Weighing in at eight pounds, three ounces Kingston’s first Syrian-Canadian baby was born on Wednesday.
It marks the start of a new life for one Syrian refugee family that settled in the city earlier this year.
“I’m very happy and excited that he was born a Canadian and I’m very grateful to all the people who helped us and supported us,” mother Ayat Al Khalaf told CKWS Newswatch in Kingston.
But the birth is also bittersweet; Al Khalaf is currently half a world away from her husband.
Al Khalaf, along with her mother, father, and seven of her 12 siblings, moved to Kingston in February from a refugee camp in Lebanon.
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Her family was sponsored in part by the Canadian government and by the Frontenac Refugee Support Group.
However, not everyone in the large family was able to come to Canada, including Al Khalaf’s husband.
“It’s extremely hard. When I give birth it was very difficult that his father wasn’t here for that moment,” Al Khalaf said.
Members of the family’s sponsor group are raising money and working behind the scenes to help reunite the missing members of this family for good.
*With files from Jonna Semple, CKWS Newswatch