Syrian refugees are rushing to help Fort McMurray

By Laura Bohnert

Syrian refugees are redeeming themselves in the eyes of Canadians during a disaster that should be showing Canadians why that redemption is unnecessary.

“Canadians have provided us with everything and now we have a duty,” Syrian refugee Rita Khanchat wrote on private Facebook page for the Syrian Refugee Support Group. “We must… help the people who lost their homes and everything in a fire (in) Oil City… Get ready, it’s time to fulfill.”

Khanchat, who arrived in Calgary with her husband and son in December, spurred the community after hearing about the almost 90,000 Albertans who’ve been displaced by the massive Fort McMurray wildfire—and her call to action has invoked an impressive response from a community who has next to nothing itself.

Syrians across Calgary—and across Canada—quickly offered to help.

A group of volunteers drove across Calgary collecting whatever money the Syrian families could offer. Some families even offered to donate the couches and coffee tables they received when they arrived in Canada, and had to be told by the volunteers that it was okay to keep their furniture.

The money is being donated to a drive to help purchase toiletries, pillows, and other items for the Fort Mac evacuees, and at least 30 Syrian families—who’ve only been in Canada for a few months—have made whatever donations they could spare to help the Canadians who offered them refuge in their time of need.

As Saima Jamal, co-founder of the Syrian Refugee Support Group in Calgary suggests, the Syrian refugees “can completely relate” to this level of loss: “This is what happened to them. They lost everything… Of all the Canadians here now, these people are most attuned to what it means to lose all your stuff, your house, your memories, even your loved ones. They have lost their entire country.”

In total, the drive is expected to raise between $500 and $1,000 for the Fort McMurray evacuees, but that isn’t all. Syrian refugees in Waterloo have already begun making plans to help rebuild the houses that have been lost to the fire.

Falah Alizzi, president of the Muslim Society of Waterloo and Wellington County, reached out to ask for the help of the refugees, many of whom are skilled in tiling, concrete work, and even have backgrounds in construction.

“Not a single one of them said no. They all said yes we will help for free,” Alizzi adds.

The trip to Fort McMurray to help will add to the $10,000 the Waterloo Mosque already plans to donate to the Red Cross.

One five-year-old Syrian boy, Elie Khallas, even decided to donate whatever toys and storybooks he had to the evacuees.

Clearly, Canada’s reception of the Syrian refugees has had an impact, but their compassion now also demonstrates the value of perspective. These people know what it is like to lose everything; they also know the importance of compassion in the face of that, and that level of understanding is making them even more eager to help the people who are going through a similar disaster now—even when they’ve barely had time to get back on their feet themselves.

Many are suggesting that this level of compassion proves we’ve allowed “the right people” into our country—but there is a pretty clear distinction between the Canadian response to the Syrian refugees and the Syrian response to the Canadian evacuees: the Syrians didn’t hesitate, even though they had nothing. Canadians, on the other hand, who still had homes left to lose, demonstrated a lot of resistance and a lot of prejudice.  Perhaps it isn’t the refugees who need to validate themselves by performing acts of “Canadian kindness”; perhaps Canadians need to act a little more Syrian, and maybe this particular disaster will give Canadians the perspective they need to relearn the compassion and kindness that our country is supposed to be about.