Giving Back: Delivering Syrian meals to Frontline Heros

It has been a challenging year, but our Canopy community is so grateful for the blessings of community support, health, and safety, and decided to give back by sharing their talents, resources, and love with the healthcare and essential workers who are keeping us safe.

With our partners at Miry’s List, the Kanjo family and Christy have spearheaded a program that has allowed us to serve Syrian meals to those on the frontline of COVID19!

Every month, with the generosity of the Claremont United Church of Christ’s kitchen space, we have made and packed 100 meals for the healthcare professionals working in the COVID - ICU unit at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. We have been doing this monthly since July and hope to continue through 2021. This rewarding experience is a way for Canopy and our families to pay it forward and give back to those helping keep our community safe.

Thank you healthcare and essential workers! We appreciate you!

February Update: Covid-19 Priorities and Successes!

Hello Canopy Supporters!

We hope you are all safe and well! It’s been almost a year since life as we knew it changed, and due to your incredible support, we have been able to meet our target goals for this past year.

Last March, we sat down and created a list of support that would be needed most due to the pandemic. While it seemed daunting, we knew we could accomplish it through hard work, community support, and Christy’s tireless work and dedication. Check out the Covid-19 Priorities and Successes below!

Thank you again for your constant support, without with this would not have been possible.

Make sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date on what we have going on at Canopy!

With gratitude,

the Canopy team

October Update!

Dearest Canopy Supporters!

We recently had our Claremont Canopy Board of Directors meeting (meet our board!) and we want to share some impact numbers with you! 

When the COVID-19 pandemic began in March, we at Canopy knew quickly that it was going to have a devastating impact on our families. Job loss as a result of the shutdowns has caused financial strain for every one of our 40 families, and with children now at home full-time, it’s even more difficult for parents to work.

However, because of your generosity, Canopy has been able to step in and help our families when they’ve needed it most. We’ve created a COVID-19 emergency relief fund that has allowed us to help our families stay afloat during these difficult times. With this fund, we’ve been paying out $300 monthly rent supplements to local landlords on behalf of Canopy families that have requested our assistance. In the third quarter alone, we have paid out $5,700 in rent supplements. (And since the creation of the COVID-19 relief fund, that figure is more than $14,000!) We are so incredibly thankful for your steadfast generosity. We could not do what we do without our amazing community of supporters.

Rent supplements are not the only way in which we’ve been serving as allies and advocates for our families. From our general Canopy fund, we have purchased more than $300 worth of college textbooks this quarter for our amazing young adults who are continuing their studies during these unprecedented times. 

We have also been able to kick off our New Beginnings Internship program during COVID-19. This program is funded by a grant Canopy was awarded by the Claremont Community Foundation. The internship program is designed to give Canopy family members U.S. work experience to boost their resumes by finding jobs for them to do within our organization!

We are so grateful to welcome Mursal Samadi to the Canopy team. Mursal and her family arrived in Southern California from Afghanistan in 2016. Mursal has been a wonderful addition to the team, helping with translation and essential day-to-day business needs. Before coming to the United States, Mursal worked for the United Nations and Save the Children. We are incredibly lucky to benefit from her expertise with service-oriented programs. 

Thank you to you, our community of supporters, for continuing to stand by our side — and our families’ sides — during these challenging times. We'll all emerge stronger from this pandemic together.

Make sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date on what we have going on at Canopy!

With gratitude,
Christy

How you can help during COVID19!

We want to take this opportunity to thank you, our amazing community, for your continued support. Now, more than ever, our new arrival refugee families need organizations like Claremont Canopy. While many things in our nation remain uncertain, one thing holds true: we are better together! We believe we can come out of the COVID19 pandemic stronger than ever.

How can you continue to help new arrival refugee families?

⭐️ Financial support for our COVID19 relief fund.

With your generosity, during the COVID19 crisis, Canopy has been able to create a COVID19 emergency fund that provides our families with rent supplements, essential life needs (such as diapers, toiletries and cleaning supplies), as well as gift cards to local grocery and convenient stores. You can donate to the COVID19 emergency fund with the link below:

✅ https://www.claremontcanopy.org/donate

⭐️ Purchase a household items for a newly arrived refugee family!

Our partner's at Miry's List have enrolled over 100 new refugee families in 2020! In July, an Emergency Action Campaign was created for 50 resettling refugee families with urgent needs to safely quarantine at home and continue learning virtually. See the link below:

✅https://miryslist.org/…/emergency-action-for-24-families-4-…

⭐️ Help with our Wishlist

Our families are often in need of items that are not covered under the public assistance programs. The aid given to new arrival families does not cover things like toothpaste, paper products, etc. We have created an Amazon wish list for these items. The items will be shipped to Canopy and we will distribute these items to our families when they are needed!

