Delighted refugee children in Canada play in snow for the first time

This heartwarming footage shows the moment two delighted African refugee children fleeing conflict experienced snowfall for the very first time.

A distant experience from that of their earlier years in Eritrea, the two children in oversized coats can be seen gleefully jumping up and down with excitement as flakes fall all around them in a garden.

They are currently based in Toronto, Canada – a country that has housed more than 25,000 refugees between 2015 and 2016.

The video was posted on Saturday, November 10, by Rebecca Davies and was even shared by Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, on Monday.

"Amazing - now convince them that shovelling is fun and you're all set. Thank you for everything you do, Rebecca. #WelcomeToCanada," Trudeau tweeted.

The children in the video are Zebiba, 7, and Khedir, 5, who, along with their mother, arrived in Canada on Thursday, November 8, along with Michael, 3, and 13-month-old Muaid.

Before that, their mother had spent five years in a refugee camp in Sudan, having originally come from Eritrea.

Rebecca, who grabbed her phone as soon as she saw the children reacting this way, said the response to the video has been “hopeful in this climate of fear and hate.”

The message that she hopes viewers will take from the video is that “we have a common humanity.”

Rebecca is a member of a group called the Ripple Refugee Project, which has helped raise money to sponsor and resettle four families from Eritrea and Toronto in the city.

When one individual on social media joked about the children eating the snow, Rebecca was happy to share a photo of them doing exactly that.

In 2015, for the eighth year running, Reporters Without Borders ranked Eritrea under the government of President Isaias Afewerki last in its press-freedom index.

Afewerki currently holds a reported dictatorship over the country, which has seen tens of thousands of Eritreans flee the likes of compulsory military service and the threat of political imprisonment.

Rebecca, speaking of the children’s future prospects, said she hoped they would “thrive in Canada.”