I came to Canada with my three teenaged children in September 1991 as a refugee under the Women at Risk program. I was a journalist in Ethiopia when I was arrested by the military regime of Mengistu Haile-Mariam. I fled after ten years of imprisonment and torture. Amnesty International, PEN International, PEN Canada, and Working Group on Refugee Resettlement were instrumental in facilitating my release from prison and my resettlement in Canada. The Refugee Sponsorship Committee of Timothy Eaton Memorial Church sponsored my family. They looked after us not only by attending to our daily practical needs, but also by nurturing us with deeply compassionate care. The Canadian Council for Refugees supported us in our settlement process.

Arriving in Canada in the midst of a recession and finding meaningful employment very hard, I struggled with dire financial difficulties. Life was harder in other ways. I was a single mother in a new culture with the teenaged children I had not raised as a parent. Despite these challenges, however, I took student loans to go back to school while piecing together several part time jobs to make ends meet. I completed my bachelor, masters, and doctoral degrees in ten years. I am now a professor at the Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University where I have been teaching for twelve years. While I’m still unable to reunite with my husband, my children are all university graduates. We are all meaningfully employed and contributing to society.