There is a three-year old child coming to Hamilton soon, a refugee from Syria, via a camp in Lebanon.

There is a 37-year old man on a ladder, doing weekend work on his home in Westdale.

They have nothing in common. And everything.

The man, Trieu Nguyen, was also three when he arrived here.

Trieu - pronounced "true" - worked on his roof, installing ice guards, to keep his kids safe from falling ice and snow.

He's an engineer. So was his father, Dong Nguyen, who worked on a different, secret project a long time ago, to keep his kids safe in the South China Sea.

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After U.S. armed forces left Saigon in Vietnam in 1975, Dong was among those punished by the communists for having worked with the South Vietnamese government and American military.

He did time in forced-labour camps, and twice failed trying to get his family out of the country. And then the engineer built his own boat.

One night, in 1981, after dark the Nguyen family rode the boat with about 50 others down a river to the sea. Five days later they were rescued by a German merchant ship.

Dong, his wife Viet Truong, sons Cung, Trieu, Duy, and Tan - the fourth was the only one born in Canada - lived first on Stinson Street in the east end, and then on the east Mountain, where the boys attended Barton high school.

Dong was strict with his sons, insisting they work harder in school than other kids because of where they had come from.

The family was sponsored by Ryerson United Church, and members John and Elizabeth Sadler loaned them money to buy their first house after the initial sponsorship ended.

Canada accepted nearly 60,000 Vietnamese boat people from about 1975 to 1980.

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Dong and Viet each worked multiple jobs and he ran a landscape company. He suffered a stroke in 1997, Trieu believes, as a result of all he had been through.

"My father had stresses in his life that I cannot begin to understand."

While attending Queen's University and playing on the volleyball team, Trieu met his future wife, Brooke Biggs, who was a star squash player. They have two daughters, Claire, 5, and Emma, 3.

In September, when newspapers published the picture of a three-year old Syrian boy washed up on a Turkish beach, Trieu felt it.

That could have been him. None of those who rode that boat out of Vietnam in 1981 knew how to swim.

"I'm not proud that it took a picture to get us involved, but that's the way it was," says Trieu, who is a soft-spoken man.

"The similarities of what our family benefited from are not lost on me."

Trieu and Brooke chatted with friends about helping. It grew to include friends who belong to St. James Anglican Church in Dundas, which has sponsored refugee families from conflicts in Iraq, Kosovo, and Vietnam.

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Brooke heard that it costs $27,000 to sponsor a family of four for one year. But they wanted maximum impact, so were matched with a family of Syrian farmers: 14 in the family in total. It will cost $64,000 to sponsor them for a year.

Each member of the original sponsorship group committed $1,600. It grew to 25, and then 50, and counting, which includes a group at St. James.

An online fundraising site continues to add to their total, and the group has set up committees including health, clothing, transportation and finding housing - the toughest challenge for a family that large.

"So many hands are making it work," says Jean Archbell, the pastor at St. James. "The young people have so much energy."

The Syrian family's name is Al Rahmo. They have Canadian travel visas but are waiting on government officials in a refugee camp in Lebanon to issue exit visas. It could happen any day now.

Trieu Nguyen is an understated person. He stresses that the effort is all about the group, there is no leader and their efforts "are not extraordinary compared to others in the community."

Brooke, a physiotherapist at McMaster Children's Hospital, prodded him to tell his family story.

"There are a lot of Trieus out there," she says.

The couple is disappointed when they see negative comments online about supporting refugees.

Trieu says his parents worked hard, bought homes and cars, paid taxes. They live in Dundas. All four sons graduated from university with engineering degrees.

"(The Syrians) may have to lean on our safety net but I wouldn't expect they will be using it very long."

When he was born on the other side of the globe, Trieu's grandmother picked his name, which she said meant ocean tides.

He's come a long way, just like the Syrian kids about to land in Hamilton, who will walk in similar footsteps - uncertain ones, but steps nevertheless.

To contribute to the group's Syrian refugee family fundraising campaign go to youcaring.com.

For more information or to get involved: brooke.trieu@gmail.com