Syrians who fled their country about a year ago say they still think about the family they left behind every day.
Many refugees now living in Saskatchewan were at Regina’s Victoria Park on Sunday to raise awareness about their family members’ plight. About 150 supporters joined them in a solidarity march for both Syrians and Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims.
WATCH: Refugees from Aleppo left speechless watching devastation
Naeila Alshdar knows what that’s like. The former teacher spent two years on the move in Syria looking for a safe place. She finally fled the country and arrived in Canada as a refugee about seven months ago.
“I’m lucky because they chose my life through the UN and I came to Canada,” Alshdar said. “But millions of Syrians are not lucky. They still suffer in camps… and this winter is very hard for them.”
WATCH: Syrian refugees: one year later
“Canada gave me a chance to come here and restart my life,” she added. “And I’m here to say please save Aleppo.”
Humanitarian aid is desperately needed in Syria, she said. “There is a big lack of everything in Aleppo,” she said. “No food, nothing, no medication, no medical care.”
Alshdar said she still has two sisters in a dangerous area near Aleppo. “If there’s Internet I can communicate with them, but it’s very rarely,” she said, adding that she mostly follows updates from her home country through YouTube.
READ MORE: Feds can’t dump care of Syrian refugees onto provinces: Senate committee
Protesters are calling for an international force to stop the killing in Syria.
“It’s a desperate situation over there. People are tweeting out their final farewell messages,” Faisal Khan, the Islamic Association of Regina’s president, said.
“We are here to wake the conscience of the people,” he said. “We are here to stress upon the Canadian government to lead an international effort to stop the killing in Syria.”
Madarati said looking at the before and after photos of Syria gives her nightmares.
“It’s devastating because I’ve always dreamt of this time when I can go back and enjoy the culture of Aleppo,” she said. “They’ve destroyed so much of it that it’s not the same anymore. It’s not the same place my parents grew up in.”
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