Avanthi Liyanage  0T7 & Caroline Fernandes 0T7

“There’s a lot of administrative work, but I can’t describe the feeling of picking  up our sponsored refugee student at the airport.”

“We have stereotypes of refugees, but they're really brilliant students and they achieve high marks while trying to send support home.”

 

SEPTEMBER 2006 - Avanthi Liyanage came to Trinity as an international student from Sri Lanka and was fortunate to have parents who “paid for everything,” all of which gave her an ideal perspective for helping those less fortunate.

Caroline Fernandes, was just five when her family fled Kuwait during the Gulf War. She describes the experience as “searing” and the reason she’s now so keen to help refugee students.

In their third year (2005-06), the two students, Fernandes in genetics and anthropology and Liyanage in economics and life science, were, respectively, chair and treasurer of the Trinity College Student Refugee Program, a World University Service of Canada committee that sponsors one refugee student a year at the college.

Each Trinity student pays a six-dollar levee on student fees, which goes toward the $20,000 that it costs for tuition (covered by U of T) and residence. As part of the committee, Fernandes and Liyanage [who both graduated in 2007] helped choose the applicant and liaise with immigration officials to get the student landed immigrant status. As part of its program, the group also helped the sponsored student, once arrived in Canada, by providing academic and social support throughout the year. “There’s a lot of administrative work,” says Liyanage, “…but I can’t describe the feeling of picking them up at the airport.”

The two also started an initiative to send used PCs to refugee camps in Kenya. “We have stereotypes of refugees,” says Fernandes, “but they’re really brilliant students and they achieve [high rankings] while trying to send support back home.”

The Trinity College Student Refugee Program committee continues with Dimitri Bollegala, a third-year Trinity student, as chair.

 – Margaret Webb