A WEST Belfast community has been praised for its "absolutely amazing" response to an appeal to help Syrian families who arrived in the area "with just the shirts on their back".
Community workers said residents in the Colin Neighbourhood - Poleglass, Twinbrook, and Lagmore - had gone above and beyond in recent weeks following an urgent appeal for help.
While a number of Syrian families have settled in the area in the last year, around seven further families have arrived more recently.
Allocated temporary accommodation, the families have found themselves facing the prospect of a new life, built around a new language in an area they don't know.
However, on hearing of their arrival in the area, community representatives immediately mobilised and with the help of staff from the Sally Gardens Community Centre in Poleglass, set about making the families feel welcome.
Just a matter of weeks on, the families have found themselves at the heart of a caring community and with the help of their new friends and neighbours, they have received new clothes and furniture while their children have joined local sports clubs and are enjoying new found fun on donated bikes.
Stephen Magennis, a Sinn Féin councillor and community worker, who was among the first to befriend the new Syrian residents, said the main aim was to help them "feel welcome".
Mr Magennis, alongside staff from the Sally Gardens Community Centre in Poleglass, helped the families settle into the area.
"We were asking what way they were living, what their living needs were and basically we were told they came with shirts on their backs," he said.
"They had very little. They are only in temporary accommodation. We realised that they needed help within the area so we were just doing really what we could.
"They more or less came to a few meetings with us. We just pulled a wee team together. We sat down, had a conversation with them, listened to their concerns, some were housing-related and some were just genuinely that they didn't know the area, they didn't know anything, benefits, right through to what sort of facilities they had.
"When we got things sorted out for them and got things started, we did a meet-and-greet up here and the centre staff and management did a tour of the facilities - the park, the pitches, the centre, just to explain to them that this is now their centre as well as anybody else's in the community".
Lisa Rogan, from Sally Gardens Community Centre, said staff also launched an online appeal to help find the families items they needed.
She said that within days, a room in the community centre was packed to the ceiling with bags of donations, including clothes, furniture, electronic tablets, shoes and phones.
She also noted that one Syrian man who had arrived just days ago had been gifted a new television by a neighbour when he moved into the Poleglass area.
"It was absolutely amazing," she said.
"I am still turning people away. It was all really good stuff. Lots of clothes for children and adults, lots of toiletries, bikes and toys."
Ms Rogan revealed that Halfords, as well as donating two new bikes to the appeal, also carried out repairs on some others.
She said two young Syrian boys who were gifted two bikes had been overcome with joy on receiving them.
"They were left sitting outside for the two boys, they couldn't believe it," she said.
"When people were coming with donations, especially neighbours of the Syrians, they were telling stories of how good neighbours they are to have. The community has been brilliant."
The centre attendant also revealed that seven more bikes, a sofa, a mirror and more furniture are due to arrive as donations this week.
Mr Magennis said the community had really "pulled the stops out" to help the families who have arrived in Northern Ireland as part of a Home Office Syrian Vulnerable Person Resettlement Programme.
"They will always help out, that's just the way the community is," he said.
"It was all put out and it was left to the families to come up on their own. We also told them this isn't just about the families locally in the Colin area, anybody at all, no matter where they are, are entitled to come up here."
Mr Magennis said the community had also been generous in other ways from volunteering as interpreters to integrating the Syrian children - who range in age from two to 14 - into sports club for free, including kitting them out in uniforms and waiving any fees.
He said while a total of seven families had so far resettled in the area, the number is expected to rise to 10 in the coming weeks.
The public representative said it had been a real community effort with various groups coming together.
He noted there are also plans for culture days to be held in the area to help residents and the Syrian families integrate and also the potential for cookery workshops held in the community to introduce the new Syrian residents to traditional Irish cooking.
"They have joined local clubs and are already in things and they are using the facilities up here and we are also looking to open the centre a morning or two a week where they can just come in here, all of those families, and just sit down and talk and explain to us what is it you want from us?"
He added: "They are all just blown away. They couldn't thank you enough. We told them `This is what we have done, whatever you need from here on in, let us know'.
"We just wanted to get them settled as much as possible and make them feel welcome and I think that's been done."
Father-of-three Marwan Kaddad, who is among the families to have arrived from Syria, described the west Belfast community as "kind people".
Originally from war-torn Aleppo, the 35-year-old, worked as a tailor and butcher at home, before his family was forced to flee.
More than 250,000 Syrians have lost their lives in four-and-a-half years of armed conflict, which began with anti-government protests before escalating into a full-scale civil war.
It is thought that more than 11 million people have left their homes as forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and those opposed to his rule battle each other, as well as jihadist militants from so-called Islamic State.
Mr Kaddad, his wife and the couple's three children, along with his brother, his sister-in-law and their three children, had left Aleppo as it had come under "bombardment".
The group, along with Mr Kaddad's sick mother, originally travelled a gruelling 700 miles to Turkey to try to find her new treatment.
However, when the mother and grandmother passed away, the group then made their way to a United Nations Refugee Camp where they spent the next eight months.
Eventually, they were told they were being resettled in Northern Ireland and began their journey to Belfast.
Mr Kaddad, whose wife worked as a hairdresser in Syria, said the situation in Aleppo had been "terrible" and his family had no choice but to escape.
"You can not survive. You could not find a peaceful way," he said.
Mr Kaddad revealed his seven-year-old son had been particularly been affected by the violence and now suffers from post-traumatic stress and has problems with his vision.
"I love the Irish people," he said.
"The Irish people are a great people. Any help, you are a very kind people."
Mr Kaddad said he would like to develop his language in the future and continue to live in the Colin Neighbourhood.
"I would like to find a job or find an opportunity to do some work," he said.
His 34-year-old brother, Bashir, who worked as a builder in Aleppo, also made the journey to Belfast with his wife, who had worked as chef at home and their three children, the youngest of which is his five-year-old daughter, Ciam.
He revealed their home in Aleppo had been bombarded during the conflict and the family had been left with no choice but to leave.
"Northern Ireland, in this area are very nice to us and very welcoming," he said.
