Syrian refugee family gets help from Iqaluit Catholic parish

Iqaluit residents came together over a pot of chili on Monday and raised more than $1,000 to help sponsor a family of refugees from Syria.

Volunteers from Our Lady of the Assumption Roman Catholic church dished out dozens of bowls of chili at $15 each to help WalidWajihAl-khouri'sfamily of seven come to Canada and settle in Ottawa.

Currently thefamily is stuck in Lebanon, but with the sponsorship of Sacr-Coeur parish in Ottawa and help from the parish in Iqaluitthey hope to come to Canada soon.

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"It's a question of heart," said Daniel Perreault,Our Lady of the Assumption's parish priest.

"Just last autumn, we have seen this flow of refugees from Iraq and Syria. It's something horrible that happened."

The parishdecided that helping even one person was a good start. After some research they changed their mind about trying to sponsor a family to come to Nunavut.

"Try to imagine a little bit, a family of refugees, who are already in big trouble, who are in kind of poverty, who left everything, who live in the south in a tropic zone, to come here in isolated place in the cold, far away from everything, from everybody,"saidPerreault.

"For me, it's not a service."

Perreaultsaid the isolation wasone issue, but the cost of living is another factor that made his parish decide against encouraging afamily to settle inNunavut.

"The housing issue is a problem forNunavutthat we know already, and just the cost of everything here, how can it help a family who has nothing."

Instead the parishioners settled on partnering with the Ottawa parish to help a family.

Despite the fact that the family will not be settling inNunavut, people in Iqaluit want to do their part to help.

"Supportpeople who are in dire needwe'reInuksand that's what we're good at," said Rebecca Mike,aresident who attendedthefundraiser.