Summer camps are a way to keep children busy during the summer, but for Syrian refugee children, they're a way to learn English and to become accustomed to Canadian ways.

Reach Edmonton, a non-profit group, is funding the camps out of a $244,000 grant from the federal government to help integrate Syrian refugees.

Syrian children are placed into nine separate camps which focused on areas including academics, arts and sports.

Hanine Hajj Suleiman is learning how to play soccer at Free Footie Camp, a sport she's never played before.

When asked about why her family left Syria, Hanine says "strangers came to the their house too much, so they don't like Syria anymore."



She's a fast learner and articulate for an eight-year-old. She translates for some of the other children.

Hanine Hajj Suleiman (left) and other Syrian refugees get ready take shots on goal at Free Footie's summer camp. (Travis McEwan/CBC) "This camp is beautiful," she's says in her new language.

But not only is she learning English, but she's also teaching Arabic to the camp coaches, whom she calls teachers.

"We told them if you say 'hello', it's 'marhabaan', and if you say 'games', 'aleab'," Hanine said.

The children are encouraged to try to speak English with non-Syrian kids and to work through frustrations resulting from the language barrier.

Sarah Forand, 20, Free Footie's camp coordinator, says the camp is a good fit for the refugees because many of the children were once immigrants themselves and have had to adjust to cultural differences.

She says sometimes the Syrian children have to be reminded about personal space and behaviours that differ from those of their Canadian camp mates.

"We don't want to reprimand them immediately," Forand said. "We get a translator on the phone and teach them, instead of exiling them for differences."

The camps continue into the first week of August.