✅https://www.claremontcanopy.org/wish-lists

⭐️ Send Gift Cards

Help a family by donating a gift card. Whether it be for a department store or a grocery store, a little bit can go a long way. Suggestions: Super King, Wal-Mart, 99 cents store.

✅Email claremontcanopy@gmail.com for delivery instructions.

⭐️ TELL YOUR FRIENDS!

✅Spread the word about the work we are doing at Canopy and Miry's List to help welcome our newest neighbors.

THANK YOU FOR HELPING!

YALLA!  ️

With gratitude,
Christy

Congratulations Class of 2020!

We had four high school seniors this year! Even though this year has looked much different than years past, we enjoyed celebrating these inspiring young adults.

The Canopy team gathered for car parades and socially distant goodie drop offs, to show this crew how proud we are of their accomplishments.

This week, Claremont High School will be delivering diplomas to our graduates during a drive through graduation ceremony. 

All four are off to college next year and we have no doubt these amazing humans will go on to make the world a much better place!

With gratitude, 
Christy

World Refugee Day with Miry's List!

Dearest Canopy Supporters!

June 20, 2020 marked World Refugee Day! Typically we spend our day gathered with our families and supporters to celebrate this special day. Obviously this year looked much different, but we still managed to have a spectacular “virtual" day.

As you know, in addition to Claremont Canopy, I also serve as the Director of New Arrival Supper Club with Miry’s List. Supper Club is a Miry’s List program that brings new arrival refugee chefs and our community of supporters together, over the universal language of love: delicious food. Typically on World Refugee Day, our very own Maysaa Kanjo prepares a Syrian feast for the big Miry’s List day event! This year, we had to think outside the box. We collaborated with Spread Kitchen in Los Angeles and chef Brandon and the Kanjo family came up with a collaborative menu that was available for curb side pick up and local delivery. The Kanjos, myself and our Claremont McKenna College summer intern , Luke, made out way in to Los Angeles and spent the weekend preparing, boxing and delivering over 100 to-go New Arrival Supper Club lunches to be enjoyed safely at home!

The meals were enjoyed while the Miry’s List team put on a special virtual World Refugee Day event that was streamed on Facebook. You can see the two hour event here, it was full of amazing speakers, testimony from our families themselves and an award ceremony where we honored actress Mara Wilson and students Saya Desai and Luisa Breen. We also recognized L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis for her dedication to making Los Angeles County an open and welcoming community for all of our new neighbors!

Once again, this year Canopy has the honor of working with a talented student from Claremont McKenna College. Luke Webb, a rising junior, joined the Canopy team in June. We are so grateful for his ambitious spirit and dedication to our mission. Luke was a tremendous help over the World Refugee Day weekend. He wrote down a few reflective thoughts for the blog after we finished up on the 21st. Check out his thoughts below!

We hope this finds you safe, happy and healthy! As always we are so grateful for your support! Until next time!

With sincere gratitude,

Christy

Weekend with Spread

by Luke Webb
Claremont Canopy CMC Summer Intern

As some of you know, Claremont Canopy has a partnership with Miry’s List. This great organization, which holds our same virtues and is attempting to achieve our same goal, put on a great virtual event past weekend (June 20, 2020 and June 21, 2020) for world refugee day. The goal of this event was to honors and raid funds for those who are and have experienced migration and resettlement.

A few days before the event, Christy texted me and asked if I wanted to help and I jumped at the opportunity as I thought this would be a great way to help my community and partly because it has come to the point where I will do anything to get out of the house. On the morning of the event, we arrived at Spread Kitchen and when we walked in, it smelled like heaven. The falafels and the beef were being prepared at the same time when we were preparing the boxes which made me want to skip the deliveries and take the boxes of food home to myself (don’t worry Christy, I didn’t). Once we packed all of the boxes of food to deliver to the generous donors, we sent out to deliver them. If you want to witness the live action of packing the boxes and deliveries, make sure you follow @claremontcanopy on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/claremontcanopy/). Though it was difficult not too, we did not Instagram and drive. 

All the deliveries were made safely and then the event got started. It was very well organized, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Hopefully, next year the world can have gone back to normal and the event can be an in-person event! I was really touched by the stories of Ahmed Abedy and Abdul Gharfoor who spoke about their changed lives since moving out here. It is nice to see how Claremont Canopy and Miry’s List can make such a big difference in the quality of life of one family with people’s generous donations. To add to this, two recent graduates of Polytechnic School spoke about an organization that they began at their school about helping refugees. Their names are Saya Desai and Luisa Breen. Their passion for helping others was very inspiring to see and the spirit that they share to make the world a better place for everyone is contagious and was passed through everyone who watched them speak. 

