Richard and WCG transcript

Richard: I’m Richard Elhaddad. I came from Lebanon in September 2022. I never had in mind that I would end up as a refugee in Canada. I was living a very healthy way in my community and my family. And we were doing fine. We were living great. In 2019, it was the 17th of October when everything changed. We had kind of a revolution in Lebanon. And after that, the banks - they took our money. They shoot on me. They were hitting me everywhere. I got injuries in my head and all my body. That's why I ended up here. I found that this is the best way to move on and to find a better life. At the beginning, it was very hard for me because I'm born again. It's a totally new place for me. So I found myself needing support from somewhere. One of my friends, she told me, “Go to a food bank.” They told me that they have an office here. They can help me to find a job. And I met the first angel of my life.

Shosan: We met Richard at the compass Food bank. It's a food bank that we do community intervention in. So we were there providing employment services. and Richard was one of the clients that we had met. Richard had a lot of barriers, and one of them being housing, the second one being food security. Then, transportation was also, a barrier for Richard. Another thing was language barrier. so thankfully that, I am also Arab, so I was able to communicate with him, in the same language, and I was able to assist him, to work with him one on one and to give him that one on one support.

Richard: Apoorva - she changed my life, really, leading me to everything I need. I got the job in a very good company. Transportation is one of the biggest challenges, because especially my new job is located in an area where you don't have busses. So also my angel came up with the idea that she will help me to get a bicycle to help me to reach my destination. It made everything easy to me. I can go get my groceries. I can go get my medicines.

Shosan: I just gave him a first week for him to kind of just settle in, you know, go over the orientation. And when we made that phone call and were like, “hey Richard, how's it going?” He was thrilled. The feedback that we got from him was amazing. And then we'll fast forward to two months later. He was actually, promoted to the supervisor of all the other product associates.

Richard: I moved from an entry level employee to a team leader. Can you imagine in a miserable place, where everything is working against you, where everything is pushing you back...and you can make a difference, in a place where everything is pushing you forward, and giving you support and security. You will make what is impossible, possible. We are looking for, a better future, and we are sure that we will get that better future, because here, everything you do it and the right way, you will get the good result.