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2010 |
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Vietnam native Kim Dung
starts nail salon in Pepper Pike with hard-to-find nail polish
Going to a normal salon won’t be the same after a visit
to Eudora Nails in Pepper Pike. Eudora owner Kim Dung left her
native Vietnam in 1984 to move to Canada through a sponsorship from
her sister, who came over on a boat. She entered a program in
Toronto called Skills for Change, where she was trained in English
and accounting. |
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Immigrants
honoured for making a difference
The sight of close friends aimlessly wandering down the wrong path
and some even succumbing to gun and gang violence moved long-time
Jane-Finch resident Antonius Clarke into action. He recognized that
there was a need to create a space for youth to engage in positive
programs that would prepare them to become useful members of
society. |
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Volunteer lauded for
efforts
The not-for-profit agency Skills for Change will bestow a New
Pioneer Award upon Tsering Dolma at a gala reception, February 25 at
the Fairmont Hotel, downtown Toronto. Immigrants and refugees'
stories of hardship and heartbreak and their effort to succeed
against all odds have been shared on stage at the annual awards. |
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Jane and Finch advocate recognized for work in
community
Ever since Antonius Jamal Clarke has called his North York community
home, he knew a lot of work needed to be done. Clarke moved to
Toronto about 20 years ago at the age of five with his mother and
his siblings. |
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Helping Diversity at Work... Work
Every year, Canada becomes “home”
to over 260,000 newcomers. People who come to Canada from all over
the world call it home because of the potential Canada offers them
and because of the ability of Canadians to embrace and work with
different cultures. |
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National Builder:
Citizenship - Ratna Omidvar
One of the remarkable features of Canada's last decade is the degree
to which a widespread consensus on immigration has taken hold. Ratna
Omidvar, a leading advocate for settlement and integration, has been
particularly influential in nudging Canada toward this new
consensus. |
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2009 |
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Trades Win
Some 60 to 70 percent of newcomers
qualify for permanent resident
status in Canada on the basis of
their profession and/or skills. Yet
on arrival, many are unable to find
jobs in related fields due to
economic downturns or to regulations
requiring licensing. |
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2008 |
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Sashar Zarif - New Pioneers Award
Recipient
At 13, Sashar Zarif began his
lonesome journey, fleeing the
Iranian revolution in the 1980s.
Although he only finished Grade 8
and had stopped school for four
years while stranded in Turkey as a
stateless refugee, the young boy
arrived Canada in 1988 smart enough
to go straight into Grade 12. |
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Ellen Xi Yang
- New Pioneers Award Recipient
Raised
in a privileged household, Ellen Xi Yang had a lot to adapt to
when she moved into a rodent-infested basement apartment in
Toronto with her engineer father and accountant mother from
China.
With little knowledge of English, the 13-year-old was constantly
taunted by her peers at Riverdale Collegiate Institute. But that
only motivated her more to overcome the barriers she and her
parents had to face. |
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Jianhong Wu - New Pioneers Award
Recipient
Jianhong
Wu was born a genius, admitted to
China's Hunan University at age 15
and earned his doctoral degree in
dynamical systems and math eight
years later. One of the earlier
generations of Chinese scientists
scooped up by the West, Wu faced the
biggest challenge of his life when
he became a post-doctoral fellow at
Memphis University in 1987 and was
given a roomful of college students
to teach – in English. |
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Helen Tewolde - New Pioneers Award
Recipient
With her accountant dad driving a
cab and mom doing shift work in a
factory, a young Helen Tewolde took
up the task of looking after her two
smaller siblings after the family
settled in Canada. "I grew up
early," said Tewolde, whose family
joined the exodus of Eritrean
refugees from the war-torn Horn of
Africa to Canada in the 1980s.
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Bernardo Riveros - New Pioneers
Award Recipient
Despite a
university degree and six years of
work experience in advertising and
marketing in Colombia, Bernardo
Riveros hit a brick wall trying to
get back into his profession in
Canada. Wherever the newcomer went,
employers asked him for his Canadian
experience. "I showed them the reels
of the commercials I produced.
They'd say to me, 'Either you're a
genius or a liar,'" recalled Riveros,
who first came to Canada to study
English in 1996, went home and then
returned as a skilled immigrant two
years later. |
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Afshin Ebtekar - New Pioneers
Award Recipient
Before
Afshin Ebtekar left his native Iran
for a new life in Canada, his
friends in Toronto gave him this
stark warning: "Don't even dream
about becoming an engineer here.
