By Liz Monteiro, Record staff
WATERLOO REGION — Samjida Begum looks around the table at the women sitting beside her and she knows she’s in good company. That’s because the women are just like her.
They are refugee women who were forced to leave their homeland and live elsewhere, some in dingy refugee camps before coming to Canada.
Together, they have been sad when talking about their homelands and the families and friends they left behind, while others have shared their experiences of frustration when sending their young children to school, but unable to communicate with the teachers.For Begum, the Welcome to Canada program held weekly at Mosaic Counselling and Family Services in Kitchener is a chance to share experiences and hear similar stories.
“I’m so happy to come here,” Begum said through an interpreter.
Begum, a native of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, lived in a refugee camp in Bangladesh for 17 years before coming to Canada two years ago. Begum is part of the Rohingya ethnic group, a persecuted Muslim minority in Myanmar.
Her two older daughters also join here at Mosaic with a children’s group run by Fran Pappert-Shannon, former Miss Fran from the famed CTV series Romper Room and Friends. The children range from five to seven years.
Pappert-Shannon reads to the children, sings songs with them and entertains them with creative crafts.
Pappert-Shannon, who became a Muslim in February, said running the children’s program allows the women to meet in private while providing a welcoming space for the children.
Azada Faez said the program allows her to learn about Canadian culture and local resources available to her if she needs help. She likes that each week there are different topics of discussion such as anger management, abuse and domestic violence and parenting skills.
“We learn from each other,” said Faez, who hails from Afghanistan. She lived in Pakistan for five years before coming to Canada nine years ago.
“If we make a mistake, we laugh with each other and not at each other. There is a feeling of being together,” said Faez, who works part time with the Region of Waterloo Healthy Babies Healthy Children program.
The Welcome to Canada program is part of the work of the Muslim Social Services of K-W, a Muslim volunteer-run organization started by Idrisa Pandit of Waterloo.
The program, which Pandit likes to call the sister’s circle, also offers two interpreters and is assisted by psychology students at Wilfrid Laurier University.
Mosaic received a $2,500 grant from the Kitchener-Waterloo Community Foundation and the United Way, which helps pay for the craft supplies for the children, bus tickets for the mothers, snacks and costs to cover the use of two interpreters.
Pandit’s passion for helping Muslim women was ignited when she moved to the United States to take a PhD in 1989. As a student at the University of Illinois, she started an Islamic women’s group.
“Coming to the West, I encountered different Muslims from different cultures and languages. This was new to me and it prompted me to study my faith more deeply,” she said.
Pandit continued with her Muslim community work in Boston and then Maryland before moving to Waterloo in 2005.
Locally, Pandit found a void in the Muslim community.
“We needed to reach out and be more involved. We were insular,” said Pandit who started the group in January 2007.
Pandit, who acts as a counsellor to some women, said going to a therapist is still a taboo in the Muslim community.
Pandit said she often asks members of the local Muslim community to donate clothes or furniture for new families, coming from war-torn areas such as Myanmar, Iraq and Afghanistan.
“The children and mothers are scarred, the fathers too. Many have been kicked out of their countries and lived in refugee camps,” she said.
Other work done by the organization includes volunteering and serving a meal at the St. John’s Kitchen, computer literacy for Muslim women, Halal meat and food drives in conjunction with the Food Bank of Waterloo Region and the House of Friendship and Muslim and Mennonite youth packing kits for families overseas.
The organization runs strictly on volunteers with a zero budget, says Pandit.
“The work MSS does is a merely a way of giving back to the community,’’ she said. “It is the generosity and compassion of the (Muslim) community that helps sustain our efforts.’’
If you’re interested in volunteering with the group, contact info@muslimsocialserviceskw.org
