Reham (centre) stands her parents (left, right of centre), her brothers (right, left) and the rest of their family in the Saint John airport. (Submitted)
After months of fundraising, a family separated by the war in Syria has finally been reunited in Saint John.
Reham Abazid’s parents and two brothers arrived from Jordan last week, where they had been living as refugees.
Abazid says she’s excited to finally have them here and know they are safe.
“If you live life without your family, it’s going to be hard, but since they arrived, I’ve feel more confident and more safe, and because they were refugees in another country, they have a good future here. I feel like I saved their future,” she said.
She says she doesn’t have the words to describe how happy she is.
“I wish I could explain, I don’t know how to explain to be honest but I am more than happy, I feel like I am over the sky.”
Abazid says her family is very happy to be here as well, and are already feeling at home in the city.
“They start to go and explore the city now by themselves, and that impresses me to me honest, that’s amazing. They are doing great here,” she said.
The immigration process typically takes 18 months, says Abazid, but they were able to get her family here in less than a year.
“Since the war started they left to Jordan and lived as refugees for six years,” she says as she explains their journey.
Her younger brother left when he was just 12 years old and never got the chance to complete his studies. Abazid says that’s one of his goals now that he is in Canada.
“That’s one of the dreams he will follow here,” she said.
Her other brother is a barber and hopes to find work in Saint John as well.
She says they will all start English-language classes next month. Her brothers want to finish their education and find work as soon as possible.
“The process was a little bit hard for me,” she says of the task to raise $30,000 and secure visas and medical checks for her family from the other side of the world.
“I was a little bit worried about raising money,” she said “$30,000 is a lot for me.”
Unsure where to start, she gathered a group of friends to start raising money. Together, with help from a few larger donors, they raised $20,000 in just a few months.
Then, fundraising was opened up to the rest of the community to raise $10,000 in May to cover some final costs. Abazid says those were raised in just two days.
Abazid says she couldn’t have done this without the support of her community, and hopes they will continue to help.
“It was a dream for me to bring my family again. The community helped us to make this happen and I really appreciate each one of them. I’m looking for more help in the future because we start to sponsor my husband’s family now, they are five people.”
Her husband’s family have also been living in Jordan in the capital city of Iman, as refugees.
