Members of the Faith and Friends refugee group received a shock on Jan. 26, learning their Syrian refugee sponsorship family was arriving in Canada just two days later, on Jan. 28.
When the group, spearheaded by Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church in Fergus, applied to the Canadian Lutheran World Relief (the sponsorship agreement holder), members were told it would be months before they were matched with a family.
“Their normal experience is that once you put in your application it takes two to four months for your family to come,” explained Ingrid Kebbel-Beer, chair for the Faith and Friends task force. “Since the Canadian government is expediting the arrival of the Syrian families, our family came in two weeks.”
Between last Tuesday and Friday, the group, including partner churches St. James Anglican in Fergus and St. James Lutheran in Elmira, scrambled to secure an apartment in Fergus and ensure all the necessary supplies were available upon the family’s arrival.
“We had a great team and people really, really pulled together and we found them an apartment and we found furniture … and we found everything from car seats to beds to kitchen goods,” Kebbel-Beer said. “They have a decently-outfitted home.”
She was part of the welcoming committee that met the Zain Al Abedeen family in Toronto last Friday.
“That was just so exciting and smiles all around and just the realization that it was real, they were here, these weren’t imaginary people, these were real people,” Kebbel-Beer said.
The Zain Al Abedeen family fled in 2011 from southwestern Syria, “Which is one of the first areas where the fighting started,” Kebbel-Beer said. “They fled to Jordan and their whole area was just flattened and devastated.”
The family lived in a refugee camp in Jordan until it moved to Canada last week.
“I can’t imagine [leaving] everything familiar and already I think their hardest part is they’re missing their friends and family,” Kebbel-Beer said.
“I think they had escaped great trauma and I think … quite a large number of their extended family had come to Jordan.”
Though the family doesn’t speak English, parents Rasheed and Awatef plan to take English as a second language lessons, while Asmaa, 16, is being assessed before she’s placed in school for the coming semester. Rasheed has already asked when he can start working, but the group has told him he first needs to learn some English.
In Syria, Rasheed and Awatef lived in a rural area and grew olives and vegetables, Kebbel-Beer said. They also sold baked goods from their home.
“That’s why I think it was kind of suggested that they come to a little bit more (of a) rural area,” Kebbel-Beer said.
Last Saturday Faith Lutheran and Friends, along with supporting groups like Under the Same Sky and other volunteers, helped move the Zain Al Abedeens into their apartment. By Sunday wi-fi was working in the apartment.
“They were able to connect with their family back in Jordan via phone and they also are friends with a family in Kitchener so they were able to make contact with them,” Kebbel-Beer said.
Faith Lutheran and Friends has raised approximately half the funds necessary to support the Zain Al Abedeen family for a year.
Donations are accepted by cheque to the Faith Lutheran Church (specify refugee fund) or online at http://www.faithfergus.ca.
