Looking Back: It’s What We Do

In May of 2018 a lot of hard work and fundraising by an amazing group came to fruition when Syrian refugee Bahzad Abdo and his family arrived here in the Pass. The process was an extremely complicated one for the sponsoring committee, wending its way through the refugee immigration process.  This large, hard working committee put in hundreds of hours to make it happen.  

It paid off in spades and it has been now 7 years since their arrival and with a lot of support the family has blended into our community. Bahzad and Farha Abdo are both  fully employed; Mohammed is now 17 and working at Tim Hortons and will graduate high school in 2026. Daughter Jolari is realizing her dream of being a doctor and is attending the University of Lethbridge. And their youngest Sham, who was only a year and a half when they fled to the refugee camp, is now 8.   All have been given opportunity that was impossible where there were in the Darashakran refugee camp.

I was witness to Bahzad’s official swearing as a Canadian citizen via zoom along with family and the committee members in 2023. The look of pride on his face is something I won’t soon forget. 

It has always been in the back of Bahzad’s mind to rescue his younger brother Saaid and his family from the same camp and help give them a new life here as well. This is a pretty big deal when you think about it. If one tries to imagine all that they have gone through, one realizes how blessed we are here in Canada.  

So now, some of that original committee are hard at work,once again, to try to make Bahzad’s wish come true. I know I love my brother and his family and to be separated in such a way from them would be extremely stressful.  Bahzad’s brother has  been in the Barika Syrian Camp in Iraqi-Kurdistan since 2013! This camp is located in the Erbil  Governate of Iraqi-Kurdistan and is south of the city of Erbil which has a population of 1 1/2 million.   

Current numbers list 378,000 refugees in the KR-1 (Kurdistan region of Iraq with 30% of them living in 9 different refugee camps and the rest living in 25 IDP (internally displaced persons) camps. 41% of them are children under the age of 18 and 90% of the refugees in these camps are Syrian. 

In the early years accommodation was in tents which both brothers lived in.  More modern UNHCR camps are designed to provide adequate food and dwellings. The statistic listed on the UNHCR website for concrete block living quarters is 62 sq.ft per person.  For Saaid’s family that would be just over 300 square feet. My living room is 323 square feet, so living quarters for a family of five is pretty awful. There is also one health centre for every 10,000 people. 

A little bit of connective history is in order here.  Bahzad and his younger brother Saaid (Saheed) were both working in Damascus and were driven out of there by the devastating bombing that started in 2012. We have all seen the images and they are almost incomprehensible. Both brothers had previously been conscripted into the Syrian army for two years which was mandatory.  Saaid had mercifully only just finished his two years service when the war broke out. Both brothers fled to camps along with about 20,000 others. 

Think about  that logistic for a bit.  For years Saaid’s family was in a tent but now they are living in a one of those concrete block buildings. His wife is Viyan and they have three children Muhsin age 11, Hevin age 9 , and Havrin age five.  So two of the three children were birthed in the camp, another logistic that is hard to imagine. Most services and even fresh water can be complicated.  As in with his brother Bahzad, Saaid must go through the transition process set up by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) who help identify candidates that can be referred to Canada for resettlement through government-assisted or private sponsorship programs. With this process comes rigorous security and health screenings before and after arrival. 

And as it was with Bahzad’s family, it is the Anglican Diocese of Calgary who will provide the sponsorship venue and who have an official agreement with the Canadian Government’s Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program.  According to committee member Rick Cooke many sponsors have found the rescue system too onerous as all the paperwork is the committee’s responsibility, not the government.  Thankfully the Calgary Diocese is still continuing to work to help make a difference, one family at a time. There is a lot of tricky work involved which can even include things like protracted zoom calls with an 11 hour time shift. 

It appears that Saaid and his family are high on the list for the integration process, one which will also involve the local Grace Anglican United Church here.  

So the committee that reactivated when the opportunity came up to reunite the brothers has been deeply involved in paperwork and fundraising. There is so much that comes with integration into the community, including language training and finding the opportunity to work and be a contributing part of our community.

Once again the hugely supportive Saretzky family has stepped up to the plate with a promise of some accommodation and work for Saaid.  It is however the resources of the community as a whole that is needed to help with all that is required to integrate a family that arrives here with nothing. It is a matter of starting over from scratch. So in addition to monies raised so far the committee is looking to the community for monetary support for the transition period cost, in the order of $10,000.  A contribution held In Trust can be made by cheque payable to: The Synod of the Diocese of Calgary - Abdo Refugee Account  180, 1209-59 Av. S.E. Calgary, AB, T2H 2P6 - (“no tax receipt is issued but funds will be returned if the family cannot come.”) or for a tax receipt a cheque payable to Grace Anglican United Church - Refugee Account - Box 1044 Blairmore, AB, T0K 0E0 or by e-transfer to smlsews@shaw.ca. Be sure to include your name and mailing address to receive a tax receipt. 

Once again I know our community will step up in whatever fashion they can to bring Saaid and his family into our fold and make them part of our blessed village, because it’s what we do.