Offering a refuge

Members of Circle K, including Christian Browne, Soundous Sairi, Rabeyl Aslam, Tasha Moideen, Shane Sims and Yazeed Sobaih, are raising money to support a refugee family. (Bruce Bottomley Photo)

When Tasha Moideen heard about a Halifax-based community group, Friends for Refugees, which was struggling to raise more than $22,000 to help a refugee family, she knew she had to get involved.

“This year we decided we wanted to make a bigger impact in our local community... literally thinking globally and acting locally, which we see ourselves doing with this initiative.” says Ms. Moideen, a third-year microbiology and immunology student and president of the Dalhousie chapter of Circle K.

Ms. Moideen, with other Circle K members, hopes to raise $9,000 to contribute to the settling of the Al-Samak family in Canada.

“We are helping sponsor a family of four: a mother, father and two children,” says Ms. Moideen, 20.

The family is among 34,000 Palestinian refugees who fled from Israel to Iraq in search of a new life. The outbreak of war in Iraq shattered their hopes and dreams.

“The escalating violence from the war made these families targets for torture, rape and theft,” Ms. Moideen says. This left the family to once again pack up their lives in Iraq and make an arduous journey to Syria. They made it to a camp on the Syria-Iraq border and have been there since.

“The family faces extremely difficult living conditions,” relates Ms. Moideen, “The camp they are currently located is in the desert and they have little to no access to health care.”

Fundraising plans have been in the works since September. The Dalhousie Circle K group will host a potluck on Thursday, Feb. 11 and a gala dinner event with speakers later in the month.

“Our mandate is to provide aid wherever aid is needed, especially when the lives of two small children are being affected,” says Ms. Moideen, who has been a dedicated Circle K member since her first year at Dalhousie.

Dalhousie Circle K is part of Circle K International, the largest collegiate community service, leadership development organization in the world with 12,000 members worldwide. The Dalhousie chapter is affiliated with the Dartmouth Kiwanis Club.

To find out more or to donate, contact Dal Circle K at dalcirclek@gmail.com.