Immigrant Access Fund

New Canadian on path to fulfill calling

At times, over the last seven years Dr. Adriana Guillen despaired in her new life in Canada. She and her husband, Armando, left Mexico City in 2004 because they wanted more security and a better life for their two children.

The kids are happy and Adriana is happy to see them enrolled in a French immersion school. But what surprised Adriana were the difficulties she had settling into her new life.

A practicing dentist in Mexico City, Adriana didn’t speak English and couldn’t find childcare in her first Canadian home in Waterloo, Ontario. Opportunities to become a dentist were limited as each year only a handful of candidates out of many were selected to study for Canadian credentials.

“We had to struggle financially and I felt I had no hope of ever working in my field again,” she recalls. “I wasn’t prepared for the cold and the isolation of being a stay-at-home mom. I lost hope and I wanted to go back to Mexico.”

Then in 2007 the family moved to Calgary to be closer to a recently arrived relative. Armando got a job in his field and they bought a house. Adriana saw another vision of Canada.

“We had started all over again and I needed to do something,” she says. She took survival jobs to help finance her studies to become a dental assistant. She received her qualifications and to her dismay, she didn’t like the job.

Meanwhile, the rules to qualify as a dentist in Canada had become less onerous. It would take two years of study, some of it away from her family; several demanding exams; and substantial financial outlay to accomplish. Adriana was determined to try.

“I was not happy professionally,” she says. “I couldn’t live knowing that I hadn’t even tried.” Initially, Adriana continued working. But her studies were too demanding. That’s when she found out about IAF and applied for a loan.

“I could not have undertaken this process without the loan,” she says. “Now I have a chance to work as a dentist. It is my calling.” Adriana hopes to work with new Canadians, especially the Latin community.

“They don’t speak the language and they will need a dentist who can understand them. And I can offer lower prices so people without insurance can afford the proper care,” she says.

“I want this loan to make a difference not just to my family, but to have an impact on the health of many people.”

Investment yields experience and promising future

Walters Munde left his position as agricultural supervisor for Del Monte Foods in Cameroon to immigrate to Canada in March 2008. The 40 year old came with a dream of a better life for his wife and six-month-old daughter. Friends had spoken to him about the opportunities he would have to develop a career and live well in Canada.

But when Walters arrived he found no employment in his field in spite of his masters in agriculture from Sierra Leon and his masters in environmental sciences from Belgium. He worked as a round-the-clock security officer, alternating shifts with Petula. They earned $12 per hour.

Walters wanted to continue on a professional career path and recognized he needed Canadian credentials to do that. He sought funding and found the Immigrant Access Fund at the Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers. He received a $10,000 loan, which allowed him to pursue accreditation as an environmental practitioner program with Eco Canada.

While studying, he received a contract offer from a First Nations organization to work as an environmental technician for its technical services advisory group. The contract ended in August and now Walters is set up to pursue a 10-month-long program in oil and gas administration at CDI College in Edmonton.

“With my environmental background, I will find employment in the oil and gas sector that has the potential to pay a decent salary,” Walters says. He underlines that the support from IAF gave him the start he needed when he came to Canada.

“It’s helped give my family and me hope for a better future,” he says. “I feel more confident applying for jobs because the loan helped with the training and work experience I needed to establish myself in this new country. It’s changed my life.”

Eye to better future motivation for education

The journey from Mexico City to Edmonton and all the readjustment necessary to survive in a new country was one that Victor Manuel Duran Jimenez gladly made, even though he left a good position as a project manager for one of the world’s largest food distribution companies where he managed international and domestic accounts.

The job market in Mexico is increasingly youth focused and the 44-year-old IT consultant knew his days as a desired worker were numbered. That was only one of the considerations that prompted Victor, his wife, Gabriela and their 8-year-old son, Adrian, to come to Canada.

“Mexico City has 34 million residents,” he says. “It’s overcrowded and security is an issue. I didn’t want my son growing up there.”

Victor arrived in Edmonton in April 2010. He held a bachelor in computer science and a master in finance, which he earned in Mexico. When the family was settled, Gabriela enrolled in an ESL program and Victor, whose English was already excellent, took courses to improve his command of the language.

That completed, he began looking for a job and found out that he required a Canadian project management certificate to be qualified to work in his field. He chose to take Grant MacEwan University’s four-month Project Management Program. He’s also taking extra courses for international project management certification.

