Every year, refugees come to Canada fleeing war , violence and persecution. But their hopes for a smooth transition are often dashed as soon as their feet hit Canadian soil. Many find themselves sleeping on a mattress on the floor of a homeless shelter.
Khairiya Abdul-Mumin fled Ghana one year ago. She had no time to prepare or save money and arrived at YYC with $50 in her pocket and months of frigid winter weather ahead of her.
“When I got to the airport they gave me the address of the shelter because I have nowhere to go and I used that $50 to take Uber,” she said.
She spent three months at the shelter. “Life there was something else,” she said.
Not long after she arrived, she found out she was pregnant. “I was throwing up and having to go to the hospital all the time, it was very uncomfortable and difficult,” she said.
Abdul-Mumim met another woman who was on an almost parallel path as her own, hunkering down at a Calgary shelter with no money and nowhere else to go.
“It was very hard but I had no choice, I was fleeing for my life,” said Nawal Abdulkarim, also a refugee claimant from Ghana and five months pregnant with her third child.
“You don’t know where to go at first, you don’t know how to get access to anyone who can help you, you struggle,” said Abdulkarim.
Spending months at a shelter is a struggle many people who show up and declare themselves refugees at the port of entry are facing.
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“It’s certainly not uncommon,” said Kelly Ernst, chief program officer with the Centre for Newcomers ” It’s not uncommon for people to come with their luggage straight to our centre from the airport because the shelters are full.
“It’s my understanding refugee claimants are becoming the largest population in shelters in Calgary. We do our best to set them up to be sustainable.”
Both Abdul-Mumin and Abdulkarim fled suddenly without any time to save money and with nobody waiting for them on arrival. Not only did they flee the same country, but the same city, and they said they were also running away out of fear of the same terrifying threat.
“I was running from the anti-LGBTQ,” said Abdul-Mumim. “They take action by themselves, if they get to know you are this kind of person they can come to you and maybe throw stones or just kill you,” she continue, adding she had already been attacked once
“Even the stigmatization in the society alone can make you take your life. Yu can’t go out, you can’t go anywhere,” said Abdulkarim. “I was fearful for my life.”
Ernst said the number of refugee claimants in the LGBTQ2 community has drastically increased. “Last year, Centre for Newcomers served more than 600 LGBTQ people. That number has increased tenfold when the program started five years ago,” said Ernst.
“The majority of people are coming from countries that have criminalized this population.”
Both women said their husbands have always been supportive, but that too has now put them in danger. One of the men recently arrived in Calgary as a refugee himself; his wife said he doesn’t feel safe after refusing to shun her. She worries for her other children still in West Africa.
” My biggest hope is to bring my children here to get a job, back at home I was a nurse,” said Abdulkarim.
“My biggest hope is to get a good job and for my husband and daughter to join me here in Canada,” echoed Abdul-Mumim
The women were eventually connected to Calgary organization Hands lifting Hearts, a not-for-profit dedicated to assisting expectant African mothers who are new to Calgary. Volunteers were in the delivery room when they had their babies. They found them a home, clothing, food and supplies.
“Oh, it’s better, because now (I) don’t think of going back home again, I never think of that,” said Abdulkarim
Now out of shelter with a firm network of support behind them, they agree the hope they had for their futures is now starting to feel possible.
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