It was a reunion at the Calgary International Airport’s arrivals gate Monday that brought onlookers to tears, even before learning the details of what this family has had to overcome.
Abdullah Dawoud was the first to receive an embrace with his nine-year-old nephew sprinting into his uncle’s arms. Warda Dawoud’s first hug was reserved for her sister Waafa, who lives with her husband Tamer Jarada in Calgary.
“We are so excited and happy that we are welcoming some family members today,” said Jarada. “But we are also still sad and worried about our family members who are still in Gaza and Egypt.”
Jarada, a cancer researcher at the University of Calgary, has spent most of the last year in a fog of anxiety and grief. Weeks after conflict erupted in the region between Israel and Hamas, his family experienced an unimaginable loss. Seventeen members of Jarada’s family, including his parents and two sisters, were killed after an Israeli airstrike levelled the apartment building where the family had been sheltering.
“I couldn’t even recognize Gaza City where I was born and raised,” said Waafa Dawoud. “It’s all destroyed.”
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Fearing further tragedy, the Calgary couple began focusing on helping their surviving family members escape, but that has proven to be a painfully long and difficult task. In January, the Canadian government introduced a special temporary visa program for Gazans with family in Canada. In eight months, the government says more than 3700 applications have been submitted but just 205 people have arrived in Canada during that time.
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Part of the challenge is the Canadian government has not been able to help Gazans get out of the region. Ottawa says 446 people were able to get to Egypt on their own. This has often meant paying tens of thousands of dollars to private Egyptian operatives to get loved ones over the border where their visa applications can be completed.
The Jarada/Dawoud family has done this for 11 family members but in four months, only the visas of Abudllah and Warda have been processed and approved. Among the relatives still awaiting visa in Egypt are the couple’s two sisters and their five young sons.
“Most of them are children who need to get to go school to overcome some of the trauma that they have been going through for more than 10 months now,” said Jarada. “It’s 10 days until school starts here and nothing significant has happened with their visa applications.”
Speaking in Arabic to Global News, Warda and Abdullah Dawoud described their experience in Gaza during the conflict.
“The past year was terrible and cruel from all aspects” said Warda.
“Of all the 38 years that I’ve lived, it was the hardest,” her brother agrees. “I just hope you can help my family that is still left behind in Gaza. They are still suffering.”
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