Come and study to be a computer
programmer." Fortunately, Ebtekar
stuck it out and became a true
pioneer among his circle of friends
by becoming one of the first to earn
his way back to his old vocation
with a professional engineering
designation in Ontario – almost four
years after his arrival in 2000.
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Immigrants 'collaborate' to learn to
speak
Hitting a tiny wooden hammer on a
gavel at the podium, the chair calls
the group's 132nd meeting to order
at 7 p.m. sharp. On this snowy wet
evening, 14 people – all but three
immigrants who rushed in from work
and other obligations – pack into a
small room in a settlement agency
office on St. Clair Ave. West.
Toastmasters develop communication
skills with the help of jokes and a
talk about Timbits. |
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Why the time for change is right now
When stacked against the world's big
cities, Toronto is an economic and
cultural powerhouse. We're
ethnically diverse, economically
robust, socially progressive,
artistically rich and
environmentally conscious. For the
third year in a row, Toronto ranked
15th in the world in the Mercer
Quality of Living Survey. |
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Program benefits skilled newcomers
Instructor Dennis Boyle, right,
talks to Ehab Guirguis, left,
Everald James, second from left, and
Cleiton Batista, at Humber's
electrician program. With 10 years
of work experience, Everald James, a
new immigrant from Jamaica, still
has a lot to learn to become a
licensed electrician in Canada. |
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2007 |
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Skills for Change Celebrates 25 Years
On November 7, at the Sala Caboto' Learning
Curves was pleased to attend the 25th anniversary celebration of Skills for
Change. SfC provides learning and training for immigrants and refugees so they
can participate in the workplace and in the wider community. It also promotes
the positive contributions newcomers make to society. |
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Say thanks to Mom this weekend
Almost
30 per cent of Canadians do their Mother's Day shopping less than one week
in advance, according to a recent survey by Leger Marketing.
What do you get the woman that gave you the gift of life? Flowers are boring
and don't try cooking unless you're an Iron Chef. I made my mom breakfast
one year and ended up giving her indigestion for Mother's Day. |
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His lab secret: Never give up
An
intrinsic interest in science and a working-class upbringing in
a home where television was banned helped steer Michael Siu to a
career as a distinguished chemist in Canada. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Siu survived the rat race of the
colonial education system to gain entry to the prestigious
University of Hong Kong, one of only three universities in the
densely populated island in the 1970s. |
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Taking large steps on the path
to diversity
Hari
Krishnan has taught hundreds of students of South Indian courtly
dance for 12 years, but the internationally renowned master of
the ancient Bharatanatyam style will only celebrate his first
graduate this June: Nalin Bisnath.
That says volumes about the kind of professional – and
perfectionist – the Toronto artist is. |
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Runaway 'stayed alive for a
reason'
As
a newcomer from Trinidad in the 1970s, Beverley Halls was constantly taunted
by other school kids in a city still getting used to its growing Caribbean
population.
Not only was she one of the few blacks in her elementary school near College
and Shaw Sts., her deafness made her an easy target for exclusion and
bullying. |
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A 'far off' idea travels a long
way
At
12, after reaching the legal age to work in Trinidad, Bruce Poon
Tip started a newspaper delivery business by subcontracting the
work to still younger kids.
At 15, he recruited his peers to make his trademark Weather Worm
bookmarks for sale at drugstore counters, while breeding rare
Dutch rabbits in his parents' backyard. |
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Diligence, networking keys to
job for émigré
Juan
Orozco has always assumed his international experience as an
electrical engineer could take him anywhere on earth.
That's why the Colombian native was undeterred by the horror
stories he heard featuring highly educated immigrants stuck in
factory jobs in Canada. |
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Born poor, she toils for a
better world
Sadia
Rafiquddin spent her early years in a household where putting bread
on the table was a struggle. But last summer, she received trips to
Botswana and Russia, and she's earned a free education – tuition and
residence – at the University of Toronto.
Throughout her 21 years, the Mississauga resident has been driven by
three desires: to get out of poverty, get a good education, and help
the less fortunate. |
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2006 |
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Guiding the way for newcomers
Kanchan Joshy arrived in Toronto three years ago
determined not to become a newcomer statistic.
In his native Nepal, the 36 year old was at the top
of his field of at the Nepal Tourism Board, but was
hungry for the challenges of a “bigger economy.” |
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Media empire began with railway
wages
Gaetano
Gagliano's passion for printing began when he was an apprentice,
learning the trade at age 12 at an Italian seminary in Alba,
southeast of Turin. Forced to quit after 18
months, due to breathing problems in the northern air, the boy
returned to Sicily, continuing his family's farming tradition.
