South Osborne residents helped bring Chaeban's family from Syria. Now they are getting paid in ice cream.

Joseph Chaeban and his wife, Zainab Ali, moved to Winnipeg three years ago to open up a new cheese factory in Winnipeg. Chaeban, a second-generation cheese maker and dairy scientist, fell in love with the city quickly. In particular, the husband and wife loved the South Osborne community.

Ali's family were refugees in Lebanon and Turkey during the Syrian refugee crisis. While living in Winnipeg, Chaeban attended a meeting with the South Osbourne Syrian Refugee Initiative (SOSRI). He was surprised to find almost 70 people all in attendance. While other residents shared about ways they could help, Chaeban decided to share about his wife's family. The group said they would get back to him in a few days.

"They called me and they said we would be more than happy to bring your wife's family here to Canada," Chaeban exclaimed. "I was like, this is amazing. I didn't believe it, I thought I was dreaming."

They started with trying to raise $60,000 to bring two families over, but after raising half that amount at one fundraiser, Ali convinced her husband to ask for a third family. The group agreed to do it the next day, adding another $30,000 to their fundraising goal.

"What (SOSRI) did and what they can do when they gathered themselves . . . was a relief for me," Ali said. "There is a light for families."

"They had to raise $90,000 and they raised almost $140,000," Chaeban explained. "They really dug deep. Taking the time from your life, from your family, to help people you don't know . . . they are angels, honestly."

Chaeban and Ali knew they wanted to do something different, both to help the family they had coming over and to give back to the South Osborne community. It didn't take long for them to decide on sticking with Chaeban's profession in dairy products. The two decided to open an ice cream shop. The two knew it couldn't be just a revival of the old Banana Boat that was previously open in the same community.

"When me and my wife said okay, we're going to do ice cream, we said we had to make something really exotic and really different than everyone else," Chaeban said. So the couple decided to make all their ice cream from scratch, rather than ordering a base ice cream and just mixing flavours in.

Chaeban Ice Cream opened in December 2017 and has been a huge success so far, even though they haven't been through a single summer. Ali's sister and nephew, refugee's from Syria, both work in the store, which was part of their reason for opening their own shop. Ali is incredibly grateful for the opportunity her family now has.

"The main thing is the people wanted to be supportive," she pointed out. "Everything is open for anyone who wants to do something with their life."

The community support has gotten them ice cream flavours like strawberry and banana/Nutella. They also have a salted caramel ice cream, where the caramel is made in-house. But the most unique flavour is the Abir Al Sham, which has pistachios and cashews surrounded by rose water, orange blossom water, orchid flowers and ricotta cheese. It's also their best-selling ice cream.

Chaeban and his wife are very excited to move into summer and treat the community that helped their family to incredible ice cream and generous hearts. They know that getting their family here was a miracle.

"It's such a beautiful-hearted community. Not just South Osbourne, but Winnipeg and Manitoba in general," Chaeban noted. "We found, by far, this is the best province in Canada. "

Chaeban Ice Cream is open on Osborne all year round.