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This past Sunday, while American politicians were slamming the door on people from a handful of countries they deemed undesirable and a Quebec community was reeling from a shooting that killed six Muslims in a mosque, a Syrian family in Surrey was opening their home to Canadians.

The guests filed into the house, some shyly and tentatively, others wearing nametags and with outstretched hands. They came from Kerrisdale, North Delta, other parts of Surrey. They had nothing in common except that they had read a newspaper story about the family and had all offered to help.

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The story they read was The Sun’s Syria to Surrey series, documenting the Sua’Ifan family’s first year in Canada. After Part 5 of the series, which documented the family’s struggles with dental and health problems, ran in the newspaper and online, dozens of readers offered to help. A family friend, fluent in English and Arabic, volunteered to take on the task of relaying and translating all these offers to the family, who in turn decided they wanted to invite the people to their home and cook them a meal to say thank you.