But he never forgot his first love. |
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Academic takes action
Arriving
in Toronto in 1973 to study at York University, Antigua native Carl
James witnessed the profound "disconnect" many Caribbean youth felt
after coming to Canada. James went on to earn a doctorate in sociology and Latin
American and Caribbean studies. |
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Award signals cutting-edge
research
Years
ago, when Sridhar Krishnan accompanied a relative to an emergency ward
in India, he was amazed at how electrical signals in the human body
could be used in diagnosis.
That sowed the seeds of a biomedical engineering career and his
selection for this year's New Pioneers Science and Technology Award. |
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Rising above tragedy to help
needy
Fleeing
the grasp of the Communist regime in Vietnam, Kim Hoang Trinh and her
sister got into a small boat one summer night in the early 1980s.
Cramped with 75 people, the craft broke down and floated aimlessly for
days before an Indonesian fishing crew spotted it and took the
passengers to the safety of a refugee camp. |
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Using her unique art to educate
When
she moved to Canada from Trinidad in 1984, Natalie Wood was subconsciously
drawn to television programs on Buffalo stations.
But it took the multimedia artist a while to figure out why.
"I'd been flicking through the channels and staying on the American channels
without realizing that was because I was seeing more people like me in their
programs," recalls Wood, 40. |
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Refugee helps war-scarred youth
A
victim "of history and politics," Patrick Ntare Sharangabo never gave up his
hope of attaining the university education so many fellow war-scarred
Rwandans were denied.
Now in his third year at the University of Toronto — where he has become a
serious student of history and politics — he juggles studies with a
full-time job. |
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2004 |
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We let foreign talent wither
CANADA IS wasting its brains, a new
Statistics Canada survey shows. And it's especially true in the cities.
The research shows that virtually all immigrants coming to Canada in the 1990s
-- about 1.8 million -- have settled in metropolitan cities. It also shows
these immigrants, who actually have higher levels of education than people
born in Canada, are being wasted and are stuck without jobs or forced to work
ones with much lower skill requirements. |
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Humble man finally finds path to
success
Julius Zombori never had to go out and look for
jobs in Hungary.
Back then, employers knocked on the door of the elite economist and chartered
accountant, begging him to work for them. |
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The apartment entrepreneur
From creating a kidney dialysis machine in a
one-bedroom apartment to running his own multimillion-dollar manufacturing
company with 40 staff, Mahesh Agarwal's story embodies the dream of many an
immigrant.
The native of Uttar Pradesh, India, is now 56 and no longer the penniless
engineering student he was when he first arrived in Canada in 1968. |
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We must speak up against it
George Sefa Dei didn't know what it felt like
to be part of an ethnic minority, until he arrived in Canada.
Dei came here in 1979 from his native Ghana to pursue a postgraduate education.
It was then when racism issues — blacks being shot by police, minority students
being alienated in schools — appeared on Dei's radar screen for the first time. |
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Teen a vocabulary visionary
Shirley Zeng's first English lesson was in the summer of 1997 on board a
flight with her mother from China to Canada.
Anxious to fit into a whole new world, the then 11-year-old knew she had to
pick up the English language as soon as possible and struggled to get the
order of the 26 letters right. |
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U of T physicist toasts home
Andreas Mandelis knew that even if he failed to get a job in Canada as a
physicist, he could always survive as a bartender.
Growing up under a military dictatorship in Greece in the 1960s, Mandelis
always wanted to move to a place where freedom was a right, not a privilege.
And North America was a natural choice. |
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From growing rice to writing
symphonies
A chance encounter then friendship with a Canadian journalist brought composer
Huang An-lun from China to Canada, rewriting a career path that had been
abruptly halted by the Cultural Revolution. Huang started his music training at age 3 and continued his education
at Beijing's Central Philharmonic of Music until 1966 when the Red Guards came
to his house. |
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2003 |
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The Incredible Shrinking
Workforce
ALL THIS TALK about skilled-labour shortages
should come as no surprise to Canadians. Since Confederation, Canada has been
unable to supply the necessary human capital for its national workforce. We
have a history of recruiting skilled foreign workers to meet our labour market
demands. |
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Mentors aid newcomer
professionals
When
Zhong (John) Liu arrived in Canada two years ago, he brought with him a young
family, 11 years of accounting experience, and a dream.
"Going abroad is a dream for most Chinese, to see the big world outside, to give
your family a chance to succeed in the western countries," Liu said. |
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www.skillsforchange.org
Newcomers to Canada should head straight to this Web site to get information
about this country's employment and training opportunities.
