by Edith Cody-Rice
At the beginning of the summer, I started a small series on refugees who have settled in Mississippi Mills. What are their stories and how are they managing now? I chose two families who fled Syria and a young single woman who came to Canada from Ukraine. The families are Noor et Tarsha and Khodor Jarouz, Radwan Mustafa and his family and the young Ukrainian was Vitalina Zhyrk. Radwan was unavailable this summer but we managed to get together with him, his son and his sponsor Greg Smith recently. Here is his story.
Radwan, one of 13 siblings living in Damascus, Syria, fled to Turkey with his wife Amal and two small children, and then to Jordan at the outbreak of the Syrian war. Syria was unsafe and the rest of his family scattered to locations within the country. Radwan registered with the United Nations in Jordan and spent two years in a refugee camp there before he was offered the opportunity to emigrate to Canada with Amal and their family in 2016.
At the time of his immigration, Radwan knew nothing about Canada and when they arrived the Mustafa family spoke only Arabic. They landed in Toronto in February in summer clothes. The cold weather was a shock. They were outfitted with winter apparel and flew on to Ottawa where they were greeted by members of Greg Smith’s group who brought them to Almonte. During the crisis of the Syrian war, 4 groups had formed in Almonte, each charged with welcoming and supporting one of 4 refugee families. Greg Smith’s group drew the Mustafa family. In Almonte, Radwan’s family lived with the Smith family for two weeks before the group found them a house of their own.
The groups who sponsored the refugees formed an overall coordinating group and, among other assistance, set up English as a second language classes for 2 hours a day in Almonte. Radwan says that the support of the community was fantastic. His family received some government financing, supplemented by the support of his welcoming group as well as donations in kind. They were covered under a federal health plan for the first three months until OHIP coverage kicked in, as well as child care benefits.
In Syria, Radwan was an upholsterer. His support group here set him up to carry on his profession in Almonte, providing an industrial sewing machine. Mike Reynolds built him a shed to store furniture and Radwan established a workshop in his home. The Humm provided cheap advertising for his business and sponsors, particularly Fay Devlin, helped interface with clients. He carried on this work for two years but found that the business was too erratic to properly support his family. Consequently Radwan began to drive for Uber in 2018 and is now a full time Uber driver while taking on occasional other work when opportunities arise. He drives local people to airports in Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa as well as driving within Mississippi Mills and Ottawa.
Since arriving in Canada, Radwan and Amal have had three more children so they now are parents of Ayah (14), who is in grade 9 at AHDHS, Ahmad (12), in grade 7 middle school at AHDHS, Jenna (7), grade 2 at Naismith, Hamza (5) at Naismith and Mariam (3). Ahmad attended the interview with his father, remembers Syria and the refugee camp in Jordan well and speaks Arabic as well as excellent English.
Radwan’s brother (married to Amal’s sister) was also sponsored and is living with his family in Almonte. Radwan says he has not seen his mother in 12 years and hopes to be able to return to Syria to visit her. At the moment, Radwan and a sponsor group are trying to bring over his aunt and her husband and 4 children. They have been trapped in Egypt for 11 years after leaving Syria and have just been provisionally approved to come to Almonte. Greg and Radwan are hopeful that the community will offer a measure of support to these new arrivals similar to the generous treatment they afforded Radwan’s and other families in the past.
In spite of all the challenges of changing countries, learning a new language and finding a way to make a stable living, Radwan says that he is happy and settled here in Mississippi Mills.
