CALGARY – Naheed Gilani’s investments have been pummelled by the crude price collapse, but the Calgarian says he hasn’t hesitated for a moment to contribute thousands of dollars to sponsor a Syrian refugee family.
“My reasoning was, ‘we can’t afford to wait for the next person who might be in a better economic condition than I am,'” said the 35-year-old, who is part of a group of five Calgarians sponsoring a widow and her two young children.
Calgary is expected to take in up to 1,300 refugees in the coming weeks, though final figures have not been pinned down. Of those, 502 are through private sponsorships — one of the highest numbers for Canadian cities, according to federal government figures. All this as mass layoffs in the oilpatch become a regular occurrence and year-end bonuses are slashed.
Gilani, born into a comfortable life in Canada to East African immigrant parents, said it’s important to put Calgary’s economic woes into perspective.
“I just think people get so used to their high level of Canadian standards that we’re not as resilient in the face of a downturn as we should be. People don’t know what resiliency really is,” he said.
More at the source: Times Colonist
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