After five months, Huntsville’s first Syrian refugee family is loving their new community

Last summer, a family of Syrian refugees – the Malems – arrived in Huntsville with little fanfare. Sponsored by the St. Mary’s parish, they quietly went about learning about the new place they were to call home.

Dad Ghazwan, mom Buchra, Asad (a boy, 18) and Rama (a girl, 14) arrived on August 24, 2016. They were preceeded by Ghazwan’s brother, Firas, who arrived in April and has since moved on to Mississauga, but the rest of the Malems are thrilled to be staying in Huntsville and hope to remain here.

Both children are in school – Asad in grade 12 at St. Dominic’s in Bracebridge to get the qualifications needed to head to college and Rama in grade eight at St. Mary’s in Huntsville – while Buchra is improving her English thanks to volunteer ESL teachers. Ghazwan is anxious to find a job, the success of which will ultimately determine if the family can stay here. In the meantime, he’s been helping as a translator for Huntsville’s newest Syrian refugee family.

The Malems came from Aleppo, Syria’s war-torn capital, by way of Beirut, Lebanon. They were able to leave their home country four years ago to relative stability in Beirut, but even that wasn’t without its difficulties. Buchra’s mother died in Aleppo after the family left and she was unable to return. And the family’s temporary visas expired before their Canadian papers came through – had they been discovered, they might very well have been sent back to a much worse Aleppo than the one they had left.

But now, they are thrilled to be in Huntsville where they can go out without fear for their safety.

They are embracing new-to-them Canadian traditions and activities. The family had 154 costumed children arrive at their door Halloween night and delighted in seeing them dressed up. They ate their first turkey at Thanksgiving. And at Christmas they decorated a tree. They’ve been to Hidden Valley Highlands Ski Area to watch the skiers and the kids are eager to take up the sport.

The Malems with sponsors and volunteers Mary Ray Ward (front left), Ted Dodds (centre back) and Michelle and George Haskin (back right). (supplied photo)

Mary Ray Ward, one of the volunteers helping the Malems settle in to their new life, says the parish community has been extremely generous in helping to sponsor the family, an initiative that was spearheaded by the church’s pastor, Father John Rathinaswamy, who created a sponsorship committee composed of parishioners.

“(The response) was remarkable, actually,” says Ted Dodds, the committee co-chair. “We got a late start – we were under the umbrella of the Diocese of Peterborough and they had already put in firm dates for the sponsorship money – and we had to raise at least $24,000 in two weeks from our 150 families. Really it was the generosity of the parishioners that made it possible to come together so quickly.” Members of the parish even donated two cars for the family.

Dodds notes that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Peterborough has been sponsoring families for more than 10 years and were well organized in helping sponsor groups select a family. However, when the committee realized that the family of five they had chosen weren’t a family that all lived together, the parish raised additional funds to support Firas separate from the rest of the Malems.

When Ghazwan, Buchra, Asad and Rama arrived in August, they weren’t just greeted by volunteers – some of their friends and family who have already settled in Canada met them as well. “At the rental house we had set up for them, they had a bit of a party that lasted all weekend,” says Dodds. “Some of the parishioners billeted a few of their relatives so they could stay a while and catch up. It had been many years since they’d seen each other. It was a very joyous occasion for them.”

Their family and friends already living in Canada are in Mississauga and live in high rises, so that’s what the Malems likely expected to find. They were quite surprised, says Dodds, to discover that the sponsor group had gone to so much trouble to renovate and furnish a house for them.

Dodds says one of the best comments he heard came from Ghazwan’s sister-in-law, who wondered when the family would be able to move to Mississauga, but after seeing the arrangements made here for them joked that she should have asked if the committee would sponsor Syrian families from Mississauga.

While the family is settling in well, Dodds says there have been some frustrations from his perspective when it comes to some of the industries and government agencies that aren’t as prepared as they could be for the influx of Syrian refugees to Canada. In particular, he noted an insurance industry that doesn’t recognize driving records or past insurance history from Syria, making refugees start from scratch with high insurance rates, or post-secondary institutions that don’t recognize equivalencies.

And Dodds hopes that the community will step forward with employment options. “Sometimes people know of situations where there are temporary jobs. (The Malems) don’t have many connections here yet. They are improving on their English daily, and it was already quite good. Being employed, even temporarily, can give that little shot of positivity and when employers see how hard they work it could lead to other things.”

Photos supplied by Mary Ray Ward

UPDATE January 26, 2017: In response to reader questions about making donations to support the Malem family, we asked for and received this information from the St. Mary’s committee:

If they would like to contact us directly, email [email protected]. Tax receiptable financial donations can be issued to St. Mary of the Assumption Church and mailed to or dropped by the church office: St.Mary of the Assumption Church, P.O.Box 5513, 12 Centre Street, Huntsville ON, P1H 2K8. Cheques must note Refugee Donation in the memo line of the cheque in order for the funds to be passed on for the Malem family sponsorship efforts.

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