What: Khalsa Aid Canada’s Ottawa Chapter will be organizing an orientation event to help new international students in the Ottawa National Capital Region (NCR). Over 200 students will receive free winter jackets, and be provided guidance in settling into their new life in Ottawa information on important local services they can use. Ottawa Police Services will also be present to provide guidance to these new international students and equip them with important information. The Ottawa Sikh Society is providing venue space and will prepare hot meals for the international students attending the event.
Who: Khalsa Aid Canada’s Team Ottawa and Executives from various organizations will be there to support students.
Gobindbir Singh, Project Manager, Khalsa Aid Canada, will be available for questions
When: Saturday, November 12 from 12-3 p.m.
Where: Ottawa Sikh Society, Gurdwara Sahib of Ottawa,
25 Gurdwara Road, Nepean, Ontario
Why: International students face numerous challenges when they arrive in Canada. Many students have invested significant money and even leveraged family assets to get an opportunity to study and work in Canada. Increasing numbers of Ontario’s international college students come from India, where it’s not uncommon for rural families to literally leverage the farm to raise enough money to pay for a daughter or son’s education, hoping they’ll eventually land a decent job and be able to remit money back home to repay the debt. A large number of students are provided with a distorted picture of the quality of educational institutes and ease of life in Canada. Most students are not provided the information they need to find the right accommodation, understand rules and regulations, how to cope with mental stress, how to manage finances, and so on. Some even get ill because they cannot afford to buy good winter clothes in their early days.
Therefore, Khalsa Aid Canada organizes winter jacket events across the country to support and provide the right guidance to new international students and essential winter jackets to those that can not afford them.
