Fatima, a former Afghani refugee and now proud Canadian citizen, shares her inspirational journey.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.
1 How long did Fatima live in Afghanistan?
2 Why did she find it difficult to continue school in Afghanistan?
3 Where did her family go when they left Afghanistan?
4 Where did she live in this new country?
5 What did she do to make some money at the age of 18?
6 What academic interests did she mention in her application to Canadian universities?
7 How does she feel as a Canadian citizen?
I have great memories from Afghanistan. I lived there for about 15, 16 years. I have parents that were both well educated and I grew up in an environment that was fostering education there. And then the war started and it was really difficult to continue school. And after that it was really difficult for women to live on their own in Afghanistan. There was security threats and really basically you always need a man’s support to get around the society. So that was how we had to leave and started all over in Peshawar Pakistan.
When I went to high school, in the afternoons we went to an English-language school. It was valued and really... if you wanted to get further. The point was that you want to go ahead in your life and you don't want to be in the refugee camp all the time. And so the goal was to immigrate to Canada, US, Australia once that program was done. There was a teacher training course for 3 or 6 months or so and I completed that and then was able to, you know, make money and get a salary for two years. Yeah. So I felt really independent at the age of 18 or so.
The way they have organised the program that you can assimilate to… integrate to Canada... Canadian society easily and also help you get where you want. So you write your bio, your interests, and all that, and depending on that whatever you have written in your application they will send your resume to different universities. And my interest was engineering and mathematics and computer science. So they sent me to school that offered that program and I… and I could get into what I wanted to.
I mean Canada is my home now and I feel so much connected to Canada than any other part of the world. So it was a great way to know that you can now vote, you can participate in a whole range of activities in Canada as a citizen and be part of Canadian society. So it was great. It was a privilege.
