Syrian-born Najwa Hamdan can't pry her eyes away from the news story gripping the world.
The image of a drowned three-year-old refugee boy escaping Syria with his family. They wanted to come to Canada.
"It's hard I cannot stop thinking about it, I cannot stop watching the news, even social media when I see something happen I know how much it hurts,” Hamdan said.
The Winnipeg woman can relate; her own mother is a refugee in Lebanon, fleeing from war-torn Syria. Hamdan has applied to bring her mom to Winnipeg but she's been told the process could take up to a year.
"When I sleep at night I wonder if she is going to be safe alone in the house, because she is staying alone, and when I get up in the morning to talk to her is she going to reply to me,” she said.
The Syrian Assembly of Manitoba says the boy's death highlights the fact Canada needs to accept more refugees from Syria and other violent countries, or it says more people will die.
The Harper government says Canada has already resettled 22,000 refugees from Iraq and 2,300 from Syria, with promises to bring tens of thousands more in the future.
