Warm embrace
Young refugee says he feels welcomed by Islanders
Ten-year-old Joshua Gasana of Charlottetown knows the value of a warm welcome. Having grown up in a refugee camp in Uganda, he left behind a life of strife when he came to Canada in 2015.
“Well there is little food and little water (in the camp),’’ he recalls.
“We had to make it on our own.’’
Joshua felt a comforting embrace when he started his new life in Prince Edward Island, notably as a student at St. Jean Elementary school in Charlottetown.
“They welcomed me,’’ he says. “They shared like a lot of stuff.’’ Joshua also had a good feeling about World Refugee Day on Tuesday at he joined fellow students and staff of St. Jean for a walk in solidarity and support of refugees.
“I think they should welcome them in a nice way because they’ve been out in a harsh life, like me,’’ he says.
St. Jean principal Tracey Ellsworth says roughly 35 students — a third of the school’s population — are children from countries all over the world, including Syria, India and Somalia.
She says Canada is one of many countries that does an outstanding job in teaching a sense of community for refugees and locals.
“We should embrace our differences — that’s what makes us who we are as human beings and particularly who we are as Canadians,’’ she says.
Joe Byrne of the P.E.I. Association for Newcomers to Canada spoke to St. Jean students before joining them in a walk downtown past city hall and back to school for cake. He told the young students to imagine a world of full inclusion. “Dream of a world where we speak different languages, eat different foods and wear different clothes and in that world where so much is different what is the same for everyone is that we live in peace and justice.”