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I am London 150

“I am London 150” showcases the diversity that gives Canada its unique identity. The campaign celebrates successful immigrants who have chosen to call London their home. Two new faces will be profiled every month until November 2017.
Check this blog, Facebook and Twitter to read their inspiring stories.

Bharati Sethi

11/15/2017

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There were early days in Canada when Bharati Sethi’s PhD dreams must have seemed worlds away. But even when employers at her waitressing and cleaning jobs laughed at the notion that she would one day be a professor, Bharati kept moving toward her goals.
Now a Londoner for two years, an award-winning researcher named one of London’s “diversity and inclusion champions” and listed among the Royal Bank’s “top 25 immigrants to Canada,” Bharati was an aspiring Hotel Management student in Montreal when she first moved to Canada from Mumbai 20 years ago. 
As her status shifted in Canada from a foreign student to a foreign worker, she had to overcome many new obstacles – racism being the biggest constant challenge, and continuing to this day – and she says she realized many of the hardships that she and so many other newcomers faced were directly connected to policies. With that awareness, Bharati felt compelled to do more research that could result in policy changes that would have a direct impact on future hardships.  As an assistant professor of social work at King’s College, Western University in London, she works directly with students and other academics to achieve the greater goal of making this country more inclusive.
For her thesis – titled “Do You See What I See?” – Bharati provided cameras to immigrant women and asked them to capture images that they felt illustrated their experiences in Canada. The project has been exhibited in several Ontario cities and received praise for empowering women who are marginalized by giving them an opportunity to tell their own stories using photographs.
As a London diversity and inclusion champion, Bharati provides input to the city on how to be inclusive. She reminds governments at all levels that the health of a community depends on the health of all its residents, including newcomers and immigrants.
And as someone who has struggled, yet continued to focus on moving toward her goals, her advice to newcomers is to do the same.  “If you stop, you know for sure that you will not reach your goal,” says Bharati. “If you need to rest, rest for a bit, if you need to crawl, then crawl, but always keep moving.”



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Asmaa

11/15/2017

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With five young children, London was a good choice for  Asmaa and her husband to make their new home after leaving the uncertainty that surrounded life in Syria. Considered a quiet, safe city, London has a reputation as a “good place to raise a family,” and that’s exactly what they needed. Originally from Iraq, the family spent five years in Syria before the United Nations High Commission for Refugees selected their family as refugees to be placed in Canada.
“To have our file selected to go to Canada was a big dream come true,” says Asmaa, who was a medical doctor in Iraq. The entire family obtained citizenship in August 2015, and Asmaa now works in London as a medical interpreter.
“I wish to give Canada all that I can,” says Asmaa, “This is where we will be staying forever and we just want an equal opportunity to succeed.”
When they arrived, the couple didn’t know anybody in London, so they began reaching out as volunteers and immediately sought to get “equalization” for their Master's degrees and to learn how they could integrate into Canadian society with ease. Community connections led  to Asmaa becoming a certified interpreter. She now works for Across Languages.
Asmaa also volunteers with the Middlesex London Health Unit, London Intercommunity Health Centre, London Middlesex Local Immigration Partnership, London Cross Cultural Learner Centre, her children’s schools and community centres.
In 2017, Asmaa was selected for the award “Life As Refugee Award - From Refugee to Londoner.”
She hopes her experience can inspire other newcomers. She urges other newcomers to push through discomfort and get involved in the community through ESL classes, job workshops and volunteering. Doing so leads to improved language skills, which Asmaa considers the key to success in Canada.
“I want to inspire people,” says Asmaa. “I want someone to look at me and say, ‘because of you, I didn’t give up.’”
She asks the broader community to “open your doors for the newcomers,” arriving in London with educational and career experience from all over the world.



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Sereen Alkhayyat

11/15/2017

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You might think after living in four countries throughout the Middle East, another move would be easy. But immigrating to Canada came with new challenges for Sereen Alkhayyat, a former banker who was accustomed to a busy social life before she and her family left Dubai in 2010. “We didn't know anyone in Canada,” she recalls, thinking back to the isolation she felt during her first year in Vaughan, Ontario. After a year in Canada, the family moved to London for her husband’s career, and Sereen sought inspiration in her favourite Winston Churchill quote: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
With that as her slogan, Sereen set out to make life better for her family – she and her husband have four children – and those around her in London.
Still home then with infant twins, Sereen offered to help friends with fundraising, joined a networking group and started a gift-basket franchise. In 2015, after the twins started school, she began volunteering with the London Cross Cultural Learner Centre, helping Syrian refugees get settled. In 2016, she did the United Way stair climb with the “From Migration to Integration” team.

Fluent in English and Arabic, Sereen is a certified interpreter.
Being Canadian is a “privilege, an honour,” says Sereen, who has dual citizenship – Canadian and Jordanian. She hopes to instill pride in her children, and brings them to Jordan each summer to visit family.
Sereen urges other newcomers to learn English and get involved in the community, saying that is what helped her achieve the life she now enjoys.
Grateful to all those who helped her feel at home in London, she urges all Londoners to welcome newcomers.
“If we work together we can make London safer and stronger,” says Sereen.



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  • Home
  • I Am London 2025
  • PREVIOUS CAMPAIGNS
    • I AM LONDON 2024 >
      • Diego Cortes
      • Willy Aristide
      • Angela Gjurichanin
      • Selma Popovic
      • Firas Al Basri
      • Amsa Yaro
      • Jules Gutierrez
      • Camila Ariza
      • Patricia Vasconcellos Medeiros
      • Al-Asala Dabke Group
    • I Am London 2023 >
      • Susan Abdula
      • Gaston Mabaya
      • Grace Estrada
      • Chinelo Ezenwa
      • Francis Hinnah
      • Eman Ahmad (Al Sayyah)
      • Sandra Pineda
      • Angad Singh
      • Leticia Tang
    • I Am London 2022
    • I am London 2021
    • I am London 2020
    • I am London 2019
    • I AM LONDON 2018 >
      • - Osama, Sebastien & Lisseth
      • - Alba, Delveen & Afeez
      • - Emilio & Eman
      • - Stanislav, Fan & May
      • - Irina, Carlos & Joan
    • I am London 150 (2017)
    • I am London 2015
    • I am London 2014
    • I am London 2013
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