Clarkson

The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF) has a new patron for its initiative to sponsor 50 refugee families: Adrienne Clarkson.

Clarkson, who is Anglican and former governor general, came to Canada as a refugee. “It is important for people to realize that Canada has always been a welcoming country,” said Clarkson in a press release from PWRDF. “I feel particularly strongly about this having been a refugee myself, arriving in Canada at age three in 1942 in the middle of the Second World War with one suitcase for each one of us—my mother, father, brother and I. As a Canadian, I can’t think of more useful work joining our religious commitment to our duties as citizens than being a part of a settlement program for specific refugee families.”