Adorable clip of Eritrean child refugees in Canada seeing snow for first time melts hearts around world

Adorable footage shows the child refugees playing in their first snow
Rebecca Davies/Twitter
Katy Clifton13 November 2018

A moving video which shows two Eritrean child refugees excitedly experiencing snowfall for the first time after being welcomed into Canada is melting hearts around the world.

Footage captured on Saturday shows a first snowfall for a young boy, 5, and girl, 7, new to Canada, as they run around and play in winter coats while the garden is blanketed in snow.

In the footage, which went viral on Twitter and has more than 2.76 million views, the children can be seen jumping around and holding out their hands as they try to catch falling snowflakes.

The video was posted by Rebecca Davies, a spokeswoman for the Ripple Refugee Project - a group of citizens in Toronto who volunteer their time to sponsoring and settling refugees.

Using the hashtags “refugees welcome” and “welcome to Canada”, Ms Davies posted the footage on Twitter and said: “A first snowfall for Eritrean children new to Canada.”

A picture was also posted on Twitter of the excited children grabbing and eating snow from the garden.

The children are part of a family of refugees arrived in Canada after five years of living in a refugee camp in Sudan. They moved to the refugee camp after fleeing the violence in Eritrea.

Ms Davis said their single mother fled the east-African country in 2015 with her four children, all of whom are living with her temporarily until they are “back on their feet”.

“Their single mother is a superhero,” Ms Davis said. “She has four kids under 7, fled a war, survived a refugee camp, and made it to Canada. She's resourceful and resilient.”

The footage has been shared nearly 130,000 times, with people saying it was “heart-warming to watch” and others saying they were reduced to tears by the video.

One high-profile person who responded was Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who thanked Ms Davies for devoting her time helping refugees coming into the country.

Also using the hashtag “welcome to Canada”, he wrote: “Amazing - now convince them that shovelling is fun and you're all set. Thank you for everything you do, Rebecca."

“This is what life is all about,” wrote another Twitter user.

“Children, new to Canada that have never seen snow, and embracing it in that magical way that children do.

"Welcome to Canada sweethearts! Your lives will hopefully be a beautiful journey.”