As Ikhlass Hassan Haggar flips through photos of her family’s first few days in Canada, she smiles, and points out a picture of a grey house with a red door.

It’s a picture of her family’s first home in Nova Scotia, in the small town of Annapolis Royal, where they had settled seven years ago this summer.

The Annapolis Royal Community Assisting Relocation group, an organization created specifically to sponsor a family through the program, raised more than $30,000 to help settle the Hassan Haggars.

All of the Hassan Haggar children, who are expecting to become official Canadian citizens in the coming months, have now received an education and are following dreams of their own.

In 2019, the family moved to Halifax to be closer to education and work opportunities, but Ikhlass says the decision to leave Annapolis Royal wasn’t an easy one.

Ikhlass says her family keeps in close contact with the Annapolis Royal community, and plans to visit before the summer ends.

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