HERALD CHRISTMAS FUND
Volunteers guided and mentored teen, helped mom with confusing paperwork
Patricia Hagba, a client of the Centre for Newcomers, sits on the couch with her children as her oldest — Emmanuel Ngegba, 17 — shows skill with a soccer ball at their home in Calgary, where they moved after fleeing conflict-ravaged Liberia. To help make a difference in the lives of those supported by the fund,
The lasting trauma of a civil war long ago still clouds Patricia Hagba’s emotions.
The woman was forced to flee a conflict-ravaged Liberia to the relative safety of a refugee camp in the neighbouring West African country of Guinea.
“We had to escape — I lost my dad and sister who were killed,” said Hagba, 34.
While in that refugee camp, Hagba gave birth to her first son, Emmanuel, now a strapping 17-yearold and ace soccer midfielder.
When they first arrived in Canada in the late winter of 2007, their new country’s tranquillity was a godsend, she said. “I could no longer hear the sounds of guns,” said Hagba.
But that welcome sense of peace came at a price, of adapting to a new country, culture and economic realities, along with frigid weather that left her and her son cold. Those challenges were compounded by a marriage that turned rocky for Hagba.
Ensuring stability for Emmanuel was another concern.
“Without family and friends here, it can be very challenging,” said the mom who eventually connected with The Centre for Newcomers Society of Calgary, one of the 12 agencies benefiting from the 2017 Calgary Herald Christmas Fund campaign.
The Centre for Newcomers helps immigrants settle into their adopted home and has programs to address the isolation and loneliness that can lead social issues especially for high-risk immigrant youth. Emmanuel speaks glowingly of centre volunteer Kari Viccars, who guided and mentored him through uncertain times.
“She just taught me how to be successful,” said the teen, a Grade 12 student at Bishop McNally high school.
He recalls how Viccars also helped with little things, like helping to pay his soccer fees and driving him to games when his mother couldn’t. When he needed help with his school work, his mentor was there, said Emmanuel, who now has a goal of going to university and becoming an accountant.
Viccars said she knows how easy it is for young people to go down the wrong road, adding she felt a need to give back to the community as a volunteer. “Youth are really easy to help, they just need
someone to care.”
Emmanuel, she said, has blossomed into an elite soccer player of considerable character. “He’s a leader on the soccer field — he’s always helping other kids.”
Hagba had her own guardian angel during the settlement period — fellow West African immigrant Elias Mbah — who acted as a mentor through the often confusing paperwork. Then, when her marriage blew up, Centre staff stepped up.
“They helped a lot with mediation — I came from war, I didn’t need the stress,” said Hagba. “It takes great people to do this job, you have to be very lovely and compassionate.”
The mother of six, who now works as a nursing assistant, is determined to succeed without government assistance but said she knows the Centre for Newcomers is there if she needs help.
“But I’m moving up quickly, I have to leave my space to others,” said Hagba.
Proceeds raised in the 2017 Herald Christmas Fund campaign will allow the Centre to expand family support and pro-social activities, which will strengthen not only the clients, but society as a whole, said agency spokesman Francis Boakye.
“It’s impacting not just families, but the entire community they’re in,” he said.
By engaging a family’s children in positive activities, it helps steer them from negative influences that lead to criminal activity while also helping parents who might be facing other challenges, like finding employment, said Boakye, an immigrant from Ghana. It’s a more comprehensive approach that recognizes parents have “often been neglected,” he said.
On the pro-social activities side, mentors guide adults and youths in areas such as business or sports, while helping them adapt to their new home.
“It’s so the person has a balanced perception of who they are in a Canadian context,” said Boakye. “It’s leadership-building.”
The programs assist more than 100 families (or about 500 people), he said, a task that demands the help of volunteers.
“Some of our staff do pro bono work … it’s expanding, but we don’t have the resources,” said Boakye.
The Centre now sees about 12,000 clients a year, 2,500 of whom are enrolled in English as a second language classes.
That’s up from 7,000 newcomers four years ago.
The Calgary Herald Christmas Fund supports 12 local agencies addressing social issues of poverty, hunger, homelessness, isolation, education and violence. All proceeds raised from donations go to these organizations.