Photo: 2nd Lt. Christine Darius/Wikimedia Commons
Tears welled up as Sayed Najib Amin waited for his nephews to arrive at Winnipeg international airport, a year after their parents were killed by a suicide bomber on the day they were to fly out of Afghanistan. The charter from Pakistan carried 324 Afghan refugees, more than 160 of them former interpreters for the Canadian Armed Forces. Among the 120 children were Amin's orphaned nephews, age 2½ and four, whose father was an interpreter for the US military. Amin is taking them back Montreal to live with his family. "We were counting every second of our life [to get them]. God gave me another life today," he said. Of the new arrivals, 115 will go to Brandon, Winkler and Winnipeg. Ariana Yaftali, who was born in Kabul and co-founded the Afghan Canadian Women's Organization, will help them with challenges she faced."If they see people like me and community members, or people who have been through this journey ... then they can see, oh, you know what? This person can make it, and I can make it too."
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