An Ontario man whose family arrived in Canada as refugees 34 years ago hopes to âpay it forwardâ by sponsoring 14 Syrian refugees, at an estimated cost of $64,000.
âI wanted to honour, not just my parentsâ efforts and sacrifices, but the generosity of Canadians back then,â Trieu Nguyen, an engineer from Hamilton, Ont., , explaining why is sponsoring the Al Rahmo family, with 12 children aged one to 20.
Nguyenâs family were among 60,000 Vietnamese refugees, or âboat people,â who were accepted to Canada as refugees between 1975 and 1980.
The Nguyens fled their home in Saigon after Nguyenâs father, a government employee, was singled out as an âAmerican sympathizerâ by the ruling communists, and forced to work in a labour camp, Nguyen said.
Even after he left the camp, Nguyenâs father remained under suspicion, Nguyen said.
âHis opportunities and his future, as well as his familyâs and his kidsâ futures, were fairly dark,â he said.
So in 1981, the Nguyens gathered up their lives and, like scores of others, boarded boats headed to the South China Sea. Nguyen was just three years old.
âWe were there for four days before a merchant ship picked us up and took us to the Kuku refugee camp in Indonesia,â he said.
The Ryerson United Church in Hamilton sponsored the family of five to resettle in Canada, and Nguyenâs parents, Dong Nguyen and Viet Truong, worked several jobs to make ends meet.
âWe benefitted from incredible support from our sponsoring group,â Nguyen said. âThey opened their hearts and their doors to us.â
Now Nguyen and his wife, Brooke Biggs, are hoping to match that generosity. Theyâve started an to help meet their goal of $64,000, which they estimate is enough to support the 14-person family for a year. Theyâve already raised more than $14,000.
âYou can imagine finding accommodations for a family of 14 is not easy. Weâre working hard,â Nguyen said.
Nguyen says he hopes his story adds âa little perspectiveâ to the Syrian migrant conversation.
âWhen [the Syrian refugees] get here, theyâre going to require substantial support from the government and from the private sector ⌠but just as my parents did, theyâre going to work incredibly hard to try and provide for their families,â he said.
âThirty years from now, looking back on our response to Syria and this migrant crisis, I would like to say, much like the boat people after the Vietnam War ended, that we would be proud of our response.â
With files from ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝ Channel