As you may know, NZ has a quota of Refugees that are accepted into the country every year. These people are mostly welcomed in conjunction with the Red Cross, and some of you may have been involved with former refugees in this way. 

In about 2017 NZ trialled a pilot of a program that has been run in Canada for more than 30 years, called Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative. The original trial in NZ ran successfully for 3 years, welcoming 50 people in several locations. It has been decided to extend the trial for another 3 years, and this is where we come in. Any group of people can get together and commit to sponsor a refugee family, who come independent of the NZ quota and Red Cross. Your group is responsible for every aspect of their resettlement process, from finding a house and furnishing it, to enrolments in school, doctors, language learning or job seeking. It's not a difficult task, so don't be overwhelmed and think it's too hard, but it does take someone with commitment and who genuinely cares for people. This is such a great opportunity and we’d love to know if we have some people who would like to know more. City and Night would team together to gather a group of people who are connected in the same geographical area.

Monday 13th September will be a night to find out a bit more about how this could work and seek if there is interest across City and Night. The info evening will be on ZOOM from 7.30pm - 8.30pm. If you are interested in coming, please email city@thestreet.org.nz or night@thestreet.org.nz and we will send you the Zoom invitation.