Canadian Armenian Narod Odabasiyan is helping refugees from Syria. He helps them settle and then find a job on his own means and through donations, the Canadian newspaper The Vancouver Sun writes.
“They fled the country and didn’t have time to take anything. They didn’t have time to say goodbye. Their life is on hold (in Syria). And then they’re here,” Odabasiayn said.
Odabasiyan is the director of Hay Doun (Armenian House), which has settled 645 Syrian refugees in the province of Quebec since last September.
The organization was founded six years ago by a group of Canadian Armenians.
“We had a moral obligation. From the 1915 Armenian Genocide, when our great grandparents were victims, we could not stand by,” said Odabasiyan.
First Hay Doun helped 45 Iraqi families settle in Montreal. Then the Syrian crisis erupted, and the activists again decided to do what they could.
Hay Doun works with members of Quebec Armenians who act as guarantors. The guarantors are ready to take on the refugees’ expenses for a year, if they can’t find work. Under local laws, sponsored refugees are not eligible for welfare for a year.
Hay Doun finds them an apartment and stocks their fridges with food.
Separate volunteers help the organization. One of them has volunteered five years. Businesses are also helpful: a local clothing company agreed to employ the refugees. Many others merely help with money.
“Some of them witnessed kidnappings and bombings right in front of them. One was in a coma for six months after being bombed, another was held for ransom. Here they are safe, but they have to start from zero,” Odabasiyan said.