Settlement

No one can imagine how hard it is to leave your hometown. Only the people involved know. Before the war started in our country, the circumstances were so bad. Everything was too expensive to buy. There was no free expression, so people could not give their opinion of the government.  There was also discrimination against any religion that was not the religion authorized by the government.  People began to complain and asked the government for change, but they did not respond and they started to arrest people who raised their voices. We are some of these people, so my husband escaped to another country. Our two children and I followed him after two years.

We lived in the new and safer country for one year and three months, where we could not have jobs. My husband worked “under the table” in construction. We sold some jewelry and rented an apartment, but we couldn’t find much work. During this time we started to look for anything that could get us out of this situation. When a group of people asked us if we’d like to move to Canada, we said, "Certainly," and they started to prepare everything. It took more than eight months until we moved to Canada.

It was a difficult decision because we knew that we may not go back to our home, and we may not see our families again. However, now we are so happy in Canada, and we hope we can go and visit our home when the war is finished.