Letter: A Syrian refugee in the Sault says thanks

SooToday received the following letter from Mohammad Balach, a Syrian refugee who has been in the Sault for two months:

*************************
Hello to everyone,

Today I want to talk about the subject of Syrian refugees. This topic has been talked about in the news locally and all across Canada.

I want to introduce myself as one of the sponsored Syrian refugees living in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. My name is Mohammad Balach. My family and I arrived two months ago, and we feel very lucky to find a place to call our new home.

We are one of the Syrian refugee families newly resettled in Sault Ste. Marie, and we would like to thank everyone:

Thank you to all the private sponsors who help us daily and who have for months donated so much of their time and efforts to plan for everything in order to bring up our children in a safe and nurturing environment. Thank you to all the volunteers who have helped the government sponsored families in so many ways. What seemed to be small for you meant a lot for us.

Thank you to the schools, principals, teachers, staff, and the students in school for welcoming our children in your beautiful classrooms.

Thank you to all the employees and different agencies, governmental and non governmental.

Thank you to everyone in the healthcare for giving us appointments and providing top services.

And thank you for everyone in Sault Ste. Marie, you have been great mentors, supporters and friends.

All of the families in town are truly appreciative of all that this community has done. We are also very thankful for all that the Canadian government has done to bring us to Canada.

As we begin our new life here in Canada, we hope to find a job so that we can support our families and have the opportunity to work in Canada.

We want to be good citizens of this great nation and we want to continue to make Sault Ste. Marie a beautiful place. We also hope to open new businesses in this city in order to offer and share new things with the community that are a part of the Syrian culture.

Again, I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for everything that everyone has done to support all of us. It means so much.

We love everyone and we will forever be grateful.

*************************