Hoping to provide a helping hand to newcomers, a former refugee has launched a website to help refugees find jobs in the Canadian province of Winnipeg.
“I feel for the refugees. I know how they feel,” Omar Rahimi said. “I know what they’ve been through. I can feel their families. They are so happy to be here and they’re safe.”
Rahimi, an Iraqi refugee who speaks four languages, launched his site “Hire A Refugee” in an effort to connect refugees looking for jobs with employers.
“When people come here… they know how to work hard and they need somebody to guide them. I just did it on my own and it took me years until I learned the system,” Rahimi said in an interview with metronews.
“We want to show newcomers how to get a job, how to search for a job, how to keep a job,” Rahimi said.
Rahimi believes that the best way to help refugees is to find them jobs, because this s the first thing they need when they arrive at a foreign land.
The idea of the website came to Rahimi based on his own experience moving to Canada 16 years ago from Iraq.
“I lived in a camp where many of my friends died. If I didn’t come to Canada in 2001, there’s a very good possibility that I would have died in 2003 or 2004, where the war happened in Iraq. I’m so lucky to be here,” he said.
Rahimi made his trip to Canada in December 2001 and was met with many hardships as a refugee. He worked various labour jobs before founding his own painting company, Beautiful Canada Painting, in 2010.
Rahimi hopes his website will not only help the newcomers, but those people with work that needs to be done. That way, he’s giving back to the community he holds so dear.
“I love Canada. Canada gave me my life. I owe everything to Winnipeg, Winnipeggers and Canada,” he said.
Sources:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/hire-refugee-website-omar-rahimi-winnipeg-1.4004287
http://www.metronews.ca/news/winnipeg/2017/03/06/refugees-finding-work-in-winnipeg.html