It may have taken longer than anticipated, but last week the first of two Syrian refugee families arrived in Jasper.
Hassan, Omayea and Reham touched down in Edmonton on Feb. 24 after a gruelling 29-hour journey from Beirut, the capital of Lebanon.
Dave and Honey-Lee Neilson and Mahmoud and Mona Ismaeil met the family at the airport along with Gail Millard, the refugee coordinator for the Anglican Diocese of Edmonton.
“They are the nicest people you could ever want to meet,” said Dave, who along with Nancy Addison spearheaded the initiative to bring the family to Jasper.
“They seem like they’re going to fit into the community really well.”
The family stayed overnight in Edmonton at the Ismaeil’s house before making the four-hour journey down Highway 16 to Jasper.
Along the way they stopped in Edson to meet another Syrian family.
The initial spark to bring the family to Jasper began in October during a casual conversation between Addison and Neilson at the Jasper Royal Canadian Legion.
A month earlier a photo had surfaced of Alan Kurdi, a three-year-old Syrian boy who was found lying face down on a Turkish beach after fleeing Syria with his family.
The photo was published around the world and woke people up to the urgency of the Syrian refugee crisis that continues unabated today.
In Canada, the photo became an immediate election issue ultimately culminating in the Liberal party’s promise to accept 25,000 Syrian refugees by Dec. 31, 2015.
Jolted to action by what they were seeing on the news, Addison and Neilson decided they needed to do something.
Within days Addison contacted Millard at the Anglican Diocese of Edmonton to see if she could privately sponsor a family and was informed she would first need to get unanimous support from Jasper’s St. Mary and St. George Anglican Church.
The church passed the motion unanimously and a week later Addison made a trip to Edmonton to meet Millard and go through the various applicants that could be sponsored.
“The one who spearheaded this is Nancy Addison. Without her work this wouldn’t have happened,” said Neilson.
Addison was unavailable for an interview, but accompanied the family to the Community Dinner Feb. 28, where they were greeted and welcomed by members of the community.
To prepare for the family’s arrival, a group of residents got together in early November to figure out how they were going to fundraise $35,000 to help support them through their first year in Canada.
They also decided to set up a trust fund at Servus Credit Union and allowed the church to continue to collect donations on their behalf.
Within weeks, a yoga night was held followed by a fundraiser at the Downstream Lounge, which hosted a story night. By the end of November nearly $6,500 was raised from the two fundraisers alone.
In December, momentum continued to grow in the community and Jasperite Joe Urie announced half the proceeds fundraised from the December Project would be donated to support the families.
In early December, Jasperites Rod and Beth Tower announced they were privately sponsoring another Syrian family, who Rod knew personally while working in Syria prior to the civil war that engulfed the country in 2011.
Upon learning about the couple’s efforts, it was quickly established they would work together and pool their resources into one large fund to support both families.
According to Beth, the family of five has been officially approved to come to Canada, but they are still waiting for their visas and other paperwork in Cairo, the capital of Egypt.
She said it will likely be at least four more weeks before the family arrives in Jasper.
Meanwhile in Ottawa, in mid-December the federal government backed off its initial goal to resettle 25,000 refugees by Dec. 31 and pushed the deadline to the end of February.
As of press time, nearly 26,000 Syrian refugees have arrived in Canada with another 12,500 resettlement applications in progress. The government estimates between 30,000 and 35,000 Syrian refugees will be resettled in the country by the end of 2016.
As of January, the community had raised nearly $38,000 in two months for both families, with the bulk of the money, nearly $24,000, collected by St. Mary and St. George Anglican Church.
Another $8,000 was collected through the trust fund and an additional $4,500 was donated through an online Go Fund Me campaign set up by the Towers.
As of Feb. 25, the community has raised almost $60,000 and has secured two apartments for the families to live in.
“This community has been wonderful,” said Neilson, praising everyone who has donated their time, energy and money to help resettle the families.
Paul Clarke
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