Deyana Rasel (pictured above) still remembers the sound of gunshots erupting in the streets of Kabul as the Taliban took the city in August 2021, when she was 16. After losing her father to the conflict, she and her four siblings, aged 18, 15, 14 and 11, fled Afghanistan and spent more than a year in a Dubai refugee camp battling stress, depression and illness. A lifeline to Canada came through Jewish Immigrant Aid Services (JIAS), a Canadian organization that sponsors refugees, but even that came with a hurdle. The government insisted on two years of resettlement funding, in this case. JIAS had secured the first year, but without a second, the sponsorship could not proceed.
That’s when they turned to the Azrieli Foundation for support.
“We are so grateful to the Azrieli Foundation. When you have an organization that you can lean on and trust to help you make dreams happen, it really transforms the lives of everyone involved,” says Elise Herzig, Executive Director at JIAS Toronto.
The organization has sponsored more than 1,000 refugees from all over the world in the past decade, and it offers language and community-based workshops. The Foundation’s operational funding allows JIAS to provide the Rasels and other families with the knowledge, supports and opportunities they need to thrive as new Canadians, helping to build a stronger, more vibrant and inclusive Canada.
Safe and sound
When the siblings landed in Toronto in November 2022, a welcome party was waiting. JIAS staff and a devoted group of volunteers, whom Deyana now calls family, were there to greet them. A woman named Rachel even brought winter coats. “When I got out of the airport, it was so cold!” Deyana recalls. “I was so grateful for the warm welcome.”
Deyana, now 21, is studying to be an architect and still shares an apartment in Toronto with her siblings. All are thriving, thanks to the support of JIAS and the Azrieli Foundation. They’ve even gotten used to Canada’s winters. “We all go out on the balcony together, me and my siblings, and use snow and milk to make shir yakh—traditional Afghan ice cream.”
