Refugee women escape conflict to start over as caterers in Montreal

Hend Elhousenyfled Gaza with her four children and says she's starting over in Canada "from zero,"but the community is helping bolster her dreams of creating a new life, and one day, she wants to help other women do the same.

She's part of a group called Women Weaving Their Dreams that includes about a dozen refugee women in Montreal who cater events.

Their next meal is for about 100 people atan interfaith holiday dinnerin Cartierville at the Al Rawdah Mosque.

The 40-year-old Elhousenyarrived in Montreal in June 2017 and started doing volunteer work at PRAIDA, the provincial government organization that helps refugee claimants in their first months in Quebec.

Her chapter includeswomen who fled Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Jordan and other countries.

They meet about twice a month and alsocheck in on each other over the phone and online.

It offers her a kind of grounding that she left behind when she fled her home.

"I'm out of three wars, and a siege, and a lot of difficulties and conflict, but [I'm] still alive, and here in Canada," she said.

"I have to work, I have to start my life."

She said she's honoured to cater the upcoming Celebration of Light event.

The director of the hosting AlRawdahMosque, Samer Elniz,is proud to be able to provide a catering opportunity for her andthe other women.

"It's better than buying from restaurants because we're helping them," he said.

Christian, Jewish, Muslim, First Nations celebrate

The event is in its third year, andElniz says it's a chance for different religious communities to celebrate what unifies them rather than what divides them.

"Every organization has a vision, and we have a lot of common visions," Elniz said.

The dinner is open to the public and will feature food, music, speeches and dancing.

Last year, members of the Mohawk community were among those in attendance and they welcomed everyone to the land.

For the executive director of the Montreal City Mission, Rev. PaulaKline, the most moving momentwas the lighting of a menorah.

"I don't think it's been too often where you have the Jewish community lighting a menorah in a mosque, together with Muslims and Christians," she said.

She said the event came out of an invitation fromthe Muslim Association of Canada to St.James United Church to come celebrate Christmas with them.

"We said, 'OK, let's do that. But let's make it an interfaith affair,'" Kline said.

SinceWomen Weaving Their Dreams is affiliated with St.James United Church, it was a natural fit to ask them to cater the event.

'I know the suffering they face'

Elhouseny said the women in her group are always actively searching for work.

"I know the suffering they face, and they need to earn money," she said.

Kline said the language barrier provides an added struggle to getting these women into the workforce.

Last week, Quebec PremierFranoisLegaultsaid he would reduce the number of economic immigrants entering the province and focus on integration.

Kline hopes to meet withQuebec's new immigration minister, SimonJolin-Barrette, in the new year to discuss the Montreal City Mission's integration model, which she says has proven very successful.

"A lot of these women are too shy to go to a language class," she said.

Elhouseny has so appreciated how the Montreal City Mission has helped her, thatshe hopes to take the concept behind Women Weaving Their Dreams further, and open a restaurant that only employs refugee women.

She wants it to be a place for these women to earn money andget to know others like them.

She's not sure where she might want to open it, maybe near a CEGEP, or another location with a lot of pedestrian traffic, she said.

For now, she's taking things one day at a time and is happy to see her children speaking French, English and Arabic, and to be reunited with her husband in Montreal.