Overall, I really enjoyed world refugee day and want to thank the generous people that donated one last time. Also, I hope that all those who purchased a meal from Spread Kitchen enjoyed their meal! Claremont Canopy along with Miry’s List are working for a great cause and I am glad to be about of this wave of positive change!

Fair winds, 

Luke

Eid Mubarak!

Sunday, May 24th marked the religious holiday Eid, the end of the holy month of Ramadan, for our Muslim Canopy families. This year, Ramadan looked much different than in years past. With social distancing requirements in place and no mass gatherings permitted, our families spent this Eid at home with immediate family members. We at Canopy spent the day driving around Claremont and the surrounding areas, dropping off Eid gifts for our families! (They were socially distant drop-offs, of course.)

Along with most of the world, the Canopy community continues to feel the devastating economic effects of Covid19. Our families have lost employment, which has caused extreme financial instability. We have done more than 30 calls over Zoom to virtually help them file for unemployment. 

Because of your generosity during these unprecedented times, Canopy has also been able to start a Covid19 emergency relief fund. This is cash aid given to us by supporters and faith-based organizations, specifically with the purpose of helping Canopy families get through this trying time. I want to personally thank each and every one of you for these generous donations we could NOT support our families like we do without you.

With this fund, we were able to deliver a cash gift of $200 to each of our families. In addition to the cash aid, we dispersed more than $3,300 in rent supplements during the months of April and May. Each supplement of $300 was paid directly to the family’s landlord. This helped families free up cash for other bills and life necessities. We've also been able to use a portion of the funds to distribute diapers to our families with little ones. 

Right now, no gift is too small. The road to economic recovery will be a marathon, not a sprint. We have never felt more connected as a community and as long as we continue to stand with one another, we can overcome anything. 

I'll leave you with messages we have received from Canopy family members over the past month. Our community truly appreciates your generosity, and we thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.

"Thank you Canopy. Your kindness is so special, being beside you gives us strength." Mursal (from Afghanistan)

"Thank you for standing by our side, as always. It means a lot to me that you remember us during this hard time. We love you so much." Farah (from Syria)

"Hi guys, I don't know how to thank you. Today we received the check for help with rent. Thank you a lot to you and Anne and everyone at Canopy. I appreciate all your good deeds and efforts, may God protect us all and our families. We will always keep you in our prayers for happiness and good health. We miss you." Hadia (from Syria) 

With sincere gratitude,

Christy
Founder and Executive Director, Claremont Canopy

Learning from home!

One of the big challenges during Covid19 is making sure students stay on top of their education while stay at home orders are in place. Most schools here and across the country have moved to remote education. Online education comes with many obstacles, especially for students where English is a second language.

Canopy has been advocating for our families by making sure every household has the technology they need to support online learning. Our partnerships with Claremont Unified School District and Miry’s List have allowed us to secure school issued iPads for all of our primary students, as well as donated chrome books for our college age kids. We have made sure our families have access to the internet and mobile hot spots if needed.

The technology of remote learning is just step one, it can be very challenging as an ESL students and their families to navigate log-ins and making sure assignments and expectations are understood. Canopy has been partnering with teachers and a team of volunteers from both Claremont High School, as well as the Claremont Colleges, to make sure the online learning can go as smoothly as possible. Jude Emmert, a CHS sophomore and Boy Scout, has dedicated his Eagle Scout project to helping Canopy tutor our kids during the Covid19 pandemic. He has recruited other scouts and students to be paired with many of our elementary aged kids. Each of the high school students goes through a short training and tutorial, then is paired with a Canopy child. We have had this program up and running for a month and the results have been amazing. The student volunteers are in contact with the child’s teacher, as well as their parents. The CHS tutor checks-in multiple times a week over Zoom and FaceTime to help with homework, provide story time or to just chat and stay connected. Not only has this program helped keep kids academically on track, new life long relationships have started to form which is wonderful to see.

