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Major Canadian Charity Targets Immigrant Communities

A P Kamath

When a 40 plus Sri Lankan killed himself and his baby son by dashing at a rushing train in Toronto about a month ago, many people in the larger Indian Canadian community felt terrible.

"There are too many deep emotional problems," said a waiter T S Raj. "When will we have organizations that deal with people like us?" he added.

He should have some satisfaction to see that a major charity in North America is thinking on his wavelength and decided this week, after many months of planning, that it will set aside funds each year for immigration-related issues.

Among the 15 programs made possible is a groundbreaking youth project for gay and lesbian youth that will he aided by donation by United Way.

It will conduct programs in half a dozen Asian languages including Tamil and Punjabi.

"Many immigrants have language and cultural difficulties in accessing existing services and we thank United Way for stepping in and bridging the gap,'' said William Lau of Asian Community AIDS Services.

The 15 social and health programs received one-year funding from $250,000 (Canadian) in newcomers' grants announced by the United Way of Greater Toronto this week. The organization has identified housing, poverty and employment as the key barriers for new immigrants settling in Toronto, where 47 per cent of the population is foreign-born. The cosmopolitan city has over 1.5 million people from the Indian Subcontinent and the Caribbean.

The new funding scheme, specifically allocated for immigrant settlement, was introduced after research, surveys and newspaper and television coverage showed ethnic communities are seriously underserved, said United Way president Anne Golden.

"Historically, once these immigrants were settled, they usually made more money than their Canadian-born counterparts," she said.. "But we all know the picture is not as rosy for recent newcomers.''

"A lot of them face the barrier to get their skills accredited and, in a knowledge-based economy, it's hard to get a job without English or French,'' Golden said.

Among the other projects announced are a mentoring program for at-risk Tamil youth through the Canadian Tamil youth Development Centre; a project to help Chinese seniors, socially isolated because of language barriers, through the Chinese Seniors Support Services Association and an interagency outreach project at the Scarborough Women's Centre for isolated South Asian, Tamil, Caribbean and Chinese women to help them participate in the community and move toward independence.

With the new funding, "not only will new arrivals be better able to cope with new challenges, our city will benefit from their contributions economically, socially and culturally,'' Golden said. Several community leaders wondered when the Indian Canadian organizations will step in and help the United Way aid more immigrants.

The United Way's 1999 fundraising goal is $62.8 million.

"Donors should feel great about their giving when they hear about the programs they help make possible,'' Golden said.

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