Victor learned about the Immigrant Access Fund through his wife’s ESL program, applied and received the loan.

“IAF has allowed me to complete the program and to meet other professional Canadians who have introduced me to job opportunities,” he says. “The learning and the networking provide me with a huge advantage.” Victor says potential employers are responding more favourably to his job applications since he has been enrolled in the program.

Optimism, opportunities and effort yield success in new land

Cristina Popescu describes herself as a “glass-half-full” person. She has remained optimistic through the huge changes that occurred when she uprooted herself from her home in Romania to immigrate to Canada with her husband, Cosmin.

Cristina had worked for 10 years as a schoolteacher and she wanted to follow the same path in her new life in Canada. The couple based their decision to come to Alberta on the province’s Transitions to Alberta Classrooms program. The bridging program prepares immigrant teachers with international experience for certification by providing practicum experience, English language instruction and other theoretical and practical learning.

Based on her Romanian transcripts, Cristina required an additional 13 courses to meet Alberta certification requirements. She diligently completed all of the requirements while holding down two part-time jobs as a tutor at private learning centres.

“I didn’t mind the long hours of studying or the hard work,” Cristina says. “But it got expensive.” The six-month-long practicum came with a price tag of $5,000 and Cristina would need to cut back her working hours.

“My husband could support us financially for the remaining courses,” she says. “But $5,000 at one time was quite a challenge.” She found out about IAF through Transitions to Alberta Classrooms and nervously applied for her first loan ever.

“I was nervous because I was taught not to borrow money for anything,” she says. “But it was good because it helped me at a really critical time and I’m paying it off.”

Three years since arriving in Canada, Cristina is on the cusp of completing her Alberta teacher’s certification. Eventually, she would like to teach in a public school. For now, she is happy where she is. Cristina works at Momentum, teaching math and science to students in the trades program, qualifying for SAIT programs. She and Cosmin are expecting their first child in August.

“We’ve struggled with low paying jobs since coming to Canada, but now we have good work in our fields and we own a house,” she says. “I believe we came to the right province at the right time. With the right opportunities and hard work we’ve been able to build our life here."

Cristina adds that the generousity of individuals and organizations like IAF has been unexpected and very helpful in her success.

“Canadians are accepting and welcoming to immigrants,” she says. “Even though my parents and my relatives are not with me, I feel at home here.”

Cristina’s way of giving back to Canada is to volunteer at the Integrated Women’s Mentorship Program at Immigrant Services Calgary, helping other immigrant women in their job search and integration into Canadian culture.

Taking steps to live a normal life in Canada

Ebenezer Asare is working his way through exams, courses, internships and classes for provincial and federal regulators to achieve his goal of simply “living a normal life in Canada.”

Ebenezer is a pharmacist. He took six years of university to receive his bachelor in pharmacy in Kumasi, Ghana, and worked as a pharmacist in Accra for three years before love led him to Canada. The 30 year old came to Edmonton in August 2009 to be with his wife, Sylvia.

When Ebenezer arrived in Canada, he submitted his credentials from Ghana to the federally regulated Pharmacy Examining Board and wrote a series of exams, including English proficiency and evaluations of his pharmaceutical knowledge.

That completed successfully, Ebenezer is working toward becoming a registered pharmacist in Alberta. For that, he needs to study further and complete a practicum that involves 1,000 hours of volunteer time in a pharmacy under the supervision of a licensed pharmacist.

He enrolled in the Bredin Institute, where he could take a 10-month program for international pharmacists and find a pharmacist willing to oversee his practicum and help him prepare for his exams. He will be tested on the skills he learned during the practicum and on his classroom learning. Ebenezer hopes to get his license in May 2011.

“Since I’ve come to Canada, I haven’t worked,” Ebenezer says. “It’s not only the studying. Pharmacies are much more patient focused here and I need the experience.”

Meanwhile he and Sylvia have a six-month-old son. With his wife on maternity leave, Ebenezer needed funding to pay exam fees and to make ends meet. He was grateful to find the Immigrant Access Fund, which unlike micro loans elsewhere, allows borrowers to use funds to offset living costs.

“It really helped,” he says. “It’s allowed me to concentrate on my studies and given me hope that I will practice as a pharmacist in Alberta. I don’t think that’s too far fetched.”