Dinner tops $1,000 for refugee family

When the Lado family arrives in Emo sometime in the next few weeks, they will find a community waiting for them with open arms.
The Lados—Christian, 30, his wife, Christine Alice Lomingo, 21, daughter, Knight, three, and son, Malcum, 20 months—are scheduled to arrive here from Kenya via Winnipeg.
At least, that’s the hope of Kathy Loney—one of the people on the Welcome Refugee Committee that is bringing the Lados here from the refugee camp in Kenya they currently call home.
That’s because the Lados—like countless thousands of others—have fled their war-torn home in Sudan and now are awaiting processing for the documents that finally will bring them to their new home here.
“It is our hope that this experience will continue to strengthen and unite the community of Emo,” Loney said to a group of 50 volunteers who attended a special potluck dinner and fundraiser at the United church there Saturday evening.
“We should be proud of our community and we should be grateful for this opportunity to serve others in need,” she added. “In our giving, we also receive.”
And give they did. Just over $1,000 was collected for the Lados from the people who turned out to hear an update on the effort to bring the family here.
In addition to wading through the necessary paperwork, the committee and others in Emo have found a house for the family and now are in the process of furnishing it with donated items.
Furthermore, a clothing drive is underway since the family has never experienced anything remotely like a Northern Ontario winter.
As the date for their arrival looms closer, the committee is working feverishly to have everything ready in time.
“As a committee, we feel quite excited although overwhelmed,” Loney admitted.
She also noted the committee still doesn’t know exactly when the Lados will arrive, but assured the audience they will have at least four days’ notice—and possibly as much as two weeks.
As the official sponsors, the committee is legally obligated to finance the family. But Loney is confident they will be on their feet and financially independent within a year.
But there’s more the community can do to make its newest members feel welcome—and some of them don’t cost a thing.
“There are many ways that all of us can make our family feel welcome and loved,” Loney remarked. “A smile, a wave, a visit, or an offering of our talents or time.
“A simple ‘hello’ and introduction to our neighbours can be life-giving for our new family,” she stressed.
Dave Loney shared his wife’s enthusiasm and optimism for the project and the refugee family. “This is going to be a great experience,” he predicted.
Welcoming refugees is nothing new for Emo. In 1979, the community sponsored Sung and Li Truong, bringing them here from Vietnam.
They later moved to Fort Frances and eventually opened the Lee Garden restaurant on Scott Street, which is now operated by their daughter and son-in-law.
The Truongs were among those attending Saturday’s supper, and Sung said a few words before the main speaker took the podium.
Abraham Deng came to Canada five years ago from Sudan. He currently lives in Winnipeg, where he is taking a degree in international studies at the University of Winnipeg.
As a refugee himself, Deng has firsthand knowledge of what is going on in his native land as well as the refugee camps like the where the Lados are currently living.
Deng opened his address with a geography lesson.
Sudan is the largest country in Africa, almost completely landlocked but for a small stretch of coastline in the northeast along the Red Sea.
Originally a British colony, Sudan received its formal independence in 1956, but since then, there has been little peace or prosperity.
Deng noted there are no less than 500 different ethnic groups speaking more than 150 languages in a county about one-quarter the size of the United States.
And it is this ethnic and cultural diversity that has accounted for so much bloodshed and hatred over the past 23 years.
“There has been a great mishandling of multiculturalism,” Deng explained, noting how Canada has been so successful in that area.
Until Jan. 9 of this year, the Sudanese government was imposed by the largely Arab majority in the north on the largely black south.
“It was a brutal war. They tried to convert you to Islam by force,” said Deng, noting Osama bin Laden was in the country for a period of time.
After the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the United States and other western nations began to view the Islamic regime in Sudan with a more critical eye.
Deng said the pressure on the reluctant south (who were adherents, for most part, to indigenous African religions as well as Christianity) was reduced and replaced with a campaign of ethnic cleansing.
As a result, thousands of Sudanese have fled to refugee camps in adjacent countries.
With the new peace accord, there officially is a truce that is supposed to last for six years. After that, the mostly-Christian south has the option to secede and split the country in half.
“I don’t want to see that happen,” Deng stressed. “Why split it up because we are stupid? I want to see Christians and Muslims living together.”
Still, Deng is fairly optimistic about the long-term success of his native land. Sudan is blessed with a bounty of natural resources, including oil, gold, and copper.
But until things settle down, there always will be families like the Lados in desperate need of a new home far from the turmoil and uncertainty they currently are experiencing.
The camp in which they are living is overcrowded and ill-equipped to deal with the numbers involved. Furthermore, said Deng, there also is a great number of Somali refugees in addition to Sudanese and so there is sometimes friction between the two groups.
But Deng said once the Lados arrive, they will not require much from their hosts apart from acceptance and friendship—even though they may appear awkward initially.
“Sudanese are good people, but shy,” he explained. “These people [the Lados] will expect nothing more from you but to welcome them.”