Society status opens donations drive for Project Sunflower

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on April 26, 2022.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

Project Sunflower has obtained incorporation as a not-for-profit in Alberta under the Societies Act and is now able to help Ukrainians in more ways than before.
“Now that we have legal status it allows us to operate, not just to collect information from people, but we can start collecting donations, which we’re going to be working on pretty soon,” said Marc Woons, secretary.
He said they are hoping to have a more robust process in place for allowing people to host.
“I think in the next three weeks, we should have almost everything in place to kind of do everything that we’re hoping to do in terms of attracting Ukrainians to the area,” said Woons.
They are looking for ways to help host Ukrainians, start making matches in terms of employment and generally just providing resources that people are looking for, whether they be helping their kids go into school, or take ESL (English as a Second Language) programs and anything else people may need when they arrive.  
“Once we got to our status, we had our inaugural board meeting just to establish ourselves as the board, we’ve elected a board. So that means that we will probably in the near future seek membership and maybe become a larger society,” said Woons.
He said the new status allows them to work with lawyers, to make sure they have all the documents in place for people who want to host or for Ukrainians who want to come.
“If people are interested in hosting, or volunteering, or they have jobs available for Ukrainians that are coming over, we’re collecting all that information right now (on the website) and then once we have our formal intake process, we will start to contact people and start working with them,” said Woons.
He said one of the things they will work with people is on becoming a host, for example.  
“A potential host would need to go through a criminal record check, reference checks, and some other kinds of documents just to make sure that we’re placing people in appropriate homes,” said Woons.
Something they are still trying to figure out with their lawyers is if they will be able to ask the same from Ukrainians who will be placed with their hosts.
“Coming to Canada they have to submit their biometrics, so in order for Ukrainians to get a visa they need to provide their fingerprints and a photo, so part of the visa application and why it takes some time for that application to go through, is because the Canadian government checks that,” said Woons.
He said something else they are working on now that they have their status, is opening a bank account to receive donations to be able to help those wanting to come to Canada.
Woons is encouraging people to visit their website and signal their intent, so they can reach out once everything is in place and make the process go smoothly.
For more information visit http://www.projectsunflower.ca

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