Women find healing in group therapy
Program gives refugees place to discuss traumas of war
Inside the cosy basement of the Arab Community Centre of Toronto, a small group of women get together for tea, snacks and conversation.
It’s late November and the women, all newcomers to Canada, have travelled a long distance to get to suburban Scarborough, many having made the trip on public transit. They get together about once a week to exchange stories and catch up.
Fatima Darwish is telling the group about her life now, much different than the one she left behind in Aleppo, Syria.
Back then, she was the equivalent of a junior high school teacher, instructing several subjects. Now she’s hoping to get onto the rolls of a privately run Toronto Arabic school. Despite perfect fluency in English, she isn’t optimistic about her prospects in the public school system.
“It’s hard because you need Canadian experience to get a job and we are all newcomers,” Darwish said.
“But on the whole, life is better here even though it’s so different from Syria,” she says, laughing as she adds: “Starting with the weather.”
The women are prodded gently by facilitator Roula Ajib to practise their English.
Most are of Syrian origin, having arrived in Canada a little more than a year ago. With the help of the community centre, the women learn English, plan careers and focus on the next chapter of their lives.
They also get a rare opportunity to speak openly about their feelings and the trauma suffered from the civil war in their homeland that has left hundreds of thousands dead in almost seven years.
“The women get to express themselves,” said Bayan Khatib from the Al-Quazzaz Foundation for Education and Development and the Syrian Canadian Foundation, which runs a group therapy program for Syrian women new to Canada.
During the sessions, a therapist offers counselling and the women can take part in yoga as well as learn more about wellness, from eating healthy to engaging in self-care.
After years in a Jordan refugee camp, Nadima Abdolahaq arrived in Quebec, where she studied French.
In Toronto, she studies at an ESLequivalent program with hopes of pursuing a daycare career. She is a mother, with five young children.
Abdolahaq, who lived in a suburb of Damascus, says 50 members of her family have died, including a cousin whose death she learned of the same day. Other relatives are imprisoned or facing torture at the hands of the ruthless Syrian regime.
“I expect I’ll never see my brother or sister again, and they are my only family left,” she said through an interpreter.
Other group members offered support, promising Abdolahaq she will one day return to her homeland.
“We’ll all go together and you’ll cook for us when we get there,” they say, laughing.
All of the women agree they consider Canada home now. They face heavy obstacles for full integration, but feel empowered by gatherings such as these.
“When we come here every week, we feel so relaxed,” Ajib said. “We are happy because we are one family. We are here for each other.”