Family, at church in Aleppo when their house was bombed, moves into Richmond neighbourhood

The B.C. Catholic
RICHMOND



A trip to Mass saved the lives of five Syrians.

Aabeed Biyrouti, his wife Ramiya Moushati, and their three young children were at church with extended family when a bomb levelled their home in Aleppo in 2014.

“The neighbours told the fire people that we were in the house. ‘You have to get them out. They are all dead,'” Moushati said, telling their story to The B.C. Catholic through a translator.

When first responders checked under the debris, they found the Biyrouti family hadn’t been home during the attack.

“People expected we were under the house,” she said. “It’s like a new life being written for us, because we were not inside the house.”

The Biyrouti family now lives in Richmond, thanks to St. Joseph the Worker Parish. Members of its refugee sponsorship committee welcomed the family at Vancouver International Airport Feb. 21.

“Canada is very nice. Canada is the country that accepted us here after we’d been refused even in our own country,” said Biyrouti during a welcome event at the parish’s elementary school March 6.

Local Knights of Columbus served a community breakfast to welcome Biyrouti, Moushati, and their children, aged 13, 10, and 5, that day. The gymnasium was filled with parishioners eating pancakes, children playing, and people greeting the family with handshakes, hugs, and offers of clothing, toys, or help with English.

“We were really afraid to be here. We don’t know anybody, we don’t know the culture, we don’t know the language. The warm welcome from the people and what they did for us, we couldn’t imagine that. We couldn’t believe it. It’s a lot better than we thought,” said Moushati.

When the family returned from Mass and a visit with in-laws to find their home destroyed, they fled to Lebanon as refugees. Knowing more than 4 million Syrians are refugees, they lived believing theirs was a “hopeless case.”

It’s stories like these that are the reason St. Joseph the Worker parishioner Paul Bartha decided to get involved in helping Syrian refugees.

“I just thought this is what we are all about: helping other people. This is such a terrible crisis. Things we can’t do as individuals we can do as a group.”

He connected with pastor Father David Poirier and a parishioner who had sponsored refugees in the past. He attended an orientation on refugee sponsorship hosted by the Archdiocese of Vancouver and got the ball rolling.

“I never thought it would work so well,” he said. A new sponsorship committee was formed and mobilized, finding a two-bedroom apartment in Richmond near two bus routes, not far from a shopping mall, and about two kilometres from the church.

They collected furniture and clothing and found a parishioner, Matthew Wadeen, who could translate. Father Poirier held a Sunday collection for refugee sponsorship that was so successful he told the group not to worry about raising funds.

By the time the family arrived Feb. 21, the team was prepared to help the family sign up for English classes and elementary schools and tour the neighbourhood. An organization called SUCCESS stepped in to help out with the paperwork and government forms.

“When we arrived, we found a house fully furnished. Even the fridge was full,” said Biyrouti. “More than you can imagine, they did for us. Even until now, they don’t leave us. They take the kids to school.”

Bartha said sponsoring a refugee family is not a one-time event for this parish. The committee already has plans to sponsor a Chaldean family and a Pakistani family within the next few years.

“It’s a dream. We never thought we were going to get through this. It’s a dream, as God allowed, to see Canada and drink the water of Canada, how good it is, like the people are,” said Biyrouti.

“I never expected in my life I would be in Canada one day, but now I am here, I expect I’m never going to leave.”