In the past few days alone, local officials say, about 90 Syrian refugees have arrived in Waterloo Region.
“This is a busy time,” Bert Lobe, executive director of Kitchener’s Reception House, said Wednesday.
Reception House provides the first Canadian home for many government-sponsored refugees arriving locally.
That includes the Abu-Asbaa family, who marked their 10th day at Reception House on Wednesday.
“Everybody (has) welcomed us very warmly. We are very happy,” said Iyman Abu-Asbaa, who arrived in Canada with his wife and their seven children, through an interpreter.
After escaping the violence in Syria in early 2013, the Abu-Asbaas spent more than two years at a refugee camp in Amman, Jordan.
Their next move will come next week, when they will leave Reception House for a new home in Kitchener.
“I’m hoping to have a good life,” said Iyman Abu-Asbaa, who worked as a driver and at a factory in Syria.
“I’m hoping to have a nice future for myself and my children.”
Family members say that future will include English lessons, as well as finding some way to give back to the community that took them in.
It is estimated that about 6,300 Syrian refugees will have arrived in Canada by Dec. 31.
The federal government had previously set goals of 25,000 and 10,000 refugees by the end 0f 2015,
Officials still expect to have resettled 25,000 refugees by the end of February 2016.
With files from The Canadian Press
