Syrian boy with prosthetic leg takes 1st steps in Canada

When Kamal Al Ziab and his family arrived in Winnipeg from a Lebanese refugee camp this fall, he knew their liveswould forever be changed.

He never dreamt, however, that just three weeks later, he would see his son walk again.

"Of course I'm full of joy and thanks to God for bringing us people to help him and give him a leg," Al Ziab said in Arabic through translator Laila Chebib.

Omar, 12, strapped on his new prosthetic leg and said:"[I am]flying with joy, flying with joy," he said, again through Chebib. "Exuberant."

Omar took his first steps last Thursday,less than a month after the family arrived in Winnipegand more than four years since becominga casualty of the war in Syria.

As Canada prepares to welcome some 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of this year, the Al Ziab family's story is one of hope.

"Now he can walk like other people. What would [a] father be wanting more than the joy of seeing his child walk?" Kamal Al Ziab said.

'What would father be wanting more than (the) joy of seeing his son walk?"- Kamal Al Ziab, on son Omar's new prosthetic leg.

In 2011, Omar was walking home from school when hecame acrossmilitary and rebel forces. A military vehicle targeted him and ran him over. He lost one leg andhis other leg was mangled and scarred.

The family found itself in a war zone, withbombs raining over their home andkilling loved ones. The violence forced Kamal Al Ziab, a blacksmith, his wife Fatima and their children out of their home andschools, and across the border to a refugee camp in Lebanon.

For years, theyhuddled together in a one-room shack with other family members. Al Ziab wanted to work, but locals would not allow it. The children wanted to go to school, butthey were denied the chance. Instead, they said, they lived on $18a month, and were subject to racism, resentment and disdain from a country overburdened with refugees.

That all changed when halfway around the world, Refuge Winnipeg was formed. A coalition of members from the Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities, Refuge Winnipeg spent close to two years raising the money and filing the paperwork to help sponsor the extended family to Canada.

Today, the family's new home isa modest townhouse in the Winnipeg neighbourhood ofSt. Norbert.

A small snowman the kids' first effort stands just outside their front door. Inside the home,baked date squares and hot tea areserved to greet all guests. All the kids are now in school and are learning English.

Khalid, the oldest, wants to be a pharmacist. Mohammed wants to be a doctor.Aya has her sights on being a hairdresser.

But their greatest source of gratitude? Omar andhis prosthetic leg, with the ugly legacy of war behind him and the optimism of peace ahead of him.

"Thanks to you all, thanks to [Refuge Winnipeg], thanks to Canada," Al Ziab said. "I love Canada."

For more on this story, tune into CBC Information Radio at 7:40 am, and tonight onCBC TV News At Six.