'Don't stay at zero': How an Edmonton settlement counsellor helps newcomers

Sadiya Mohammed knows what it's like to be a newcomer.

"Everything is hard. Different language, different culture, different weather," Mohammed said.

Six years after Canadians helped her settle into the country as a refugee, Mohammed is paying it forward, as a settlement counsellor with Catholic Social Services (CSS).

She is speaking at the social agency's At the Mac fundraiser Thursday night at the Fairmont Hotel Macdonaldabout the special connection she has with the people she helps every day.

"Sometimes when they're frustrated I say, 'Hey, don't go anywhere. Look at me. I used to be like you,'" Mohammed said."I was like them five years ago. I was saying, 'Why is my counsellornot coming to visit me, even on Saturday and Sunday and I'm alone with my two kids.'"

Fled persecution

Mohammed, who speaks five languages including Arabic, Italian and Tigrigna, was a televisionjournalist in Eritrea before political persecution forced her to flee the northeastern African country with her two small children.

After two years as a refugee in Jordan, Mohammed arrived in Edmonton in 2013.

She tells her clientsit's possible to build your life again after being a refugee.

"It's OK to start anything from zero," Mohammed said in an interview on CBC Edmonton's Radio Active on Thursday. "But don't stay at zero. Always dream."

Through all the hardship of settlement, Mohammed managed to stay strong for her children.

"Maybe that's a gift from God. I don't like to share my tears with my kids. I say, 'It's OK. I used to be good or excellent before I came but life is changed. Always dream that you're going to be something.'"

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Mohammed is motivated by the debt she feels she hasto Canada for accepting her, and to CSS, which helped her settle here.

"I owe Catholic Social Services. I owe even Canada," she said. "I have to be something in Canada."

She hopes to one day return to journalism, but enjoys working with people at the agency.

"I like to work with people. I like to see the hope when they are happy, when they're mad, when they're sad, when they're frustrated. When they're happy, saying 'Oh I got my Alberta Health card!' I can feel that, exactly what they're feeling."