Muslim Food Bank success stories

Syrian Family Learns their Way Around theirhi N New H Hometown i in Bii Britishh C Columbia Zain Nadir, his wife and four kids immigrated to Canada in January, 2017. The Nadirs areamong hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees that had to flee the civil war in their country and take temporary shelter in neighboring Jordan. They didn’t live in a refugee camp but their living condition was barely any better. Thanks to the Canadian government, the Nadirs were flown into Vancouver and assigned permanent resident status. With no friends or family around, Zain and his wife really felt alone in the first few weeks of being here. When the Muslim Food Bank caseworker Kareem Siddiqui took up the Nadirs’ case, the first thing he did was take them to the local mosque so they could get acquainted with fellow Arabic-speaking men and women. “The biggest trauma this family has suffered i is separationi f from their hil lovedd ones,” ”K Kareem asserts. Kareem knew Zain not being fluent in English would not be able to find a job so quickly after moving to Canada so he found him a preoccupation. He took Zain and his entire family to the Surrey Recreation Centre and helped them register for access to the gym and the swimming pool. As part of the sponsorship program, the Nadirs were assigned a fixed monthly income. Kareem met with Zain and his wife and broke down their expenses by needs and wants. He then wrote down a monthly budget to help them manage their money. Kareem is not shy about setting boundaries with his new clients on what he is willing to help them with. “Within the first meeting itself, I let my clients know that I am here to show them how to do things on their own,” Kareem says. He has never had an issue with Zain in this regard though.