Armenian Family Support Services (AFSS) - Newcomers Gathering- November 2009
by Rita Odjaghian
On November 15th, Armenian Family Support Services held another successful “Newcomers Gathering”.
At this event, we did have approximately 40 Armenian Newcomers from various countries, such as Iraq, Lebanon and Armenia. The newcomers were from all walks of life. From a professional perspective, we had a spectrum of expertise, medical, engineering, law, teaching and even athletes.
Maida Icliates, Chair of the AFSS, launched the meeting with welcoming remarks, which was then followed by Rev. Archpriest Zareh Zargarian, Pastor of the Holy Trinity Armenian Church, addressing the support of our Church and the importance of being connected with the Armenian Community.
As a group, we did have each of the newcomers to introduce themselves and talk about their arrival to Canada, their experiences thus far, their professional background and their needs. This was a great opportunity to network with each other.
For the first time, we introduced the idea of bringing in two success stories of our newcomers. When introducing the successful Newcomers, I did stress the fact that these individuals are our “hero’s” as in a recessionary environment, it is quite challenging to find an employment and this brought the perseverance, hope and focus into their eyes.
One professional Accountant talked about all the steps that she had taken to land into a job in accounting in Toronto and after she finished her speech a few accountants approached her and the exchange of experience and know how started to sparkle.
Our next hero was a lady who had just arrived in Toronto and in need of employment, she got herself a job in Arz Bakery and as she was mentioning “She was thankful to have this job as a beginning” and then she will move into other opportunities in Arz or other outlets. This was so instrumental for our newcomers and we stressed the fact that sometimes there are few steps to take before getting to the final destination/goal.
Shortly after we had a presentation from Centennial College where the emphasis was for educational suggestions for foreign trained professionals and they presented all the opportunities within the College.
Among our Newcomers, we had a few who had challenges to fully understand the presentation, thus I did take the courage of acting as an interpreter!
Thanks to Centennial College for a great presentation.
We had also the presence of our AFSS Board Members, Mrs. Sonia Mutevelli, Mrs. Seza Nazarian, and Mr. Haig Thomasian and our program coordinator, Miss Hasmik Minasyan. Furthermore, this year we had the assistance of our two University of Toronto Student Placements, Halana Themelis and Tonya Brown, who are part of the Diversity and Equity Program at the U of T Concurrent Teacher Education Program. Everyone’s support helped us tremendously to organize such a successful event.
We offered childcare services while the parents were in the meeting. Thanks to Sharysse Kayoumedjian and Knar Mardirossian who managed all the kids with games and story telling, colouring, and other fun activities.
When talking to newcomers, there was a desire to have such gatherings on a more regular basis and everyone felt they have a support group, a family away from home, and a true friend whom they can count on.
At this time of the year at AFSS, we would like to wish you Happy New Year and Merry Christmas.
