Fadia Ismail, YMCA Centre for Immigrant Programs

Location: YMCA Centre for Immigrant Programs, 65 Main Ave.

Q. What kind of work does your organization do?

A. Our centre provides service to newcomers during their integration into a new society and a new culture. We help meet their settlement needs and help them be effective individuals in the community. The centre contains four programs. The biggest is the settlement program. This involves 18 schools in Metro. We have staff in those schools working with newcomers. We serve about 600 children, youth and their families on a daily basis. Our services include orientations about the community, rights and responsibilities, the lifestyle in Canada, the cultural norms, the school system, everything a new immigrant needs to know about Nova Scotia and the best way to access services. With the kids, we do give some kind of academic support. We also liaison between home and school. When there's a conflict or something because of a misunderstanding of cultural norms, we advocate and provide information to help clear up the misunderstanding. We also have youth outreach, which includes educational and recreational activities.

Q. How long has your organization been active, and how many volunteers do you have?

A. The centre has been active for more than 15 years. We have about 100 volunteers.

Q. Where do you get your funding?

A. We get our funding from Citizenship and Immigration Canada and from the Nova Scotia Office of Immigration.

Q. Who do you help?

A. We help newcomers and immigrants to Canada from all over the world, whether they are landed immigrants or refugees.

Q. What do you focus on for the holidays?

A. We try to raise awareness and understanding about the holidays because people come from different backgrounds, different cultures and religions. So we tell them about the significance of celebrating this and why Canada does that, how Christmas is celebrated here in comparison to how it is being celebrated in other countries. Sometimes we do some kind of charitable act to some families or we will choose a family to provide some gifts for.

Q. What's your biggest challenge?

A. Our biggest challenge is to secure funding for our programs. We have numbers and we need to provide service to everybody, so we need to secure the funding we get, if not increase it.

Q. What do you find most rewarding?

A. Many things are rewarding, but when you can manage to make some change in somebody's life and you see the kids happy and integrating and coping with the stress, culture shock and the problems of leaving home and coming to a new culture and community where everything's different. When you help facilitate and make it easier for them and try to make it a positive experience. It's rewarding just to see a smile on a child's face.

Q. How can the community help this season?

A. First of all, the community has to be supportive and welcoming to immigrants, understanding more about them and their challenges, reaching out and not being scared to learn about different cultures. And also, if people are able to donate or fundraise, that would be great.

Q. If you could have one Christmas or holiday wish fulfilled this year, what would it be?

A. To see everybody happy. That we have enough money to serve everyone, especially the children. - Aaron Burnett