Thank you very much.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
Operation Ezra is a grassroots project, founded in March of 2015, with the primary objectives of raising awareness and fundraising to privately sponsor Yazidi refugees to Winnipeg. To date well over $500,000 has been raised by Operation Ezra across Canada. Applications for private sponsorship were submitted for a total of 10 families, or 55 people. Seven families, or 41 people, have arrived to date. We have one family arriving later today, actually, and two more families will arrive over the next few weeks.
Operation Ezra is a well-organized, community-wide project guided by a steering committee and several programming committees. In addition to providing support, Operation Ezra partners and a large group of volunteers provide the following tools and services for a successful integration: furnishing and setting up complete homes with donated goods from private and corporate donors; clothing and shoes through corporate donors; welcoming new families and assisting with all the necessary paperwork required to start new lives in Canada; assisting with public transportation, banking, finding medical professionals, and accompanying refugees to all their appointments; enrolling children in school; and assisting with finding employment. To date we have 13 people employed by Operation Ezra volunteers. We run a supplemental EAL program. It is staffed by professional volunteers. We also provide assistance with coordination of Yazidi community events to help create a strong, cohesive, and supportive community in the city.
Our future plans for 2018 are to continue to raise awareness, to continue to support the current Operation Ezra privately sponsored families, to continue to fundraise and privately sponsor Yazidi refugees, and to continue to provide support to government-sponsored families. This includes providing translation services, furniture and furnishings, clothing and shoes, access to Operation Ezra's EAL program, and invitations to all social events, and finding housing and employment.
I will pass it over to Lorne Weiss.