She was jet-lagged but overjoyed.
“We finally made it,” Syrian refugee Fadia Wattar said shortly after arriving at Vancouver International Airport on Monday.
She and her family had travelled for 30-plus hours from Egypt to begin their new lives in Vancouver, but the journey had been years in the making.
“It’s four years we’ve been waiting,” said Fadia’s brother Hisham, a North Vancouver resident who’s worked tirelessly along with Canyon Heights Church to bring his family here as privately sponsored refugees.
“So to them it’s not been a one-day journey, it’s been four years waiting,” he said. “There was lots of hugs and tears and emotion. The kids were excited too, their cousins, their relatives.”
During the emotional airport family reunion on Monday, Hisham welcomed sister Fadia, along with his two nieces and two of his niece’s young children, ages 12 and 7, who fled war-torn Syria in 2012 and have been living in limbo in Cairo for the past three years.
Hisham explained that his family had been living a normal life until the start of civil war in Syria that brought bombings and gunfire within kilometres of their home in Damascus.
The family’s situation became even more perilous when his young nephew participated in student protests during the Arab Spring civil uprisings and was later detained by the secret police who stormed the family home.
Hisham, who immigrated to Canada in the 1980s and now runs Best Falafel on Commercial Drive, helped arrange for his family to flee to Egypt. There, the United Nations High Commission on Refugees granted them refugee status, but it has been a long process mired in bureaucratic delays to finally get his family to Canada.
Hisham said an overwhelming response by Canadians to the refugee crisis during the federal election helped to spur the government into action.
“I’m just relieved for them. I told them I would do everything in my power to get you here and I’m glad we got to that point and (Canyon Heights Church pastor) Steve (Moore) helped too.”
Moore was at the airport on Monday to help greet Hisham’s family. “It was just good to see the family reconnect. And the joy that the impossible was done,” he said.
Through concerts and other fundraising events Canyon Heights Church, which has a congregation of just 50, has raised nearly $25,000 to aid Syrian refugees.
Hisham’s brother and his wife also flew in from England for the family reunion. “He wouldn’t miss this for the world.”
On Monday night the newly reunited family watched television news reports of their arrival in Vancouver and finally got to sit down for a family dinner together after years apart.
For now the family will live with Hisham, who said his priority is to get the two young children enrolled in school and make sure the rest of the family is signed up for English language classes.
One of his nieces, Ghufran Alrez, 28, was relieved to finally arrive in Vancouver. “It’s safe to me. I didn’t believe that I’m in Canada now – I was shocked. To see my family, it’s nice.”
On Jan. 3, Canyon Heights Church (4840 Capilano Rd.), will host a welcome party for Hisham’s family at 4 p.m. Everyone is welcome.
– with files from Jane Seyd
