Orientation Sessions and Bank Account

English classes: While his parents go to orientation sessions on everything from opening a bank account to signing up for English classes, Abdelkader and about 50 other children pack a boardroom nearly every day on the 11th floor of the Radisson for an hour of nothing but play, according to The Chronicle Herald. The play groups were set up in response to a need identified when a surge in Syrian refugee arrivals overwhelmed settlement agencies in Ottawa. So it not so difficult, he says, to share a room with them now in a downtown Ottawa hotel, as they await permanent homes in the national capital like hundreds of other Syrian refugees who have arrived in the last three months. Larger family sizes than anticipated made permanent homes harder to find, leaving families in hotels longer than expected. Since the children can't start school until they're in their permanent homes, a group of community health care centres in Ottawa are running play groups at the hotels along with the English classes and medical support they provide on site. There were also far more children — about 55 per cent of government assisted Syrian refugees are under the age of 14. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.