Abdulla Daoud, the Executive Director from the Refugee Centre gave a special presentation at EC Montreal today. The class was packed with students wanting to learn more about the refugee situation in Canada and what the centre’s initiatives include.
Abdulla gave a wonderful presentation! He really got the students involved in the discussion. He began his presentation by asking if the students knew what a refugee was. Our students already had a very good understanding that a refugee is someone seeking asylum from their country out of necessity.
Abdualla described the differences between a refugee camp and a refugee entering another country. He also gave us statistics on the number of refugees in the world. We were shocked to learn that there are over 65 million refugees in the world. Canada welcomed 76 thousand refugees in 2016. The most recent refugees are from Syria, however, the most refugees in Canada have come from Palestine and China.
He spoke about how welcoming Canada is to its refugees and that our low population allows us to do so. He also informed us that Canada believes refugees will work hard, contribute to our society and we will all be better off as a result.
The refugee centre helps the refugees integrate to our society. They help them with their education, job searching and basic needs. They have also piloted a programme where they help them start their own businesses.
We were all very impressed by the work they are doing and EC wants to be involved in helping them to continue the wonderful work they do!
EC Montreal will hold its first annual fundraiser for the Refugee Centre! The students are all so excited to help raise funds. Some classes will hold a karaoke room others will braid hair, we will have a bake sale and a hot dog stand. All items will cost 1 ticket and each ticket will cost $1.
We hope all the staff and students will be extremely generous so we can help our new neighbors at the Refugee Centre!