Earlier this week, a Syrian family of three arrived to Chéticamp to make it their home. Mohamed, Hibat and their 4-year-old boy Zein were sponsored by a group of local volunteers led by the St. Andrews United Church in Pleasant Bay. While the family spends their first two weeks in Canada in quarantine due to COVID-19 safety precautions, CHNE spoke with two volunteers who are helping them to get settled.

Mohamed’s sister, Rahmeh Alnassan, moved to Chéticamp from Lebanon in 2016 with her husband and three children. Just like the new family, the Alnassans fled Syria when the war broke, and had been living in a refugee camp in Lebanon before immigrating to Canada.

Today, Alnassan works with Lifeline 224, the group assisting the St. Andrews Church with the sponsorship project. “We feel so happy and we’re so excited to start a new life with them,” she said, “Everything, I think, has changed a little bit because we have another family.”

Groups can sponsor refugees as long as they’re able to provide up to one year of financial and social support. Still, the committee composed of a variety of community members and local businesses continues to provide community support to the Alnassans four years after their arrival. They're now welcoming a new family and plan to receive a third family in the near future..

According to Howard Mackay, chair of Lifeline 224, the rural community of Chéticamp is the perfect place for newcomers to settle down. “To me it’s a real win-win because the families that are coming from Syria via Lebanon need a new beginning, need opportunities in their new life," he said. "And one of the heartwarming things that I’ve seen from the family coming in was, I think it was three or four months after you arrived,” he said to Rahmeh during a joint interview with CHNE, “We came to visit you one day and we were talking to your children … and just asking them, what would they like to be when they grew up? And I think there was a dentist mentioned, there was a teacher, there was a pediatrician mentioned. … So, to be able to be to offer a family that opportunity for their children seemed very important. And also, what do we need in Chéticamp and the area here? We need young families, there are too many old people like myself. We need young family coming in.”

The committee is organizing a drive-by welcome party for the family for next week.