New funding for Metro Vancouver migrant program
The Province
August 31, 2010
By Yolande Cole

When Khosie Mavimbela arrived in Vancouver 18 months ago from Swaziland with her 12-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter, she didn’t know anyone in the city….

“In my heart and my mind, my most urgent concern when arriving in Canada was to find a safe place to live with my children,” she said.

Mavimbela has two diplomas and a degree in nursing from Swaziland, but in Vancouver she worked as a housekeeper and is now on employment assistance while she looks for a job that she can juggle with looking after her kids.

“When you’re a single mom, you don’t have a lot,” she said….

“This project started with the aim of filling the gaps in the services provided to immigrant and refugee women,” said program manager Alejandra López. “In Canada, women and single moms face structural bias such as finding employment, affordable housing and child care — but immigrant and refugee women face additional barriers, including language differences, systemic racism, isolation and trauma.”….