Toronto Mayor John Tory is part of a group raising money to help re-settle a Syrian family in the Toronto area.

Tory is part of a group sponsoring a family through the charity Lifeline Syria, which hopes to re-settle at least 1,000 Syrians in the Greater Toronto Area over the next two years, a spokesperson confirmed to CP24.

Tory says Torontonians old enough to remember the arrival of tens of thousands of people from Southeast Asia following the end of the Vietnam War should realize a humanitarian crisis of a similar scale is unfolding in Syria and Iraq today.

On Thursday, news organizations across the globe carried the image of a three-year-old Syrian boy, Alan Kurdi, lying dead on a Turkish beach, after the boat he was travelling in with his family capsized in the Aegean Sea on its way to Greece.

The family was fleeing the four-year-old Syrian Civil War, which has forced more than four million people to seek asylum abroad, according to the United Nations.

The image prompted outrage, especially in Canada as it was revealed Kurdi’s family wanted to seek asylum in Canada, but had not yet filed a formal application.

Lifeline Syria says it costs about $27,000 to support a family of four refugees for a period of one year. Tory and others in his group will also need to secure furniture for the family before they arrive in 2016.