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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, April 14, 2016 | 6 Family of six grateful to begin a new life in Oakville by David Lea Oakville Beaver Staff Spotlight "Connected to your Community" A Syrian family of six is thanking Knox Presbyterian Church and the community in general for helping them escape bombs and abuse to begin a new life in Oakville. Suleyman Musa, his wife Emel -- and their four children: Isa, 8; Melek, 7; Hilin, 5; and Esinat, 1 -- have called Oakville home since late February after being sponsored by the church through a blended Visa Of ce-Referred (VOR) sponsorship. They are now residing in a home made available by a resident eager to help the congregation's undertaking. "We're very happy and thankful," Suleyman told the Oakville Beaver recently through an interpreter. "Everything is so great." Prior to their interview with the Beaver, Suleyman could be seen playing basketball with Isa and Melek in front of their new home. Emel sat on a couch holding Esinat, a smiling baby girl, who recently celebrated her rst birthday. Family ed Syria The safety and security the family now enjoys deeply contrasts the situation they faced in Syria when they ed. The Musas had been living in an apartment in the capital city of Damascus, where Suleyman worked in the construction eld. Things for the family changed, however, in 2012 when the Syrian Civil War came knocking in their neighbourhood. "The two parties started to ght in the area. They closed the road that leads to the neighbourhood from both sides and started to ght. We spent that day at home, scared and looking for a good time to escape," said Suleyman. "It was very dangerous. The bombing started. There were plenty of mortar shells. It was really scary." The following day, the Musas and many other civilians evacuated the area during a lull in the ghting. They took very little with them because they believed the situation was only temporary and they would be able to return home soon. Travelling by car, it took the family eight hours to leave the city due to the vast number of military and rebel checkpoints The Musa Family -- Hilin, 5, Isa, 8, Suleyman, Esinat, 1, Emel and Melek, 7, sit on the couch in their new home. | photo by Nikki Wesley ­ Oakville Beaver (Follow on Twitter @halton_photog or facebook.com/HaltonPhotog) The Musa family's opportunity to start anew in Canada came courtesy of Knox Presbyterian Church, which had agree to sponsor the family of six through the Canadian government's VOR sponsorship. In this type of sponsorship, the government locates, vets and makes refugees available for sponsorship and covers six months worth of those refugees' expenses. The sponsor is responsible for covering the next six months of expenses, which amounts to between $25,000-$30,000. In a previous interview, Knox Outreach Cluster Coach Matt Foxall said the church has a long history of sponsoring refugees, noting it was heavily involved in assisting the Vietnamese "boat people" in the late 1970s. For many in the congregation, real interest in the plight of Syrian refugees peaked in September 2015 when photos of the lifeless body of threeyear-old Alan Kurdi, who died when the boat he and other Syrian refugees were travelling in sank, began circulating around the world. Through their fundraising efforts, the congregation soon had all it required to support the Musa family, which was good because Foxall said the process moved very quickly. Family arrived at Pearson On Feb. 21, the family arrived at Pearson International Airport. "All of a sudden here they were and it was real," said Foxall. "They were great. They didn't miss a beat. They literally looked at us and we welcomed them and they were like, `OK, let's go' and off we went. We were amazed. I know if I had just arrived in a country for the rst time, I don't know how friendly and welcoming I would be and how willing I would be to just be taken off by strangers." The government screened the family for about four hours at the airport, after which members of the Knox congregation met them and took them to their temporary home, a vacant in-law suite within one congregation member's home. While a language barrier existed between the family and the congregation, that didn't stop the Musa children from playing. "They had literally just landed and before you knew it, Isa was out playing soccer with our kids. They were being taught hockey, they've picked up biking. They are just all over the place," said Foxall. "The kids can't talk to each other, but they are see Family on p.7 NEIL OLIVER Vice­President and Group Publisher KELLY MONTAGUE Regional General Manager they had to pass through. After leaving Damascus, Suleyman and Emel drove with their young children, who numbered three at the time, for three days until they reached the city of Hasaka in the northeastern part of the country. No work While the city was safer, there was no work and the family's savings quickly dwindled. After 20 days, and with no end to hostilities in sight, the Musas gave up on returning home and made their way to Turkey. "We were very sad, but we couldn't even really think about it at that time because we had no choice," said Suleyman. "We had to make that decision." The family ultimately relocated to the Turkish city of Batman where they were able to rent an apartment. Suleyman was able to get work, but said he soon discovered because he was a refugee, he was subject to regular exploitation. "There were jobs there, but the problem was that everyone there knew I was a refugee and so I wouldn't get paid as much as the Turkish people. I was earning less than half of what others were earning," he said. No rights "We had no rights. There was no one we could complain to about this. We were really being treated unfairly," he claimed. Suleyman and Emel charged their children's education also suffered in Turkey as they were not allowed to attend the public schools. Eventually, schools were created for the refugee children in the area, but Emel offered that they were poorly constructed and poorly run. "They didn't take good care of the kids," Suleyman claimed, adding, "It wasn't really a proper school." After about four years in Turkey, the Musa family had had enough. They initially applied to immigrate to Europe as refugees, but were accepted into Canada on Feb. 10, 2016. Suleyman said he was very happy to receive the news. Volume 54 | Number 30 5046 Mainway, Unit 2, Burlington (905) 845-3824 Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. 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