{"id":17204,"date":"2020-10-07T07:23:18","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T10:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=17204"},"modified":"2020-10-07T07:23:18","modified_gmt":"2020-10-07T10:23:18","slug":"ibraheem-family-welcomed-to-canada-n-s-with-distanced-open-arms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=17204","title":{"rendered":"Ibraheem family welcomed to Canada, N.S. with (distanced) open arms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;79&#8243;]<br \/>\n[adrotate banner=&#8221;25&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>MAIN PHOTO: Ahmad and Hala Ibraheem share an emotional embrace as they realize they are beginning their new life in their new home, Canada, after arriving at Halifax Stanfield Airport. (Healey photo)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>HALIFAX STANFIELD:<\/strong> The eagerness to hug. The wave by Hasan Ibraheem as he and his family came through the doors to the taxi carousel area. The beaming smile on Nour Baroud\u2019s face (even if her mouth was covered).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was the emotional embrace by husband and wife, Ahmad and Hala, outside Halifax Stanfield Airport as they realized they were in Canada and about to begin their new life. Of course, after they have self-quarantined at their new home in Halifax for 14 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Watching the interaction\u2014or the fight to restrain themselves from doing so due to COVID19 restrictions\u2014of Ahmad, Hala, Hasan who\u2019s been his parents eyes and ears as both are deaf, and Ghaith moments after arriving, and the excitement and relief evidence in Nour\u2019s demeanor showed what it meant that she had her brother and sister-in-law with her in Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis was my dream,\u201d said Nour, who had not seen her family in seven years. \u201cI lose my words. I am speechless here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI have been crying since yesterday and overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/IMG_4655-1-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-17206\"\/><figcaption>Hasan and Ahmad Ibraheem wave to greeters as they come out of Halifax Stanfield airport to begin their new life in Canada. (Healey photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;31&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;34&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Ibraheem family was able to be brought over thanks to fundraising efforts through the Riverlake Syrian Refugee Project. They had brought over the Baroud family some three years ago, and volunteers went to work when the need was determined to get the Ibraheems over to reunite them with Nour. It was facilitated and helped along through the office of Liberal MP Darrell Samson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis community, church, and country they give us our life again,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/IMG_4682-1-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-17208\"\/><figcaption>The Ibraheem family and their relatives the Baroud family. (Healey photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Susan MacLean, one of the main volunteers who has been apart of bringing the Baroud family and now the Ibraheem family here, echoed everyone\u2019s feelings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt fills my heart,\u201d said MacLean. \u201cIt\u2019s a tough world right now with a lot of displaced people, but just to know we have helped one more family come to safety and peace,\u201d said MacLean. \u201cI can sleep well tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate group=&#8221;6&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"VIDEO AD   Wamback 2\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Try7xT2Oh5w?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Tears of joy flowed in both the eyes of Nour and MacLean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNour is like a daughter to me, and to help her reunite her family is the biggest gift this community could give her,\u201d said MacLean. \u201cThey will do wonderful things. They\u2019re going to start their own family business. They\u2019re going t be awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/IMG_4726-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-17214\" width=\"973\" height=\"1468\"\/><figcaption>Hasan Ibraheem and dad Ahmad wrap themselves up in Canadian flags. (Healey photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Nour spoke of welcoming the family, including her brother Ahmad, to Canada inside the airport, but not being able to give them a big hug was hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt was very hard,\u201d said Nour. \u201cHasan wanted to come and hug me but Norman (Doucet, with MP Samson\u2019s office) said no touch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hasan said his family is happy to be in the home of Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt was a big thing for us to land and be with our family,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re happy to be here and ready to start new life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;30&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;81&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate group=&#8221;7&#8243;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MAIN PHOTO: Ahmad and Hala Ibraheem share an emotional embrace as they realize they are beginning their new life in their new home, Canada, after arriving at Halifax Stanfield Airport. (Healey photo) HALIFAX STANFIELD: The eagerness to hug. The wave by Hasan Ibraheem as he and his family came through the doors to the taxi [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,957],"tags":[372,2,50,1499,229,1500],"class_list":["post-17204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","tag-baroud-family","tag-fall-river","tag-halifax","tag-ibraheem-family","tag-riverlake-syrian-refugee-project","tag-sue-maclean"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}