This New Canadian Is Paying It Forward

From the time we were kids, my sister Raema and I dreamed of creating better lives for ourselves. We grew up poor in Cavite, a city an hour away from Manila, in the Philippines. Our father was an engineer, but he didn’t earn enough to pay the bills: some Christmases, we had no food on the table. After our dad suffered a stroke in 2010, Raema and I had to support our family, including paying school tuition fees for our two younger sisters. By then, Raema had already moved to Toronto to study as a pharmacist, while I stayed home and worked as a project manager, earning $8 an hour. I wanted to follow her to Canada so I could make more money.

In 2017, I finally secured a visa. Raema had moved to Kelowna, B.C., to work as a pharmacist, so I joined her that October. I stayed at her house and immediately started looking for work but, despite my experience back home, employers didn’t want to hire me because I lacked work history in the country. One bank I interviewed with even told me I was perfect for the job—except that I lacked Canadian work experience. It was devastating.

I came across Kelowna Community Resources, a non-profit that helps immigrants settle in Kelowna, the following year. I joined their employment training program and, with their help, landed a job as a meat clerk at a grocery store. I wasn’t bitter about working a minimum-wage job—I was earning more than I did back home. In the coming months, I got to know my co-workers, many of whom were newcomers struggling with English. I started a volunteer group to help them practise. We met in libraries or parks, and I even prepared short lesson plans to guide our conversations.

In 2020, KCR hired me as a part-time settlement worker to assist newcomers in Kelowna with things like citizenship applications, finding housing and starting small businesses. I’d come full circle: once I’d received help from KCR, and now I was giving it. One of my proudest moments was helping a Congolese refugee family become Canadian citizens. I created e-learning modules on Canadian history, geography and culture, and they all passed their citizenship tests. KCR provided them with a space to take their oaths virtually.

A year later, I was promoted to project coordinator. We hosted informal language sessions, like the one I started at the grocery store. I also led a program where we supported migrant farm workers. Once, we helped a woman who’d fled a farm after being sexually and physically abused by her employer. We found her a shelter, connected her with organizations that assist temporary foreign workers and got in touch with her embassy. Today, she holds an open work permit and works in a safer environment.

In 2019, Raema and I submitted our family’s permanent residency applications. Two years later, they were approved and joined us in Canada. Unfortunately, my dad struggled to adjust, so he returned to the Philippines after a year. But the rest of the family is thriving here. My younger sisters are now studying in Vancouver: one in film production and the other in aircraft maintenance. My mom works the salad bar at the same grocery store where I once did. After spending most of her life as a housewife, she now feels empowered earning her own money and making new friends. She’s about to start a computer skills program at Langara College and hopes to get a higher-paying job in the future. I am so proud of her.

At KCR, I now manage a team of seven, all immigrants like myself. My favourite part of the job is when I can pay it forward by hiring talented newcomers. One woman from India started with us as an intake worker and was later promoted to client support. Another recent hire, who’s half-Syrian and half-Ukrainian, struggled to find a job until he joined us as a settlement worker. As for me, I became a Canadian citizen in 2022 and, soon after, bought a condo in Kelowna. I’ve also been in a relationship with Aidan, a counsellor from Kamloops, for the past year. Last New Year’s Eve, my mom, sisters, Aidan and I headed to downtown Kelowna to watch the fireworks. As the night sky lit up, so did our sense of optimism for our futures here in Canada.