Welcome to Canada!

In honour of Canada's 150th Birthday, we wanted to show some newcomers to our great nation parts of Beautiful British Columbia that most people only see in pictures. We had the fortune of giving three Syrian refugees, Ayat, Omer and Hozan, a unique look at part of their new home from the sky.

Credits:
Made in partnership with CBC
Treven Lepage
  / trevenlepage  
Chris Carr
  / chris_carr_art  
Credit for Amar Mirchandani
  / amarmirch  

Huge thanks to SKY Helicopters for helping
  / skyhelicopters  
https://www.skyhelicopters.ca/

Ground Transportation - BOSS Limousine Service http://www.bosslimos.ca/
Translator - Rola Nasreddine, RISE Case Counsellor (Youth)
Coordinator - DIVERSECity Community Resource Society http://www.dcrs.ca/

About the Syrian Conflict:
In 2011, a bloody civil war broke out in Syria and has been raging on ever since. It’s estimated that well over 11% of Syria's population has either been wounded or killed as a result of the fighting. As of July 2017, over 5,116,097 refugees are registered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Syria is ranked as the most violent country on Earth in the Global Peace Index, behind Iraq and Afghanistan, and the fighting continues to this day.

In 2015, the Government of Canada strengthened its commitments to Syrian refugee resettlement. Canadians from coast to coast have opened their arms hearts to refugees, by sponsoring and helping to settle more than 40,000 people forced from their homes and displaced by the war. This includes involvement by private sponsorship, all levels of government and non-government organizations.

About DIVERSEcity Community Resource Society:
DIVERSEcity is a non-profit organization focused on providing services and programs to new Canadian immigrants and refugees throughout British Columbia's Lower Mainland. DIVERSEcity assists diverse newcomers with community integration through Refugee & Specialized Programs such as settlement & community, language & literacy, employment & skills training, counselling, interpretation & translation services and child/youth programs.

Our three passengers for the day, Ayat, Omer and Hozan, were among the many who arrived in the country with nothing, after fleeing their homeland. As clients of DIVERSEcity they rely on the organization and others like it to help them have an opportunity at building a new, productive and happy life in Canada.

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