Sometime in 2017, Wendy Raudales and her husband were in Honduras working at the business they had started a few years earlier. On what seemed like just another day, members of a criminal organization came by making violent threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gangs are a serious problem in Honduras. They exert territorial control over neighbourhoods and extort residents throughout the nation. This Central American country is caught between extreme poverty and extreme violence.[1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cVery few people in Honduras go to university,\u201d Wendy explains. \u201cMy husband and I were lucky to get the chance to attend. I studied business administration and he took graphic design, so we opened our own business, into which we invested all our savings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But criminal gangs turned their dream into a nightmare, and the safety of Wendy, her husband and their two children became severely jeopardized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy father was kidnapped when I was young, and my family had to pay his ransom,\u201d she says. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to live like that anymore. After a few months, we decided to leave for Canada. We sold our car, packed our bags and bought plane tickets to New York, which cost a quarter of the price of tickets to Montreal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A friend then drove them to the Canadian border and watched them trek across the snow to find a better life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe arrived in January 2018. I remember how they were talking about a historic storm on the news that day,\u201d says Wendy. \u201cWe made our way through a blizzard with our whole lives in our luggage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When they got to the border, the family asked for asylum. After spending a full day in a small immigration office, Wendy came away with an asylum application document (RPCD or \u201cbrown paper\u201d) in one hand and the address of a YMCA in the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t know anyone in Quebec,\u201d she says. \u201cWe stayed at the YMCA for 15 days.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Only able to speak Spanish at the time, she received invaluable support to find housing from a staff member at the South Shore agency Carrefour le Moutier<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the Carrefour le Moutier, this immigrant family attended information sessions on social assistance and health tips for the winter. Most importantly, they got help from an integration counsellor who helped them secure essential documents, cards, and permits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just two short weeks after setting foot in Canada, Wendy and her family moved into an apartment in Greenfield Park. Three months later, she and her husband received their work permits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wendy was still able to enroll in French classes for six hours a week. The Carrefour le Moutier provides a free babysitting service for parents while they learn French.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It wasn\u2019t until the start of the 2019 school year that Wendy could devote herself full time to her French studies while her two daughters attended school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s very difficult to integrate if you don\u2019t speak French,\u201d explains the Honduran native. \u201cMy husband and I decided to put in the effort and spent two whole years learning the language.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, in the summer of 2019, their status changed from asylum seekers to accepted refugees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2021, a friend told Wendy about a project that supports immigrant women at an agency in the Centre-Sud neighbourhood called the Carrefour des ressources en Interculturel<\/a> (CRIC). When telling her story of time in Canada, Wendy says that there was life \u201cbefore the CRIC\u201d and \u201cafter the CRIC.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wendy discovered this agency through Femmes-Relais, the CRIC\u2019s flagship project that helps mostly immigrant women with their social and professional integration. \u201cStaff at the CRIC changed my life,\u201d Wendy says. \u201cI had no idea what I wanted to do, especially since my degree isn\u2019t recognized here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis was a chance for me to reinvent myself.\u201d For a year, Wendy did training and an internship as a community liaison at the CRIC. Every day, she met women who, like her, had to acclimate to a new culture while coping with the traumas of their migratory journeys. Her greatest joy has been helping others find their place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shortly thereafter, Wendy applied to the bachelor\u2019s program in social work at Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec \u00e0 Montr\u00e9al. \u201cApplying took a lot of courage and effort,” she says. \u201cThe women at the CRIC really motivated and supported me. I couldn\u2019t have done it without them. When I got my letter from UQ\u00c0M, I couldn\u2019t believe my eyes. They accepted me!\u201d she recounts with pride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This Honduran family now has permanent resident status. Wendy is continuing her studies, and her husband will finish his program in 3D animation in a few months. Their daughters are fully integrated and, as their mother tells it, they love the snow. \u201cWe\u2019re here for life,\u201d she says, forever grateful for her welcome in Quebec. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Since the time Wendy\u2019s family immigrated from Honduras in January 2018, the situation in Canada has significantly changed. The year 2022 was marked by an unprecedented surge in refugee and asylum-seeking people and families<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We therefore compared current wait times in different areas with Wendy\u2019s experience in 2018:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHeated and furnished apartments, three and a half, four and a half\u2014we didn\u2019t understand anything he was talking about!\u201d Wendy recalls with a laugh. \u201cBut we were so lucky he was there for us!\u201d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
A new start<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy youngest was just 4 years old when we arrived,\u201d says Wendy. \u201cSince asylum seekers can\u2019t access subsidized daycare, I didn\u2019t really have a choice but to stay home with her.\u201d <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
A key encounter<\/strong><\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
One day, Wendy said, \u201cI would help immigrants for the rest of my life, even if I didn\u2019t get paid!\u201d\u2014a sentiment shared wholeheartedly by the staff member she was talking to.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What if Wendy had arrived in January 2023?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n