Edmonton—The CLAC Foundation, CLAC’s charitable arm, has announced its commitment to donate $100,000 to create an emergency fund for migrant workers in British Columbia through its nonprofit partner MOSAIC.
The foundation will immediately provide MOSAIC $50,000, plus another $50,000 in June 2022, if the initial donation is matched through MOSAIC’s partners.
MOSAIC’s Migrant Workers Program provides funds to workers whose homes are flooded or have been affected by fires; who have lost their jobs; who need medical assistance; who are suffering from domestic abuse; or who need to travel home for a variety of reasons.
“We’re thrilled to do our small part to help some of the thousands of migrant workers in British Columbia, a number of whom suffer real hardship and need immediate support,” says Dan VanKeeken, program manager for the CLAC Foundation. “We were impressed by the work that MOSAIC does with and for migrants, and we wanted to partner with them to help their efforts become even more effective. We hope other organizations will join us in creating this badly needed new emergency fund. It’s the least we can do for the hard workers who put food on our tables.”
“We are extremely thankful to the CLAC Foundation for helping us fill a significant gap in the support for migrant workers by allowing us address emergencies in favour not only of the workers but also their families,” says Hugo Velazquez, senior manager for migrant worker programs at MOSAIC. “We recently shared this wonderful initiative with the Consular Corps of B.C., and its members endorsed supporting the fund and voiced their appreciation for this joint effort.”
The CLAC Foundation recently announced another large-scale donation to help workers in British Columbia. In December 2021, with the support of CLAC, the organization provided $100,000 to the Canadian Red Cross to help with flood recovery efforts.
