South End hub supports refugees

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This article was published 26/01/2019 (2508 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg’s Pembina Trails School Division has launched a new initiative to support the growing population of immigrant children and families in the school district: a one-stop-shop for social assistance and resources, geared especially towards Yazidi refugees who came to Winnipeg after fleeing the ISIS conflict in nothern Iraq and Syria.

After a brief countdown in the Yazidi language Kurmanji, a ribbon-cutting ceremony inaugurated the Newcomer Community Hub at Ryerson School in Fort Richmond on Saturday afternoon.

The hub includes a newly-furnished room inside the school, which will provide space for a variety of self-funded partner agencies to bring their contributions to the table: groups like the Aurora Family Therapy Centre, the Society for Manitobans with Disabilities, the Mosaic Newcomer Family Resource Network, Immigration Partnership Winnipeg and the Boys and Girls Club of Winnipeg will all play a role in providing much-needed social services and assistance to refugee families every day of the week.

“This is an opportunity for the community to come together,” said Pembina Trail School Division assistant superintendent Susan Schmidt.

Many of the service providers who have partnered with the Newcomer Community Hub are based downtown, Schmidt said, far from the south Winnipeg area where a significant proportion of Yazidi refugees have settled.

“Instead of having the barrier of transportation, and distance, and time, they will have things right in their neighbourhood,” said Schmidt, who explained newcomers from other places will also be able to access services at the Hub.

A significant number of Yazidi refugee families started settling in south Winnipeg in early 2018, she said, bringing more than 100 Yazidi children to the Pembina Trails School Division.

“And the school principals came and actually asked to meet with me, and said, ‘These are the things we’re seeing. We’re seeing children that have been traumatized like we’ve never seen before, and we need help.’”

But the Newcomer Community Hub isn’t only for kids. Their parents will also benefit from services such as counselling, said Schmidt — especially young parents, some of whom were only recently reunited with their children.

“We don’t know how to go to the doctor, or go shopping, how to use the bus,” said Nasar Hamad, a 26-year-old Yazidi man from northern Iraq who came to Canada about a year ago with his wife and their five-year-old son, Saber.

“Everything’s hard for us. But Canadian people help us.”

Kamira Alisso, Hamad’s wife, said she hopes the Newcomer Community Hub can help her improve her English language skills. Their son is enrolled in kindergarten at Ryerson School, and is quickly learning the new language.

“He loves school,” said Alisso, 25 years old.

‘Everything’s hard for us. But Canadian people help us’– Yazidi refugee Nasar Hamad

Nasar Hamad’s younger brother, 22-year-old Nasih Hamad, said it’s easier for young children like his nephew to learn English. The adult Yazidi refugees still have a lot on their minds, he explained.

“We think about our family in Iraq,” he said, describing how the Yazidi people suffered at the hands of IS.

“They gave us two options,” Hamad said.

“One option is, change your religion, and the other option is, we’re going to kill you if you don’t change your religion.”

solomon.israel@freepress.mb.ca

@sol_israel