Syrian refugees welcomed by volunteers, drum circle at Winnipeg airport

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This article was published 19/12/2015 (3765 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Little Jawad Daas, sporting a camouflage tuque and new Velcro boots, looked alarmed as he made his way down the escalator at Winnipeg’s airport Saturday afternoon and into the crowd of well-wishers.

Moments later, though, Jawad was scooped up by Wafaa Abukhousa, herself a Syrian refugee who has lived in Altona for six years and was on hand to help translate.

“He’s so cute,” cooed Wafaa, who cuddled and chattered at two-year-old Jawad in Arabic as his family made its way through the crush of people, to the baggage carousel and out the airport doors toward their new life in Altona.

The Daas family, all nine of them, were among 17 Syrians who touched down Saturday in Winnipeg, the first wave of what’s expected to be as many as 2,000 refugees slated to arrive in Manitoba by February.

The Daas family, originally from Damascus, has spent the past few years in a refugee camp in Lebanon. Their fellow travellers, the Albakar family of eight, were headed to Welcome Place, one of Winnipeg’s best-known resettlement agencies.

A traditional Cree women’s drum circle called Keewatin Otchitchak played a gentle welcome song to both families to greet them into Treaty One territory. And dozens of volunteers, airport staff and even an MP were on hand to welcome them, some sporting homemade signs and flowers and others ready with stuffed alligators and bears to hand to the littlest kids.

But it was the Abukhousa family, including 12-year-old Wafaa and her older sister Doaa, who took charge of the Daas family. The sisters translated for a crush of journalists and for the gaggle of volunteers from Altona’s Build a Village, which sponsored the family. The Abukhousa family helped pile suitcases onto four overburdened carts, shimmied new winter coats onto the smaller kids and tried to teach little Jawad how to “gimme five.”

“He’s shy,” said Wafaa. “But he’s not shy with me.”

Later, in the melee, Doaa translated as Khadija Daas, the family’s oldest sister, described what it was like arriving in Winnipeg.

“The smile on your faces, it brings hope,” said Daas.

“(We’re) so happy you’re here.”

The Daas family fled their home near Damascus several years ago, fearing for their safety and frustrated their children weren’t able to attend school any longer. They spent more than three years in the refugee camp in Lebanon, where conditions were poor despite the beauty of the country.

The family arrived in Toronto Friday and spent the night there. Build a Village’s Ray Loewen hopes the next couple of days in Altona will be low-key ones, allowing the Daas family to get comfortable in their new home and have a rest. Then, a team of volunteers assigned to the family will help with any medical needs, shopping or paperwork. And the children will need to be enrolled in school, where they’ll start right after the Christmas break.

Loewen, whose group has sponsored 25 families in recent years, said one of the best parts of greeting a new family is seeing Canada, and Altona, anew through their eyes, how peaceful and safe it is.

The Abukhousa sisters said the weather and the language were the hardest things to get used to when they arrived in Altona six years ago, after spending time in refugee camps in several countries in the Middle East. They said their arrival was a bit shocking, much like it will be for the Daas and Albakar families. But they said they chose to remain.

“It’s a good town, a good community with very good people,” said father, Ziad Abukhousa, now the owner of a small business in Altona.

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca