Four-year-old Malek Alshebli doesn’t have a lot to say as he sits on the couch with his four siblings in their Corner Brook home on Saturday afternoon.
But his smile tells it all. He’s happy in his new home, and so are his sisters and brothers.
It’s been about nine months since the family — which includes Halah, 14, Ayah, 13, Ahmad, 11, Ibrahim, 9, and their parents Fawaz Alshebli and Mona Haj Mohammed — refugees of the Syrian civil war, came to the city from Jordan.
The family, originally from Aleppo, Syria, is being sponsored here by the Humber Deanery, which includes Anglican churches from Springdale to Corner Brook and both sides of the Bay of Islands.
Malek was just 10 days old when Mona took him and the other children to join her husband in Jordan, where Fawaz had been living and working at building houses.
The goal was to get them away from the war in Syria to find them a better life. That is also what ultimately led them to Canada.
They arrived in Corner Brook on June 30, 2017.
“It was hard,” said Halah of coming to a new place with new people. “New all things.”
Despite that Ayah thought it was nice. “To meet other people, a new country. A new language.”
Ayah was the only one of the children who had a grasp of English.
“In the school they were teaching English,” she said of the school they attended in Jordan.
And she was eager to learn.
“I would like to become a teacher. An English teacher,” she said.
Her skill and enthusiasm is evident as she takes on the role of translator, easily translating from English into Arabic for her dad.
The children think getting to learn English was one of the best things about coming here.
Ahmad admits being scared when he first arrived.
“Because I came to new world,” he said.
Since starting school this past fall those fears have eased for him and his siblings.
The girls attend Corner Brook Intermediate — Halah is in Grade 9 and Ayah is in Grade 7 — and the older boys are at Eastside Elementary — Ahmad is in Grade 5 and Ibrahim is in Grade 3.
Ahmad said he was scared on the first day of school, but after talking with people in his class has made friends.
Ibrahim, who was pretty quiet during the interview, also likes that he has made new friends.
And while Malek doesn’t say much, he does delight in showing off a video of him bouncing on a trampoline at gymnastics and jumping into the foam pit.
School is a bit different here. In Jordan, the children only attended for four hours a day, as opposed to the seven here.
There was also no music, and the girls are taking full advantage of the music program offered at their new school.
One big difference between Corner Brook and Jordan has been the snow.
“In Jordan we didn’t have snow,” said Halah, who remembers seeing it in Syria though.
“I was happy when I saw the snow,” said Ahmad. “Because it’s beautiful.”
Halah may not agree with that as her reply is: “It is very nice inside the home.”
As the children chat, it’s clear that they have settled into their new life and are enjoying the freedom to do more.
Making snowmen, going skiing, playing soccer, watching TV, and joining gymnastics are all things they’ve done.
And that makes their parents happy.
Despite being scared, Fawaz said he made the decision to move to Canada for the children. That’s something that Mona agrees with.
“I am happy, very happy,” he said of the Humber Deanery group doing what they did to bring his family here.
Even though leaving his family and friends behind was hard, he has no plans of moving his family again. And he’s hopeful that his brother may join him here someday.
Like the children, he’s settled into life here. He works at E.L. Bugden and is looking forward to getting his drivers’ licence. That’s something Mona also plans to do, and Halah gets a bright look in her eyes when it’s mentioned that she’s not far off being old enough to do the same.
Helping a family in need
Larry Renouf and Archdeacon Ed King are two members of a group of people within the Humber Deanery who worked to bring the Alshebli family to Corner Brook and continue to support them.
Here’s a little bit of what they had to say about the experience:
Larry Renouf
“We actually didn’t know what we were getting into. We were looking for a family of four or five, and then we were presented with a family of seven. And without any hesitation we said yes.
“And then we were really, really apprehensive, anxious, every mixed emotion that you could have. But it’s been an amazing experience. The children have excelled in anything that they’ve done.
“It’s been the experience of all experiences.”
And he’d do it all over again.
Archdeacon Ed King
“I don’t know whether it’ll be needed or not,” he said of a time that the family may no longer need the group’s help to navigate their life.
“But they won’t get rid of me that easy.
“All my grandchildren are away, these are my grandchildren, and they’re a part of who I am.
“I’ve been a clergy for 46 years. I’ve never had a ministry like this in my life before. It’s been absolutely amazing. It really has been.”
