Living Like A Bird; Damaris’ Story
It took Damaris five long months to find Christie Refugee Welcome Centre after arriving in Canada.
In five months, Damaris and her young son, bounced between hotel rooms, McDonald’s, Good Samaritan’s homes, church basements, shelters, and AirBnBs before finally being referred to an available shelter space at Christie Refugee Welcome Centre.
The constant state of motion, the moving, the back and forth was unfortunately nothing new to the family.
“We did a lot of moving when I was going through the things I was going through back home. One day we’re here, the next month we’re in another place; the longest we stayed anywhere [in Kenya, before leaving for Canada] was three months,” remembers Damaris about her endless state of movement in her native Kenya, with her young son –aged four – by her side.
“I was living like a bird,” Damaris explains.
Arriving to Pearson International Airport in the Fall of 2023, Damaris paid for three nights at a hotel in Mississauga hoping that after a few days a shelter space in Toronto would soon be available. It wasn’t, and with her funds dried up, she and her son found themselves at a bus stop with their suitcases, uncertain where to go or whom to turn to. Her young son hungry, they turned to the McDonald’s across the street. A Good Samaritan found them stranded and offered to pay for one night at a hotel. He then connected them to a church where they stayed for a few days after which they were connected to a hotel-turned-family shelter in Scarborough, which accommodated them temporarily.
From there the family was moved to yet another over-capacity shelter where they were provided with temporary camping beds to sleep on the floor for one night. Then they were moved again: this time to another shelter hotel in Vaughan. From there, the family was finally connected to financial assistance so that they could afford an AirBnB, temporarily, while they continued to await a family shelter space opening. The family lived at the Air BnB for four months before arriving to Christie.
Damaris admits that when she and her son arrived to Christie, this too was a shock.
“Dylan cried for two days saying he wanted to go back home. Then he was not speaking at all. That was hard for me to experience as a mother,” explains Damaris, who left two other children back home in Kenya and remembers raising her family in a large home.
“I’ve come to understand that when you are going through trauma, it also affects kids. We’ve never experienced homelessness.”
Her family’s story highlights the world of difference emergency shelter spaces like Christie can have for just one refugee family.
“When I arrived to Christie, submitting my refugee claim was first on my mind,” tells Damaris.
At the time, she did not yet have a lawyer for her claim, even after almost half a year in Canada. Her search for emergency shelter had taken priority over her refugee claim.
With the support of Christie’s immigration worker, Damaris was connected with a refugee lawyer through Legal Aid Ontario, and corrected the errors in her refugee submission.
Christie’s Child and Family Worker connected Damaris’ son with Junior Kindergarten so that Damaris could begin volunteering, attending employment trainings and starting to look for work. Damaris quickly found employment thanks to the childcare support.
In April 2024, Damaris even qualified for the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit and started looking for housing but the program was quickly suspended so she refocussed her efforts on upskilling and continuing to work.
“[Even without the prospect of housing] I’ve been quite busy. I just finished my Personal Support Worker training and I’m waiting for my placement now. I work on the weekends,” tells Damaris who worked as a gender-based violence activist back in Kenya.
After the flurry of finding childcare for son, attending employment trainings, and having found work, Damaris also recognized she needed to be connected with mental health services.
“By the time I came to Christie, I was a broken person.”
Christie’s Child and Family Worker together with Christie’s on-site clinic doctor, Dr. Rashid, connected Damaris to counselling services and in 2024 Damaris made a concerted effort to improve both her mental and physical health.
She got involved with the organization Colour of Poverty, Colour of Change and in November 2024, Damaris shared her refugee story in front of an audience of thousands at the Colour of Poverty, Colour of Change Provincial Summit, titled Campaign 2000: End Child and Family Poverty.
Although Damaris is currently uncertain of her permanent housing prospects, the space, support, and resources to heal is what makes Christie Refugee Welcome Centre more than just a shelter.
“The fact that I am here today and sharing my story; this too is progress.”