{"id":22407,"date":"2025-02-04T23:11:30","date_gmt":"2025-02-05T04:11:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rstp.ca\/?p=22407"},"modified":"2026-01-29T04:01:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T09:01:18","slug":"bvor-diaries-january-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rstptemp.turnbull.co\/en\/refugee-sponsorship\/latest-policy-program-update\/bvor-diaries-january-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"BVOR Diaries: January 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

January 5, 2025<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Dear Diary,<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I never know how to start these things. I\u2019ve tried keeping a diary before, but despite my best intentions I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever kept it up past a month or so. But the beginning of a new year is a great time to try again! <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a great time to try something new. Big and brave. I\u2019ve been wanting a new project since I retired last year, but I wasn\u2019t sure what \u2013 until I met an interesting fellow at Betty\u2019s Boxing Day open house. David lives in Calgary but was back home for the holidays. He was telling me about how he\u2019s part of a sponsorship group and how they sponsored a family of refugees from Eritrea a couple of years ago. He had nothing but good things to say about the experience and it was quite sweet how proud he was of how well the family was doing now. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He was schmoozing for money \u2013 his group is fundraising to sponsor a second family \u2013 so cynically I think it makes sense he was focusing on all the good, hah!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I donated, of course. But it\u2019s got me thinking: maybe I could start my own group? Bring a refugee family to Halifax? It\u2019s a bit scary to think about, but\u2026<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s go big and brave in 2025!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

January 11<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

I\u2019ve been reading about refugees and sponsorship. David told me about RSTP which is an organization that helps refugee sponsors. And I\u2019ve been on the government\u2019s website reading information there. Oh, and UNHCR\u2019s website too! I\u2019m excited, but my head\u2019s spinning a bit. There\u2019s a lot to learn!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

January 19<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

I told Betty about my idea when we were at the market yesterday. Funnily enough, we were buying churros from the Venezuelan stall and the owner overheard us. He was all excited and thought I should sponsor a refugee from Venezuela! Maybe! <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyhow, sounds like Betty would like to help. I figured I could count on her. From what I understand we need at least five people for our sponsorship group. So me and Betty that\u2019s two so far \u2013 maybe the guy from the Venezuelan stall will join us!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

January 25<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

I subscribed to a <\/span>newsletter about sponsorship<\/span><\/a> and found out about a webinar about something called the BVOR program next week. I think I\u2019ll go along to that \u2013 maybe Betty could too. I think BVOR is how David sponsored. I should check with him. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The newsletter lists out families looking for refugee sponsors. Families from Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Venezuela (!!) \u2013 some individuals too. Maybe if we can\u2019t raise enough money to sponsor a family we could sponsor an individual instead \u2013 I assume that costs less. Though I do love the idea of kids \u2013 I\u2019m always happy to have little ones to play with and keep me young! <\/span>\ud83d\ude0a<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m a bit embarrassed to admit, dear Diary, that I don\u2019t really know much about the crisis in Venezuela. I\u2019m trying to learn. Google tells me that over 7 million Venezuelans have left their country since 2015 because of the impact of the authoritarian government under Maduro, the so-called president. I can\u2019t imagine. Most of these refugees live in neighbouring countries, but some get to come to countries like Canada through different refugee programs. Sponsors are a part of all of this – maybe I can be too?! I\u2019m trying!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Check back next month to find out what Catherine does next in her BVOR sponsorship journey!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

January 5, 2025\u00a0
\nDear Diary,\u00a0
\nI never know how to start these things. I\u2019ve tried keeping a diary before, but despite my best intentions I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever kept it up past a month or so. But the beginning of a new year is a great time to try again! \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":33038,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"13870,22821,13825,8101,8104,10660","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[182,198],"class_list":["post-22407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-bvor","tag-dear-diary-bvor"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/rstptemp.turnbull.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/blog-images-BVOR-Diaries.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Yosief Araya","author_link":"https:\/\/rstptemp.turnbull.co\/en\/refugee-sponsorship\/latest-policy-program-update\/author\/rstp\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rstptemp.turnbull.co\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rstptemp.turnbull.co\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rstptemp.turnbull.co\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rstptemp.turnbull.co\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rstptemp.turnbull.co\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22407"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/rstptemp.turnbull.co\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33040,"href":"https:\/\/rstptemp.turnbull.co\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22407\/revisions\/33040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rstptemp.turnbull.co\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rstptemp.turnbull.co\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rstptemp.turnbull.co\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rstptemp.turnbull.co\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}