“Culture Fest” celebrates youth immigration and transition in Canada
Posted Feb 8, 2014 5:05 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Calgary sees one of the highest intakes of newcomers in Canada, and Saturday some of the country’s newest youth shared their stories.
The Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association’s Youth Forum hosted “Culture Fest” at the Telus Convention Centre, where teens were in pairs of mentor and mentee talking about moving here.
Mentor Sree Nair, 18, has been in Calgary for two years now and talked about making her own transition.
“I started being more open-minded to different things and I also started taking much more risks that I wouldn’t have taken before,” she said. “I also started taking any opportunities put forward to me, I started volunteering, helping out people, I got my priorities changed completely.”
Her 13-year-old mentee, Sigma Azad, praised her mentor.
“She’s so amazing, she teaches me a lot of things that I don’t know, she inspires me that there’s nothing to be ashamed of and she inspires me a lot,” Azad said.
The event included inspirational booths to promote self-esteem and information on rights and freedoms around the world.
According to the CIWA, Calgary receives the fourth largest intake of newcomers in Canada.
