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Manitoba town welcomes refugees Palestinian family finds a new home in Altona WINNIPEG, Man.—Safe resettlement could not come quickly enough for a Palestinian family that fled violence in Baghdad, Iraq, about four years ago and is now living in rural Manitoba. “My dream is for a good future for my children,” said Amal Abueraiban when she and her husband, Ziad Abukhousa and their seven children, ages two to 16 arrived at the airport in
Winnipeg on February 24. They had been living in the Al Hol refugee camp in the Hasaka desert region of Syria near the Iraq border. Their new home is in Altona, a community of just under 4,000 people, 115 kilometres south of Winnipeg. The Abukhousa family is among 50 residents from the Al Hol camp to find safe resettlement in Canada through MCC Canada’s refugee assistance program—a program that matches refugees eligible for resettlement in Canada with sponsors.
PHOTO: joanie peters, mcc
“My dream is for a good future for my children,” said Amal Abueraiban.
Ebatsam Elsheikh and her daughter Zeze El Galad of Altona welcome six-year old Wafaa Abukhousa to Canada. Also in the photo are (left) Wafaa’s mother Amal Abueraiban and two-year-old Abdulaziz, Assil Al Hassani (a friend now living in Winnipeg) and Doaa Abukhousa.
The sponsoring group is Build A Village, a community group in Altona formed in 2001 to assist MCC with replacing homes destroyed by the earthquakes in El Salvador. The organization expanded its work in 2005 to provide settlement support for newcomers to Canada. It has supported 15 families, six through MCC, said Ray Loewen, committee chair. Eight families have moved to larger cities, but seven refugee families currently live in Altona. MCC
Palestinian church leaders call for justice How in God’s land can two peoples live together? AKRON, Pa.—In December 2009, Palestinian Christian theologians and church leaders issued a passionate plea for an end to Israeli military occupation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip). In Kairos Palestine, 2009, A moment of truth: A word of faith, hope and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering, church leaders state the military occupation must end to establish peace and reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis built on justice and equality. The document was co-authored by more than a dozen Christian leaders. Although MCC was not directly involved in creating it, its contents reflect what it has heard from regional partners.
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THE MESSENGER | June 2010
Daryl Byler, an MCC representative for Iran, Iraq, Jordan and Palestine, said the document expresses a deep desire for peace, justice and reconciliation. “It is God’s land and therefore it must be a land of reconciliation, peace and love—this is indeed possible,” states the document. “God has put us here as two peoples, and God gives us the capacity, if we have the will, to live together and establish in it justice and peace, making it in reality God’s land.” The Kairos Palestine document (http://www.kairospalestine.ps.) refers to boycotts and divestments; no MCC board in Canada or the United States has called for these. MCC struggles with how to respond in ways that best serve the cause of justice and peace for Palestinians and Israelis. MCC
