Transcript
(Fade in to photos of Al Ibrahim family - narrator speaking)
Bousy Al Ibrahim is a single mother of six children.
Her family home is Homs, in Syria.
In 2013, Bousy shepherded all six of her children, the between the ages of two (2) and eleven (11) into Lebanon.
(Transition to head and shoulder shot of Bousy Al Ibrahim. She is wearing a green headscarf and a black top - Bousy speaking)
When my daughter Aya, was 7
she was going to school in the morning
the first air strike to hit our area occured then.
There were many casualties.
Two teachers were burned alive and died.
My daughter saw this scene.
She saw the missiles falling on her school
and people running away.
I didnt think my daughter would come home alive.
I thought she died with the casualties.
But she did come home and she was very scared
(Transition to Al Ibrahim family in front of the Canadian Parliament buidlings)
and she had a fever from what she had witnessed.
I have [6] kids, 5 girls and 1 boy.
The eldest is Mohamad, he is now 15.
He loves sports, he is compassionate with his sisters.
(Transition to Mohamad playing soccer on the lawn of the Canadian Parliament buildings)
He tries to play an important role at home
(Transition to head and shoulder shot of Bousy)
because he is the only man in the family.
I have [5] girls. Ehtidal the oldest daughter.
She is very compassionate and kind.
She cares for her sisters and she helps care for Rahma.
(Transition to close up of Ehtidal)
(Transition to head and shoulder shot of Bousy)
(Transition to Aya walking towards the camera in front of a bed of red and while tulips)
Aya [11] has an important role too.
She helps me in the house and with chores.
(Transition to portrait of Aya, Amal, and Reem resting their faces on the hands)
(Transition to head and shoulder shot of Bousy - Bousy speaking)
Then there is Reem, she is a regular kid.
(Transition to portrait of Reem pointing at her shirt, which reads “Always be Brave”)
She gets upset easily.
She is a bit sensitive because her dad died
(Transition to head shot of Reem in front of Canadian Parliament buildings)
when she was very young, almost two years old.
She lost him at the beginning of her life
so she is always sensitive.
(Transition to head and shoulder shot of Bousy)
Amal is the youngest she is 7 and a half.
(Transition to Amal in front of a bed of flowers)
She still feels that she is a baby.
Amal and Rahma are twins.
(Transition to Al Ibrahim family in front of the Canadian Parliament buidlings)
Amal feels she is still small
(Transition to head shot of Bousy)
and there is jealousy between her and Rahma,
she wants all the attention to herself
(Fade to black - narrator speaking)
This is a family that smiles. And laughs.
Rahma, in particular, has a smile that lights up a room.
(Transition to head and shoulder shot of Bousy - Bousy speaking)
Rahma was born during very difficult circumstances.
(Transition to photos of Bousy and Rahma)
You could say she was born at the wrong time and place.
(Transition to video of Al Ibrahim family in front of the Canadian Parliament buidlings)
Because her birth was very difficult, I almost died
(Transition to video of Al Ibrahim family sitting in front of a bed of red and white tulips)
and she should have received immediate medical care at a hospital
but unfortunately this was not available.
(Transition to Rahma in her wheelchair, with Bousy behind her)
I struggled a lot with Rahma.
I struggled with her for 3 days,
(Transition to video of Al Ibrahim family sitting in front of a bed of red and white tulips)
then I took her [for care].
(Transition to head and shoulder shot of Bousy)
During the war I struggled a lot to get treatment for Rahma.
In our area in Homs
all the hospitals and medical institutes were destroyed
(Transition to video of Al Ibrahim family sitting in front of a bed of red and white tulips)
and the doctors had fled so there were no doctors.
So I had to take Rahma and go to another city, Hama.
(Transition to head and shoulder shot of Bousy)
We walked more than half a day to get there.
Sometimes I took all the kids
if there was nobody to look after them
and sometimes only Mohamad came.
We used to have to walk more than 2 hours
through rough terrain in uninhabited areas.
Then it would take us more than 45 minutes
to cross a pond by boat.
Then we would walk through a town,
then take a car
to reach the city of Hama.
Then the situation becomes more difficult
because we had to cross areas loyal to the regime
and they had set up checkpoints.
The checkpoints were scary because they
were manned by drug dealers and traffickers
not by regular regime people.
Those people scared us
because they would target mostly women.
That is in addition to
bombardment by air, canons firing
and machine guns aiming at us
by villages loyal to the regime.
(Transition to family portrait of the Al Ibrahim children with their Canadian sponsors - narrator speaking)
Bousy and her children were privately sponsored by a group of families in Ottawa.
(Fade to black)
Canadians, who came together with their time and money to bring this remarkable woman and her kids to security and opportunity in Canada.
(Transition to photo of the Al Ibrahim family and their sponsors at the airport - Bousy speaking)
When I first arrived at the airport in Canada,
I felt happiness and fear.
because I would meet new people.
(Transition to head and shoulder shot of Bousy)
a new culture and a new language.
But as soon as I met [our sponsors] at the airport,
I felt they were family.
When I arrived at the house, I found they had
fully prepared the house for me
and they had even cooked a Syrian meal.
I was surprised by them
and since then I felt they were my family
(Transition to video of an Al Ibrahim family bedroom)
(Transition to Al Ibrahim family living room)
and I felt safe with them.
Thank God, Rahma is receiving excellent care here.
(Transition to video of the Al Ibrahim family kitchen)
Truthfully, I was talking to my family [in Syria]
(Fade to video of Al Ibrahim family playing on the grass in front of a bed of red and white tulips.
and my brother said the care that Rahma is receiving
she could not have in any other place.
Her health has greatly improved.
Best of all she no longer gets sick like before.
(Fade to black - narrator speaking)
Bousy’s children have big dreams for themselves.
Mohamad wants to be an engineer.
Ehtidal, a doctor.
Aya, a pediatrician.
Reem and Amal, teachers.
And the entire family wishes Rahma good health and happiness.
(Transition to head and shoulder video of Bousy - Bousy speaking)
I would like to say something
I would like to tell the families that received us here
that I feel that they are my family.
And I would like to ask all Canadians
to treat Syrians with kindness because the Syrians...
especially children...
The hardest thing on a mother is to see the look of fear in her child's eyes and not be able to do anything.
(Transition to the family running around and playing outside of the Canadian Parliament buildings)
(Transition to photo of the Al Ibrahim family)
(Fade to Simplifying the Journey logo)
(Dip to black)
