Walking to peace and working hard for success
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My message to women who are immigrated or they live under oppressive life from my experience just keep going forward and shove it back any obstacles of life; then instead of failure you will be successful and happy.
The reason I came to Canada is that in my country there was a war between Eritrea and Ethiopia that lasted for 30 years. In between, in 1991, we got our independence but before that we travel by foot from my city Asmara to Sudan for 20 days. It took us a long time because we had to hide in the forest in order to reach Sudan. When we reached Sudan, we stayed there and someone helped us with a little bit of money and we traveled form Sudan to the Middle East. From the Middle East, my husband and I came to Greece, and when we arrived, we had twin girls – Sophia and Maria.
In the four years and six months that we were in Greece, we were in contact with people from Milestone, Saskatchewan and eventually we became sponsored by two churches that brought us to the town. When we arrived at the airport, they took us straight to the small town, and when we went to this town, we didn’t know anything or even where we were on the map of the world.
The Weyburn Review wrote a story about the history of our family. It was a newsletter or something like that. A year later, we started training at Regina Open Door but there weren’t any jobs for us in Milestone so we had to move to Regina. I started working at Regina Pioneer and I’ve worked there for 23 years but now since I have a special needs child and my husband has left the family, I have to look after him until I find someone that can look after him so that’s why I’m at home.
I’m a very hard working person. I work outside. I do gardening and I rent a plot every year at a public garden. I save money and don’t spend it so I’m finally at a spot where I am comfortable and can look after my son.
As an immigrant woman, I’m very happy that I am here, but there is a lot of suffering in between to. It’s not easy going to work and raising children and leaving your children with a babysitter you haven’t met before. These are my children but there is no other way to look after them, we have to work. Nobody said that the government could support us so I’ve had to work and leave my children with a babysitter and that has always made me cry.
I have 10 siblings in my county and we’ve never fought. I used to help them and love them and I still love them. But here, nobody knows who you are. No one asks you who you are deeply. They know my name and where I live but that’s it. Where I grew up, the whole neighbourhood would visit you and care for you.
Everyone is equal to me, it doesn’t matter what color their skin is, as long as they are a good person. I am Christian and my husband was Muslim and that never separated us. We never had any problems for that reason. I’m a simple person and try to be happy. I’ve sponsored other family members here so I could help them get from a bad situation to a peaceful country and to live their life. I hope everyone is happy with what I’ve done for them.