International Children's Memorial Place pays tribute to child victims of Syrian war

A community of Islanders who have lost children are coming together this weekend to pay tribute to the Syrian boy whose body washed up on a Turkish beach earlier this month.

This Sunday, the International Children's Memorial Place and P.E.I.'s Syrian community will honour the children who have died in the Syrian war, including Alan Kurdi.

Maitland MacIsaac, chair of the board of the ICMP, told Mainstreet host Karen Mair that the photo of the boy touched a nerve.

"With that picture, the madness of the Syrian war suddenly became a real thing," MacIsaac said.

"He became everyone's child. Everyone looked at that picture and could see their own child. And really I think it's going to prove that he changed the world, that one little boy. We suddenly became borderless, all us parents."

"The world changes with little things, it doesn't change with great big things. So the hope is that we can reach out and touch in our Prince Edward Island way, which is: little is great."

MacIsaac lost his own son to cancer more than 20 years ago.

"The death of a child is the opposite to the death of a parent. When your child dies, it's out of sync and you just can't let go," he said.

"They're with you in your heart all along."

The International Children's Memorial Place is a 12-acre site at Scales Pond in Freetown where families who have lost children can come to mourn and plant trees in their memory.

The ceremony starts at 2 p.m. on Sunday.