delegation at Keele pushed for more transparency and communication. Many details were left unsaid - or were simply unknown - during the transition period, and there was much confusion. Thankfully, the executives persisted and, after much running around were able to sort out (most of) the issues.

They welcomed their sponsored student on the 30th of August with representatives from other local committees in Ontario. In the weeks following the student's arrival, the executives secured government documents and introduced him to York University. They have gone on small tours of Toronto, a visit to the Tower and a trip to the Eaton Centre, among other things.

The student has also participated in Glendon's hiking trip and subsequent cottage getaway. Since he can speak French fluently, he enjoys being in the company of the Glendon delegation.

For more information about the Keele delegation, please contact either Mabel Ou Yang or Eric Leung at: wusc[at]yorku.ca

This concludes the update.

Thank you for reading!