Yearly, refugees come to Canada fleeing warfare , violence and persecution. However their hopes for a clean transition are sometimes dashed as quickly as their ft hit Canadian soil. Many discover themselves sleeping on a mattress on the ground of a homeless shelter.
Khairiya Abdul-Mumin fled Ghana one 12 months in the past. She had no time to arrange or get monetary savings and arrived at YYC with $50 in her pocket and months of frigid winter climate forward of her.
“Once I acquired to the airport they gave me the handle of the shelter as a result of I’ve nowhere to go and I used that $50 to take Uber,” she mentioned.
She spent three months on the shelter. “Life there was one thing else,” she mentioned.
Not lengthy after she arrived, she came upon she was pregnant. “I used to be throwing up and having to go to the hospital on a regular basis, it was very uncomfortable and troublesome,” she mentioned.
Abdul-Mumim met one other girl who was on an virtually parallel path as her personal, hunkering down at a Calgary shelter with no cash and nowhere else to go.
“It was very arduous however I had no selection, I used to be fleeing for my life,” mentioned Nawal Abdulkarim, additionally a refugee claimant from Ghana and 5 months pregnant along with her third youngster.
“You don’t know the place to go at first, you don’t know find out how to get entry to anybody who may help you, you wrestle,” mentioned Abdulkarim.
Spending months at a shelter is a wrestle many individuals who present up and declare themselves refugees on the port of entry are dealing with.
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“It’s actually not unusual,” mentioned Kelly Ernst, chief program officer with the Centre for Newcomers ” It’s not unusual for individuals to return with their baggage straight to our centre from the airport as a result of the shelters are full.
“It’s my understanding refugee claimants have gotten the biggest inhabitants in shelters in Calgary. We do our greatest to set them as much as be sustainable.”
Each Abdul-Mumin and Abdulkarim fled abruptly with none time to economize and with no person ready for them on arrival. Not solely did they flee the identical nation, however the identical metropolis, and so they mentioned they have been additionally operating away out of worry of the identical terrifying risk.
“I used to be operating from the anti-LGBTQ,” mentioned Abdul-Mumim. “They take motion by themselves, in the event that they get to know you’re this type of particular person they will come to you and possibly throw stones or simply kill you,” she proceed, including she had already been attacked as soon as
“Even the stigmatization within the society alone could make you’re taking your life. Yu can’t exit, you’ll be able to’t go wherever,” mentioned Abdulkarim. “I used to be fearful for my life.”
Ernst mentioned the variety of refugee claimants within the LGBTQ2 group has drastically elevated. “Final 12 months, Centre for Newcomers served greater than 600 LGBTQ individuals. That quantity has elevated tenfold when this system began 5 years in the past,” mentioned Ernst.
“The vast majority of individuals are coming from nations which have criminalized this inhabitants.”
Each girls mentioned their husbands have at all times been supportive, however that too has now put them at risk. One of many males just lately arrived in Calgary as a refugee himself; his spouse mentioned he doesn’t really feel protected after refusing to shun her. She worries for her different kids nonetheless in West Africa.
” My largest hope is to convey my kids right here to get a job, again at residence I used to be a nurse,” mentioned Abdulkarim.
“My largest hope is to get an excellent job and for my husband and daughter to affix me right here in Canada,” echoed Abdul-Mumim
The ladies have been ultimately related to Calgary group Fingers lifting Hearts, a not-for-profit devoted to helping expectant African moms who’re new to Calgary. Volunteers have been within the supply room once they had their infants. They discovered them a house, clothes, meals and provides.
“Oh, it’s higher, as a result of now (I) don’t consider going again residence once more, I by no means consider that,” mentioned Abdulkarim
Now out of shelter with a agency community of help behind them, they agree the hope that they had for his or her futures is now beginning to really feel attainable.
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