04 Jan 2016
A Westmount private school is offering a warm welcome to Syrian refugees arriving in Quebec.
Teachers, students and parents at Villa Sainte-Marcelline are knitting dozens of winter hats for Syrian refugees. Volunteers started the project before holiday break.
The knitting initiative started with the 25,000 Tuques project that was launched in late November by Quebecer Danielle Létourneau.
The tuques are meant to help newcomers adapt to the cold as they experience their first winter on Canadian soil.
“It’s the country that is welcoming them and the school is proud to be part of a country that is so inviting,” Sister Louise Bonta from Villa Sainte-Marcelline told Radio-Canada.
The French private school is slated to take in at least one Syrian refugee per class in 2016.
Villa Sainte-Marcelline has accepted refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia and Lebanon as students over the years.
The Quebec government had committed to receiving 3,650 Syrian refugees by the end of 2015 and will welcome the same number in 2016.