Fourteen years after they arrived in Canada, Ahmad Ali and Huda Mahmud smile and laugh as they talk about their life together here. They are quick to praise each other and gush over their three children. They finish each other’s sentences.
You can feel love in the room. It makes perfect sense that the couple operates a thriving wedding photography and video business.
But while their business Diamond Digital Production may seem like a dream come true, it was not part of their dream for a better life when they first arrived in Canada in 2005.
“Since I was 10-years-old, I always loved cameras and taking pictures, but I never thought I’d do it as a business,” says Ahmad.
“He dreamed to be an engineer when he came to Canada. That’s what he went to university for,” says Huda.
“But we rebuilt our life here,” says Ahmad, as Huda agrees and chimes in. “We are happy.” 
They arrived with a different plan. Originally from Iraq, Ahmad was a computer engineer and had experience as a university professor in Libya. Huda was trained in accounting and worked as a teacher.
They had another baby here.  During those early years, the couple took countless pictures and videos of their kids, and family vacations.
Ahmad did get work in computing and Huda in retail, but at the same time, the couple became more passionate about photography and videography.
Many parents take pictures of their kids, but Ahmad and Huda had something else – Ahmad’s comfort with technology. He could learn any editing software fast, and he did. He took some courses while Huda was home with the young kids, then he’d come home and teach her what he learned.  They started doing photography and videos for extended family and friends.
By the time Ahmad lost his job in 2009, they’d already slowly established themselves as a business.
And since then, Diamond Digital has photographed more than 300 weddings, which has Ahmad and Huda make friends and family across London. They also shoot photos and videos for several London agencies, including the London Cross Cultural Learner Centre, Access Centre, the London Middlesex Local Immigration Partnership, the Iraqi Community House and London Muslim Mosque.
It’s hard to believe they are newcomers. They have got to know so many families through their work. They’ve even done weddings for four siblings in the same family.
Ahmad says for their family, the biggest hurdle to overcome in Canada was language. They are grateful to the family who already lived in London when they arrived, and who helped them learn about the city – explaining things in Arabic when necessary.
“People need someone to guide them in a good direction,” says Huda.
Thankful for the way things have gone for their family, they try to spread the word about London as a welcoming community to raise children.
“We always advise our friends from Edmonton and Toronto to come here . . . It’s a family feeling in this city,” says Ahmad. “I tell them London is a good place for families and for kids,” says Huda. “You can have a better life here – safe for their family. And you can travel on the weekend – you want to go to Toronto? You can be there in two hours.” 

Rakhee Chopra arrived in Canada at 24-years-old, just married to a man she had just met. It was St. Patrick’s Day, 2005. The newlyweds moved into her in-laws’ home in St. Catharines, as expected.
Before that, Rakhee had been managing a call centre – and designing clothes on the side – in Bombay, India where she had been born and raised. But in the past 14 years, Rakhee has completely rebuilt her life, to fulfill her dream of creating clothing designed for curvy women and start a social media movement called #empoweryourcurves.
“I just said, ‘this is it,’” she recalls. “I said ‘there are people out there who need what I do.’ I make clothes for myself. I’m curvy and I can’t find clothes for myself here or in India.  And I started sewing for people again.”
Now the owner of a growing Canadian fashion company (www.Rakheechopra.com), Rakhee is also a community builder. She does fashion shows to raise money for Anova London – an agency, she feels “deeply connected to,” because she has been abused in her past – and has volunteered with the London Lesbian Film Festival and Clothing Works.
She started designing and sewing her own clothes when she was only nine-years-old. “I couldn’t find anything for myself. I used to make stuff for curvy women there too,” she says.
She was still doing that on the side of her call-centre job back in India before she immigrated to Canada with her then-husband. After a short time with his “very traditional” parents, the couple moved out and lived in several southwest Ontario cities until they bought a home in London in 2007 and adopted their children.
Life was busy, as it is with children, and Rakhee got a job working retail, but she made time to sew her own clothes, because she couldn’t find anything that felt right for her curvy body.
“I wore men’s clothes at the time,” she says. “In Canada, I wanted to see clothes for myself.”
Then, after a fall from a ladder, she made up her mind to start her own business. For someone who was new to Canada, that meant she had to work hard to meet people and network.
“It felt like putting a mask on sometimes,” she recalls. “I was always telling myself ‘this is for my girls and the other women too who want to look great.’” And she did it. When you get out of your comfort zone, that’s when your growth happens,” she says. 
It wasn’t always easy. She says she lost the support of some friends when she came out as gay.
But she was true to herself and found others, as well as a loyal following for her business. She now has 30 regular clients and has hired an assistant designer and a virtual assistant. She is hiring again, with plans to move into a booth at the Western Fair Farmer’s Market. She aims to be a zero-waste company and donates scraps to a local charity.
And she will continue to support the people and causes that are close to her heart in London, she says.
“London never felt like a city,” she says “Always more like a community to me.”

Originally from the Ivory Coast, Reymond Kouame lived in Gatineau, Quebec, then Sudbury before he moved to London in 2015 with his wife and their three young daughters.
He had arrived in Canada equipped with a bachelor’s degree in agriculture and a master’s degree in environmental science, then went on to complete a bachelor’s in education at Laurentian University in Sudbury.
A year later, he came to London for two co-op placements – getting experience as a student teacher before he started teaching at a French-language school in the area. His wife and daughters joined him and since then, Reymond has been teaching in French elementary schools.
And now, after seeing a need in London, he has ventured out as an entrepreneur.
“Parents are always asking if we can find a tutor in French for them,” he said. “It is difficult to find a French tutor."
This year, he and his two partners started a French tutoring service called FrancoEduc (www.francoeduc.ca).  So far FrancoEduc, which is based out of an office on Leathorne Street, has 10 students, but the vision is to grow as large as Kumon Math & Reading or Oxford Learning Tutoring Services.
Reymond says the business would offer a good source of employment to French-speaking immigrants with a teaching background. “We want to give opportunities to newcomers, so they can have their first Canadian work experience,” he says. “Some people come here, they like London and they don’t speak English. They cannot find work because they don’t have the Canadian experience. We want to give them that.”
Reymond knows how big of a barrier language can be. When his family arrived to London, “English was the biggest challenge,” he says. “We knew we could explain things in our language.” 
He still recalls the French-speaking people who helped his family “make connections,” and even make appointments, in those early days.
Reymond accessed workshops by agencies such as le Carrefour Communautaire Francophone de London (CCFL).
He says London’s French-language community contributed to his family’s integration and development.
More importantly, the community helped his family feel at home.
To other newcomers, his advice is to find people willing to help and work to overcome the language barrier.
“Go outside. Go into the community to talk to people and find people who can help you,” he says. “Don’t be afraid to return to school to learn English. It will be helpful.”