Aunt of Alan Kurdi, drowned Syrian boy, preparing for family's arrival
The aunt of a Syrian toddler whose lifeless body was photographed on a Mediterranean beach says she is scrambling to prepare for the arrival of her relatives as refugees from Europe and the Middle East.
"It's very tiring. I'm very stressed out, but I'm going to make it happen," said Tima Kurdi, who has just two weeks left to ready her home in Port Coquitlam, B.C., for the arrival of her brother, Mohammad Kurdi, his wife and their five children, all entering Canada as refugees she is privately sponsoring.
Mohammad Kurdi is the uncle of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old who died alongside his mother and older brother when their overcrowded boat flipped while crossing the treacherous waters between Turkey and Greece earlier this year. Alan's father, Abdullah, has chosen not to come to Canada to be with his sister and brother, staying instead in Kurdistan.
Part of the stress now for Tima Kurdi is finding room for seven more people in her home, where her husband and their son already live.
It means her husband will have to work out of the garage, and his office will be packed with mattresses, along with several rooms in their basement.
But cramped spaces take a back seat to the new financial struggle of having to support a family of seven, and according to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, that could cost as much as $35,000 over a year — in addition to helping pay the rent of the other members of Kurdi's family.
"I've been doing it for the last four to five years, supporting them financially," she said of her father and three sisters, spread out across Syria, Turkey and Germany. "I cannot cut them off."
Asking for public's help
Kurdi hopes a GoFundMe page that a friend started for her family will help ease the burden.
"I know there is lots of generous people around, and that will be much appreciated," she said.
Kurdi, who is a hair stylist, also hopes to get help from her brother, Mohammad Kurdi, who has years of experience as a barber. She plans to buy him a barber's chair so he can work at her salon after he arrives.
For Mohammad Kurdi's children, one of whom began work in Turkey at the age of 12, the focus will be on education.
"That's the first thing I'm telling him, 'No more work for you. You have to start going to school and build your life, your future, and be a kid again,'" said Tima Kurdi.
Until then, she'll look forward to reuniting with her family members, and do what she can to cope with the fact they couldn't all make the journey.
"It's going to take a long time," she says, "I'm trying to be strong for everybody because they want me to be strong. I cannot be weak, for them."
