When they were only eight and six years old, Sedra and Shahd Alshamaly, left Syria with their parents to take refuge in Toronto.
On their first day of school, the principal took them on a tour. The sisters couldn’t understand what she was saying in English, but they immediately felt welcomed. “We could see the kindness through her smile,” says Sedra, now 13. At school and in their new community the girls frequently experienced kindness, hospitality and compassion.
Still, the sisters couldn’t help thinking about what Syrian children back home were experiencing: the sound of bombs on the horizon, the struggle to access food and shelter, and missing the simple joys of childhood. “Now that we were in a safe place, we could not just stand there doing nothing while other people in our home country were suffering,” 11-year-old Shad says.