Newcomers Gathering - May 15, 2011

AFSS hosted another successful event for our Newcomers on May 15, 2011. More than twenty new immigrants from Iraq and Armenia attended this event, which took place at the Holy Trinity Armenian Church in Scarborough.

The event started with a ’Meet and Greet’ exercise where each newcomer shared his or her experiences of immigration and employment. The room was filled with camaraderie and caring atmosphere. Our Newcomers had a diverse professional background from medical, engineering and finance and marketing fields.

I’d like to express our thanks to our guest speaker Mrs. Alice Khajadourian, General Counsellor-COSTI Immigrant Services. Mrs. Khajadourian provided the newcomers with extremely helpful information about services offered by COSTI and other community agencies.

As motivation and encouragement, we always have “stars” that join our newcomer group to share their success stories of how they found employment and what steps they took to achieve their employment.

Our first such “Star” has been in Canada for 3 months and he has secured employment in his field for almost one month as a Telecommunication Specialist. He shared his success story with us that he started to search and email his resume to Canadian Companies from Armenia. Also, through social media, he applied to various positions. As a result, when he arrived here it was much easier for him to get a job in a shorter time frame.

Our second star has also been in Canada for 3 months. She is a medical doctor and most recently she was hired to for the Sleep Apnea Clinic. This is another example of being focused and getting in the right direction.

We also had the pleasure of having one of our Newcomers sing for us. At the end, everyone gathered for cake and coffee. The mood was very positive and filled with hope and new friends. A few of the newcomers came via public transportation as far away from Etobicoke and Mississauga.

Since our Newcomers are highly trained professionals, there is a huge demand for mentorship. Anyone interested in volunteering in mentoring our Newcomers, please contacts Seta at (416-431-5549) or via email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Thank you.

Seta Kevorkian

AFSS-Program Coordinator

We would like to share with you couple of “Thank You” emails we received from our newcomers:

“Thank you very much for great job you and your colleagues provided to us. We were enjoyed very much. The way of the meeting went and everybody will agree that it was provided on the high and professional level.”

Artur

Love you very much!

Warm hugs,

Anna