The site is run by Skills for Change, a Toronto-based non-profit service agency,
which has been helping immigrants and refugees upgrade their skills and get
ready for the Canadian labour market for 20 years. |
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Immigrants, work agencies
collaborate to fill market needs
Carolina Rey came to Canada a year
and a half ago with a solid
background in industrial
engineering, and a vision for her
future. Carolina Rey of Columbia was
able to find work in Toronto in her
field -- logistics -- through Skills
For Change, one of 75 immigrant work
assistance agencies operating in the
city. |
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A survivor's long road to
freedom
Martha Kumsa says it's the "little
things" that really make her
appreciate her life in Canada. Those
include being able to take a
leisurely stroll without fear of
being kidnapped and put behind bars
for her political beliefs. |
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U of T professor is
well-connected
Elvino Sousa believes Canada is the
greatest country in the world but
still gives a lot of credit to his
native Portugal for starting him on
the right foot. Born in the Azores,
a group of islands in the north
Atlantic near Portugal, Sousa says
his early years growing up in a
rural community made him innovative
and self-sufficient. |
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German furnishes his adopted
home
Forty-three years later and now president of Toronto-based Nienkämper ICF
(International Contract Furnishing) — a successful furniture maker — the
62-year-old is still in disbelief over his good fortune. Modestly, he credits
much of his success to simply being in the right place at the right time.
He also says the "wonderful people" of his new country had a lot to do with
it. |
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A bridge for immigrant women
Adeena Niazi says her message to new immigrants is simple and honest: your
future is in your own hands.
The founder of the Afghan Women's Organization, a Toronto-based support body
for newcomers to Canada, tells families to be prepared to work hard and set
realistic expectations. |
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Here, dreams gloomed
As a child
in her native Singapore, Yvonne Ng didn't know a whole lot about Canada —
except for the prime minister.
"He seemed to touch the entire world; he made a mark," says Ng, now a
contemporary dancer. "My father liked him, and I think that's othe
reasons he chose Canada as a place for me to study.'' |
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Azim's credo: No challenge is
too tough
Azim Lila is
a third year York University student majoring in business with a
specialization in information technology.
He's proud of his success and is looking to the future, but he admits it isn't
easy. |
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2002 |
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Passion for healing knows no
borders
Computers might never replace doctors, but
Dr. Alex Jadad is determined to make them an intimate partner in medicine. The Colombian-born director of the Centre
for eHealth Innovation of Toronto's University Health Network is taking
technology to new levels that he hopes will be a model for future health care
around the world. |
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Anti-racism activist focuses on
children
Facing racism didn't make Aster Fessahaie bitter, it forced her to be
better.
But nearly 27 years later, Fessahaie still feels the long-ago sting of
discrimination. A registered nurse and midwife who had just immigrated to Canada from Eritrea
in 1975, she learned her nursing qualifications were worthless here. |
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Setting his life to music took
time
From a world of music, Christos Hatzis chose Canada.
From Canada, the Greek-born composer has reaped a world of acclaim. "I found much more breathing room here,"
said Hatzis, 49, an associate professor of music at the University of Toronto.
"For an artist, I found Canada had a more nurturing attitude for young talent. |
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"What I was meant to be"
Callista Phillips wanted to be a doctor since she was a little girl.
Both her parents were physicians, so it seemed natural that she'd be one, too. But five years as a family doctor and a
surgeon in India didn't mean a thing when she immigrated to Canada in 1998.
Her specialty certificates in laboratory medicine and pathology didn't seem to
be worth the paper they were printed on, either. |
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Youth leader looks to roots for
success
Grandma knows best.
At least, Kevin King thinks so. From his early years in Jamaica through his
schooling in Toronto, his
grandmother's words have continued
to ring true. "She always told me
you have to have manners, which
means you have to have respect," the
22-year-old George Brown College
student said. |
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Empire built on one truck and
faith
When government and banks wouldn't
believe in him, Uwe Petroschke believed in himself. Mortgaging his house to buy a single
transport truck in 1986 wasn't much of a risk, he figured. Risk was what his parents faced when they
fled East Germany in 1955. Risk was what his family faced when they
immigrated to Canada 11 years later. So risking dollars for a truck was a
simple decision. |
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2001 |
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What job-search strategy is
right for you?
Why is it some people are successful in getting and thriving in jobs they
love, while others falter along the way? Can individuals learn from each other
how to be creative, strategic, and resourceful in their efforts? Meet Roberto,
Jemima and Steve, and you be the judge!