Here are some photos and testimonials from the tutors on how this program and working with Canopy has been going:

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“I’m really glad the tutoring program is helping. It feels really good to help the kids solve problems, even small ones.” Jude E., CHS Sophomore

“I have absolutely loved working with Hala and Tamara over the past weeks through Claremont Canopy. They are bright and funny, and are teaching me as much about life as I’m teaching them. Whether we are drawing together, solving math problems, or sharing about our day, we are grateful for each other’s presence. This has been a wonderful experience and perhaps more important than helping them with their academics, is the potentially long term relationship I hope to establish with them.” Maya G., CHS Junior

“Even though I have only been a tutor with Claremont Canopy for a month, I have enjoyed every call with my student M because she always brightens my day with her bubbly personality! Having the opportunity to assist M with her subjects that are challenging for her has made me a more grateful and responsible person.” Mercer, CHS sophomore

This crisis has required everyone to think outside the box in order to stay connected and stay on track with education. We are so grateful for the Claremont High School students and dedicated staff for helping us continue to make sure the future generation of Claremont Canopy neighbors continues to thrive.

Stay safe, together we got this!
Christy

Stay safe!

We hope you and your family are staying safe during this unprecedented time during the Covid19 pandemic. We have been maintaining social distancing guidelines yet still finding ways we can support our Canopy families during this difficult time.

We have been doing 6 feet apart drop offs of donated groceries, gift cards and diapers. We have been holding virtual meetings via Zoom to help those that have lost work file unemployment insurance online. The pandemic has effected our families in almost every facet of their lives, from finances to education and we are doing what we can to help them navigate this new normal. Due to the generosity of you, our beloved supporters, we have been able to dedicate a portion of our funds specifically for emergency needs during the pandemic. This will allow us to help our families with rent, groceries and other life necessities.

As we said in our last blog post, physical distancing does not mean emotional distancing. We have continued to check in with our families over FaceTime and Zoom calls to make sure we can maintain the foundation of Canopy, human connection!!

We do have very exciting and much needed happy news to share with you! Farah Wawieh and Sari Aside welcomed their baby girl, Mila to the world in the early hours of April 8. Mom and baby are happy, health and safe at home! We are thrilled to welcome Mila to the Canopy family!

We are grateful for you our supporters, now more than ever. Your donations during this time are impacting our families in a profound way. We could not do what we do without you and we are forever grateful.

Stay safe, stay home and we look forward to the day when we can safely reunite again!

With gratitude,

Christy

Physical distancing is not Emotional Distancing!

PHOTOS FROM CANOPY FAMILIES, TEAM MEMBERS AND VOLUNTEERS SHOWING THE OUTREACH AND RESOURCES WE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO PROVIDE DURING THE COVID19 PANDEMIC.

We are continuing to do our best to stay connected during this time of social distancing. The entire mission of Canopy is built on not being socially distant so it has been particularly difficult, but we are getting creative on ways to stay connected. Lots of FaceTime and Zoom calls.

We are continuing to be an advocate and ally for families, even if it must be done remotely. We have been working with our partners in resettlement (Miry’s List and the Redlands Interfaith Council) to get laptops to our college students that are now suddenly doing all of their college courses online. We have also been working closely with the local school districts to get the K-12 students school issued iPads and Chromebooks so they can stay on top of school work.

The Covid19 pandemic has had a profound impact on our national economy, this has left many of our Canopy adults unemployed. We have a team of volunteers that are helping families navigate the government unemployment system. It is an incredibly frightening time for all of us, but we remain dedicated to the Canopy mission. Our families need organizations like Canopy more than ever.

We had our quarterly board meeting last Friday. We voted to allocate some of our resources specifically to help with the impact of the Covid19 pandemic. The pandemic affects all aspects of daily life: education, employment, emotional well-being, the list goes on.. Without your support, we would not be able to help our families during this national crisis. We are very grateful for each and every one of you.

We are so lucky to have a community full of volunteers. This week a handful of students from Claremont High School will be rolling out a Zoom based tutoring program for many of our elementary aged kiddos! They will be reading stories and helping with basic homework!

We also have a number of volunteers that continue to do one on one tutoring with kids over FaceTime. It is so amazing to see how these friendships have formed with the greater Claremont Community.

The future remains unknown and the longer we are forced to be socially distant the larger the impact will be for our Canopy families. However, what remains the same is we are not going anywhere and will continue to be an ally for our families, in the good times and the bad. We sent out a translated message to each of our families (in both Farsi and Arabic) stating just that, we are here and will stay connected and will help them get through this difficult time. We will use our voices and will make sure that we can all come out of this better than before.

Stay safe everyone. Stay home. And we urge you to virtually reach out to your neighbors near and far. Just a familiar voice saying I am here, how can I help can change the world.

With gratitude,

Christy

A MESSAGE TO OUR CANOPY FAMILIES (FARSI):

A MESSAGE TO OUR CANOPY FAMILIES (ARABIC):