Trailer :

Alliance Jeunesse-Famille de l'Alberta Society:

AJFAS is a non-profit francophone organization whose principal objective is to educate and prevent crime among French speaking immigrant youth and families in Alberta via social development programs. AJFAS collaborate with many different communities to promote the Canadian cultural diversity.

The Right to Migrate as Human Being
Project Beneficiary: immigrant families and youth

Refugees in Africa routinely wait years for Canadian immigration officials to process their applications to come to Canada. While they wait, refugees are struggling to survive in desperate and dangerous situations, even though they have sponsors in Canada ready to support them here.

The long delays also affect families of refugees. Children are waiting years to be reunited with their parents in Canada. A five year wait for a child is a lifetime! Sadly Canada’s processing of refugees is too slow in many parts of the world, but it is slowest of all in Africa. We need to do better. We need to be fair to all refugees. Although immigrant advocates in Canada are superior in numbers, organization, and financial resources, canadian anti-immigrant forces are numerous, well-funded and well-organized in their efforts to defeat immigration reform.

In our view, the implementation of canadian Immigration laws and policies needs to reflect the commitment of our country to guarantee the full respect of human rights of refugees and their families, and at the same time establish mechanisms to eliminate any form of discrimination, xenophobia or racism. In a sense, Canada needs to uphold its commitment to extend constitutional and human rights protection to refugees and their families and guarantee them the rights to family life. Long delays in processing family reunification are detrimental to the mental health of deprived parents as well as to the psychological and physiological development of the children left behind.  The long delays at Nairobi are simply hindering the healing and are contributing to the fragmentation of these families. The potential for emotional and psychological separation of family members is huge. We argue that there is an urgent need for the creation of mechanisms that will give the Nairobi visa office full support in the implementation of the Immigration law.

Our Digital Storytelling Resource will be used to raise awareness in community at large and to the decision-makers in order to obtain for the Nairobi visa office the support they may need.