William worked hard for his ‘luck’
Study-work-study has been the way for Burundi native who ‘loves’ Canada
It’s been a wildly busy last few years for William Uwimana, Canadian. (Via Burundi. And a Kenyan refugee camp where, on top of everything, he was stung by a scorpion.)
Since 2012, when he was 27, he has earned his high school certificate; he got married; brought his wife and first child here (he had never met little Brent until then); took special training to learn welding, hydraulics, electrical, blueprinting and CAD; fell in love with Canada; did co-op placements; gave a speech that moved Cesare DiDonato to the core.
All the while William has worked — first, as a labourer, a cleaner, a forklift operator, a seasonal employee in Niagara Falls — whatever he could find — and more recently as a machinist in Stoney Creek. He has worked like a man possessed, and he has been, by the desire to achieve and to move past the trauma of the first half of his life, for himself and his family.
“But how can I get in school again?” he started asking himself as he worked. He knew he had to position himself for something better. “I can’t believe how hungry I was (to learn).”
Then one afternoon, he saw a poster for something called ELATE, or Entry Level Advantage To Employment. It was job training through the Industry Education Council (IEC) of Hamilton at Mohawk College.
This was it. He applied himself diligently and completed the program where he specialized in machining, electrical and welding skills.
Cesare DiDonato, IEC’s executive director, explains: “At the end of the training, William did an eight-week co-op placement at LP Custom Machining in Stoney Creek. He did so well they hired him and he’s now working on his apprenticeship as a machinist.”
Cesare was so impressed he asked William to speak at IEC’s annual general meeting.
“It was great,” says Cesare. “He must have said, ‘I love Canada!’ about six times.” All were cheered by the enthusiasm.
Now William is fully employed and hoping one day to become a millwright. In 2015 he brought his wife Nina and son Brent here from Burundi. It was the first time William met Brent, who was conceived in 2013 when William returned briefly to Africa to marry Nina. He had to come back to Canada without her that time.
Now the three of them live on the Mountain, with a fourth — adorable little Gabriella, who is just over a year old. His children face more promising prospects than he did at that age, one of the reasons he so loves Canada.
The Burundi William knew from the time he was a child until he left in 2006 was profoundly destabilizing. Civil war. The spectre of genocide. A near-death experience — William, at random, was beaten by a mob. His family scattered. He ended up in a refugee camp in Kenya.
His first languages were Kirundi and French, but he worked at the camp hospital and learned some English.
“A scorpion bit me,” he says of his time at the camp. “Believe me, that is too painful. They gave me a needle. Life was hard there.”
The family had been separated in the chaos of the civil war and his mother managed to make her way to Canada. She sponsored William and his brother and in 2012 they arrived.
He worked from the moment he arrived, unstoppably, first in Fort Erie then moving to Hamilton.
“There were more jobs, more opportunity in a big city,” William remembers. He worked, did ESL at Mohawk College and got his high school diploma.
Today, IEC is offering something new, not ELATE, but ESTATE, the Employer Skills Training Advantage to Employment, a 28-week program in advanced manufacturing — teaching students about automated machines, mobile industrial hydraulics, the servicing of fluid-powered machinery such as forklifts and hoists.
To apply for the waiting list, visit www.iechamilton.ca.