{"id":9530,"date":"2019-01-17T12:30:54","date_gmt":"2019-01-17T16:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=9530"},"modified":"2019-01-17T12:30:54","modified_gmt":"2019-01-17T16:30:54","slug":"sharing-their-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=9530","title":{"rendered":"Sharing their story"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

FALL RIVER: <\/strong>The story of a Syrian refugee family with Fall River connections and how they came to Canada was enlightening for the Parliament Secretary to Immigration to hear.<\/p>\n

At Sackville-Preston-Chezzetcook Liberal MP Darrell Samson\u2019s office in Fall River, Matt Decourcey, the MP for Fredericton, listened intently to the almost 90 minute talk from Wassem and Nour Baroud, who came to Canada thanks to the Riverlakes Syrian Refugee Project, their sponsors.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Riverlakes Syrian Refugee Project chairwoman Sue MacLean talks about the groups efforts in bringing over the Baroud family. (Healey photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe made an application and our commitment was 12 refugees or three families of four,\u201d recalled Riverlakes chairwoman Sue MacLean. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have to do any fundraising because we had four churches who are strong partners with each other in the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a meeting with all of them and came to an agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the time she left that meeting, the group had almost all the money they required to sponsor 12 refugees. It ended up they sponsored one family, 100 per cent.<\/p>\n

MacLean said the Riverlakes group even had people from Bedford and Dartmouth on its volunteer base. They didn\u2019t say no to anyone.<\/p>\n

Nour and Wassem spoke of how once they were connected with Sue MacLean, the chairwoman of the volunteer-run Riverlakes Syrian Refugee Project, things went fast\u2014although there were hiccups. They are celebrating two years in Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a rollercoaster ride,\u201d said Nour. \u201cOne day in March 2017 she called me after we applied and she said there might not be time to get us this year so it might be next year. That was tough to hear.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Sue said that, I felt very bad. It was our big dream to come to Canada. Sue didn\u2019t give up and look what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration, Matt Decourcey, the MP for Fredericton, and Riverlakes Syrian Refugge Project chairwoman Sue MacLean talk before a meeting at MP Darrell Samson\u2019s office in Fall River on Jan. 15. Decourcey heard from the Baroud family, who was sponsored by MacLean\u2019s group. (Healey photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wassem\u2019s brother is in Halifax and has started to create some Balava, which they hope may take off just like the chocolates made by Peace by Chocolate in Antigonish.<\/p>\n

In between bites of some Baklava made by Wassem\u2019s brother, Decourcey and Samson listened in closely to hear from the Baroud\u2019s and MacLean. Both seemed to enjoy hearing the story from the Baroud\u2019s and MacLean about their experience and taking notes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many good stories of the refugees who have come over and are making a good life for them,\u201d said Decourcey. \u201cWe need to hear more about those stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nour and Wassem are well aware they hit the jackpot in being sponsored by the Riverlakes group and connecting with MacLean.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were lucky we have friends in Canada before we came,\u201d said Wassem.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FALL RIVER: The story of a Syrian refugee family with Fall River connections and how they came to Canada was enlightening for the Parliament Secretary to Immigration to hear. At Sackville-Preston-Chezzetcook Liberal MP Darrell Samson\u2019s office in Fall River, Matt Decourcey, the MP for Fredericton, listened intently to the almost 90 minute talk from Wassem […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9533,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[93,2,227,228,229,25,230],"class_list":["post-9530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-darrell-samson","tag-fall-river","tag-fredericton-mp-matt-decourcey","tag-immigration","tag-riverlake-syrian-refugee-project","tag-sackville","tag-the-baroud-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9530","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=9530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9530\/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=9530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}