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Making Changes Together
I
get e-mails every day which reflect the realities of job search in Canada
for newcomers. Nadia from Mississauga, Sanjay from Brampton, Marcel in
Ottawa and Gabe in Toronto, are just four of many who voice frustration,
anger and confusion about issues such as race, “wild goose chase”
interviews, lay-offs in the tech industry and over-qualification for entry
level positions. |
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2000 |
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Help for new immigrants
For the new immigrants who live in
Toronto and want to upgrade their
skills in the fields that are in
demand in Canada, there was created
a special program - Skills for
Change. The intensive courses where
they can get the necessary knowledge
and skills are on St.Clair Ave.
West. |
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Agency helps newcomers adapt for jobs
For Rajni Gohil and Mitin Handa, the
target is clear - find employment in
their profession by the end of this
year. Handa, 42, is a chartered
accountant, raised in Kenya,
educated and trained in England and
employed in his field for almost 20
years. Gohil, 36, also an
accountant, was raised and educated
in India. |
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Encouraging new programs help
foreign-trained
Parking lot attendants with
engineering degrees. Trained
physicians working the graveyard
shift as security guards. However
incongruous and wasteful such
scenarios may seem, they are the
dismal reality for many
foreign-trained professionals in
Canada. |
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Right Skills, wrong country
Two years ago, Kanwal
and Tarvinder Kukreja had it all. Both were successful young doctors:
Kanwal was a pediatrician in private practice; Tarvinder, a pathologist,
was chief resident at Chandigarh Medical College Hospital in India’s
Punjab state. In their free time, they worked with an international group
of doctors developing standard
guidelines for the treatment of
asthma. |
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Making Marks in a New Land
When Ismael Cala Lopez was looking
to board a Toronto subway train the
first time, he walked into a
building with a huge neon sign that
said ``Subway.'' But all the
30-year-old Cuban immigrant could
find there were beverages and
sandwiches - and baffling sneers
that embarrassed him. |
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SfC Bridges Gap Between Business
and New Canadians
For over 6,000 new Canadians each
year, Skills for Change is the first
step to paid employment in their new
home. Skills for Change is also a
vital link between these workers and
potential Canadian employers.
Clients of Skills for Change receive
all the tools they need to be
successful in the Canadian business
environment. |
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1999 |
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Trailblazers Overcome Great Odds
to Succeed
Some of the first words Manoucher
Etminan heard when he came to Canada
are still burned in his mind: ``I
trust you will be good for Canada.''
Etminan has worked hard to live up
to that statement. It hasn't always
been easy. A successful businessman
in Iran, Etminan, 49, found himself
working a series of low-paying jobs
when he immigrated to Canada in
1991. |
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Mentoring Program Scores Hat
Trick of Satisfaction
Established in the early 1980s, the
original purpose of Skills for
Change, a Toronto-based
not-for-profit agency, was to help
female Asian immigrants obtain
office skills. Through the eighties
its mandate expanded to include more
groups and, in particular, to assist
engineers and accountants who
recently immigrated to Canada.
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1998 |
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Mentoring Program for New
Canadians
The concept of mentoring is as old
as humanity itself. Time and time
again, it has been shown that people
who have someone to look up to and
learn from will be more confident
and successful in their endeavors.
However, the success of a mentoring
relationship is due not only to the
knowledge and networks offered by
the mentor. |
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New Skills Landed Job
Before coming to Canada in 1994,
Costel Ignat was an engineer. But
when he arrived here, he had
difficu1ties finding a job in his
chosen field. However, he found help
through a mentorship program at
Skills for Change — a United Way
member agency. Skills For Change
provides immigrants and refugees
with a range of skills development
and training programs, as well as
information and referrals, advocacy
and counselling. |
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Ontario To Create Special Human
Rights Award
Ontario will mark the 50th anniversary of
the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with a special
human rights award, Minister of Citizenship, Culture and Recreation Isabel
Bassett announced last night. |
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1996 |
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Donation to Help Immigrants
Adjust
While Sam Ghazouli was building a
successful career in Canada, his
mother, Elaine, was quick to remind
him he had been lucky. "Whenever I
told her I had achieved something,
or got a promotion, she always used
to say: "Don't forget those who
cannot make it.'" He didn't. Now,
Ghazouli has donated $75,000 in his
mother's memory to Skills for
Change, an agency on St. Clair Ave.
W. that help ease immigrants and
refugees into the Canadian work
force. |
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1985 |
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Escape down a river leaders to a
new country, new life
As the aircraft touched ground, her
first thought was "I'm free". It was
four years ago that Lisa Do arrived
in Canada to start a new life. She
was alone, spoke little English and
had just risked her life to flee
communist tyranny in her native
Vietnam. |
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