Syrian refugee families attend meet and greet in Spryfield

Syrian refugee families who recently moved to Spryfield say they would like to take English lessons closer to home.

At a Sunday afternoon coffee and cookies meeting with local government representatives, they asked for a group English class in Spryfield, where at least 45 families have settled.

Through a translator, Zuheir Mohamad said he would like to take English lessons closer to his Cowie Hill home.

"Please can you help us to study around the same area, same school. [Make it] easy to go, to walk or by bus, near to home," he said.

Right now Mohamad and his wife are going to Bedford for ESL lessons. Other families said they are going to Dartmouth or Halifax, and they want to study with other refugees.

Local MLA Brendan Maguire said he would work with the city and the school board to find a solution.

"From here, my mission now is to find a space where we can get the families to learn together," Maguire said. "They were saying that, some individuals, half the family had to go to Dartmouth, half had to come to Halifax. Some people had to get on the bus, and as you can see they have large families."

Several local organizations like the YWCA and the Boys and Girls Club sent representatives to the meeting to explain their programs to the refugees.

Heraldarticle expedited session

The meet-and-greet was open to the general public and about twenty other residents attended.

Maguire said part of the reason for offering the session was in response to a recent article by the Chronicle Herald, which made allegations of schoolyard bullying by refugee students at Chebucto Heights school in Spryfield. The paper used anonymous parents assources and did not cite any other sources to corroborate the claims.

The Chronicle Herald has since retracted the article and apologized for it, saying "our story was incomplete and insufficiently corroborated, given the serious nature of the allegations."

Maguire said he feels it is important to introduce the refugee families to the wider community, and invited anyone with concerns to attend a similar event.

"I tell them, come out to an event like this and see for yourself, and tell me if you walk away afraid or scared. Or if you walk away full of hope," he said.

"My children are in that room right now, playing with their children. I wouldn't have it any other way. We planned on doing multiple events to welcome them to the community and show them how gracious we are that they are here.

"But the irresponsible article that came out really expedited what we wanted to do. We wanted to make sure that people saw them for what they are, which is human beings and families."

Some residents at the gathering said they saw the article but did not put any stock in its allegations.

"They're beat before they start if this continues," Daphne Gomes, who lives in Spryfield and volunteered to hand out care packages of books and toiletries to the refugees at the event. "I met some of [the refugees] when they first came in, and they were such lovely people."

"I just put myself in their place and thought, what would I do if they dropped me in a country and you had no idea of the culture and the language?"