FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. -- ``I lost my partner, I lost my brother-in-law, I stopped counting after 56 of my cousins and relatives passed." Says Hassan Al Kontar about his family.
Hassan Al Kontar is lucky to be alive after escaping the murderous regime of Syria's Bashar Al- Assed. A quarter of a million Syrians have been murdered by Assad. 12 million have been forced from their homes, including Hassan.
In 2011, Hassan refused to fight in his country's bloody civil war, so he fled to the United Arab Emirates.
"I lost my job in the U.A.E and I became illegal, jobless and homeless."
The Syrian embassy not only refused to renew his passport, but they threw him in jail.
“The authorities detained me, they jailed me, and then they deported me to Malaysia.” Said Hassan.
When he got to Malaysia, he was barred from entering other countries because he didn't have a visa. That resulted in Hassan having to live in the malaysian airport for 7 long months.
“It was scary, but it's not a bad thing to be scared or afraid.” He said.
While having to live in an airport was grueling at times... there was finally a glimmer of hope.
The media got wind of his story and Canadian volunteers who worked with refugees found him and eventually offered to represent him for free. Finally, Hassan got on a plane and flew to Vancouver in 2018.
Not long after he arrived in Canada, he joined the Canadian Red Cross so he could help others the same way he was helped.
“We start growing this sense of humanitarian feeling or behavior. So it's one of the greatest nonprofit organizations”
While Hassan has worked in Victoria, White Rock and Oxford, he is now in Fort St. John until the end of August protecting residents in the Peace Region against another COVID-19 threat.
“To feel that I'm achieving something here by helping with the vaccination with Red Cross, it's to see that people are benefiting from us. That's amazing.”
