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Syrian Refugees Help Fort McMurray Fire Evacuees

CAIRO – Seeing images of wildfire destroying homes and uprooting tens of thousands of people in Fort McMurray, Syrian refugees have rushed to offer help and buying essentials to fire evacuees.

“It’s not easy to lose everything. We can understand them more than anyone in Canada. We were in the same situation,” Rita Khanchet, who fled her home in Syrian five months ago and lives in Calgary, told Calgary Herald.

“Me and my family wanted to do something for these people. Canadian society helped us when we came to Canada.”

The move came after the province of Alberta declared on Wednesday a state of emergency after a massive wildfire destroyed 1,600 homes and buildings in Fort McMurray and forced more than 80,000 residents to evacuate to surrounding towns and cities.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police when went door to door in Anzac, Gregoire Lake Estates, and Fort McMurray First Nation, which had all been accommodating evacuees, after a mandatory evacuation order was issued for them.

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The regional emergency operations center had just relocated to Anzac, located about 50 kilometers south of Fort McMurray, from the Fort McMurray airport. It planned to move further south to Lac La Biche.

Khanchet is not alone.

Syrian refugees across Calgary have been offering help to northern Albertans, after Khanchet posted an appeal in Arabic on a private Facebook group the newcomers created.

“(Canadians) gave us everything. And now it’s time to return the favor,” she wrote.

Another Syrian refugee translated her post, sharing it with a wider community on the Syrian Refugee Support Group page.

Hours after the publication of the post, offers of help came in from new Canadians determined to give back to their new home.

“All the Syrians are saying, ‘I’m ready to give, I’m ready to give,’ ” said Saima Jamal, a co-founder of the Syrian Refugee Support Group.

“It’s amazing. You have to understand how little these guys have . . . But they understand the idea of an entire city losing their home. That’s something they can easily relate to. They went through that.”

We Understand

Still struggling to overcome images of war in Syria, refugees offered to donate their furniture or cloth which they received from generous Canadians months ago.

The group settled on collecting $5 from any Syrian who has it, directing those funds toward purchasing hygiene items for evacuees from Fort McMurray.

Help was coming from refugees of all ages, after Khanchet’s five-year-old son, Elie, collected his toys and said he wanted to give them to other children who didn’t have toys.

“We understand what they’re feeling. When you lose everything, you have to start from zero. You lose your memories, your items. It’s not easy. It’s something very sad. We can totally understand their feeling,” Khanchet said.

“We are very thankful to the Canadian people and we want to be a part of this society. We will do our best to be a good part of this society. By doing that, maybe we can return a little bit of the great job that Canadian people did for us.”

On the other hand, around one hundred Muslims gathered on Thursday to pray for rain, as thousands sought refuge in Edmonton, running from Alberta wildfire which has ravaged their community.