Hogan's Heroes-the spinoff!

Homs, Syria After and Before the civil war

Homs, Syria Before and After the civil war

"I am from Homs.. and if I want to describe how is my city looking like now, I will say it is just like Berlin or Stalingrad in 1945.. completely destroyed city… the house where I was born is not existing anymore. What remained of the city is just less than 40% while the rest 60% is abandon areas … city of ghosts."

~Talal 

             
These are the words of Talal. He is one of the refugees that the Gander Refugee Outreach has committed to bringing to Gander when they made their plans to bring five families to the town.  

Of the five families, four are unknown. But Talal's family is different because he has a connection to Gander through his friend Kathleen and her husband Peter, the Hogans. The  others will be matched with Gander Refugee Outreach by the Association for New Canadians. Three applications have been placed and we await the news of who they are and when they'll arrive.

Without going into the intricacies of sponsorship, other than the fact that we know this family through their Gander friends, the needs are the same. There must be funds raised and a home secured.  The needs for this family are included in the total fundraising amount. 

There is a blizzard here this morning and all of my appointments were cancelled.  So I spent the morning working on Lewisporte and Gander Refugee Outreach and concluded it by having a conversation on Facebook talking to Talal in Turkey which by my estimation is 5.5 hours ahead of us.

It is one thing to hear of a war through the media, it is quite another to have a first hand review of it from a person who has lived through the reality of its horrors.  I vascillate between horror and sadness, anger and relief as I review the accounts I have been sent written by Talal including how he came to be in Turkey. It is a narrative so blunt and real it has shaken me. Others are still living in that horror I think. At this very moment they are there. And it hurts my heart. 

Talal is one of the lucky ones.  It may not appear so at first glance being a refugee but he is. He got out in time and his family is with him.  He is as well off as a refugee can be. But that's not really well off in western terms.

Talal speaks English. He is fluent with just enough residual second language to make each sentence a charming turn of phrase.  But discerning his meaning is easy. 

He has left his aging parents behind and worries constantly for their well being. But his children's future will be secured in Canada, a place he says he has dreamed of since he was ten years old.

"The Prime Minister is a good man," he says, "and very handsome." I have to agree.

"Canada is famous of its equality between all people from the world who living there" he types. I am struck by how proud and grateful I am that this is what he feels Canada is famous for. 

He sends me the family's registration cards that identifies them as refugees. The family is gorgeous and two bright-eyed intelligent little faces look back at me from two of them. Helen is two and Reyad is four.  His children. 

These are educated people, both parents with University degrees in English literature. These are people with spectacular timing who escaped to a nowhere land where they are essentially in limbo.  Canada is their hope. Kathleen Hogan and GRO their beacon on that distant shore.

Talal works. He has managed to support his family with the basics using his language skills and works as a translator. With four other families coming to Gander, two to Lewisporte and one to Bishop's Falls, he is employable. 

They have no rights in Turkey. It's a stopover. They may live there...at least for now. Two and a half million Syrians do. But there is no opportunity. No guarantee they won't be forced to move on.  The children will grow up without rights of citizens. This is something they can never achieve in Turkey.  This is why they dream of Canada. And this is why we've agreed to bring them here.

There is one more element to this story. Kathleen and Peter Hogan. Kathleen and Talal in particular have connected as friends over the past eight years and she has worried as he has lived through these past years. She has celebrated  his joys with him as his family grew and has worried like family when he was under threat in Syria. She celebrated with him when he escaped and she dreams with him of the day they land at Gander airport as Canadians, safe and sound. The Hogans are not people of great means but they are people with great love.  So they're looking for help from the community to help realize the dream of having the family they love come here as soon as possible. 

There is a blog called Gander Families that will carry Talal's stories of his life in Syria so I won't write more on that.  It is a compelling read and I recommend you follow it as it's updated. www.ganderfamilies.wordpress.com . I know it's a silly pun but if you donate you will literally be the Hogans' heroes.     You may donate to the Gander Refugee Outreach by clicking  Contribute Here . 

The following says all there is to say for the millions who are displaced by the Syrian Civil war. They are Talal's words and I think he speaks for himself and his fellow country people in the same situation better than ever I could. 

"I am now in the middle of nowhere .. between earth and sky.. no future for my children and my wife and I in Turkey and we cannot get back and will never get back to Syria even on our bodies." 

~Talal 

(PS. Some of you will get the Hogan's Heroes reference, for the rest of you click here)