Counselling Newcomers to Canada

The mission of the Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization (OCISO), which celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary this year, is "to enable newcomers in the Ottawa area to become equal participants in all aspects of Canadian society through the provision of specialized and innovative services."

Tara Upreti contributes to this mission as a cultural counsellor. Upreti, a woman from Nepal who has been in Canada for three years, listens to newcomers who have anxiety and stress, especially victims of war. Some have difficulties adjusting to life in Canada and many feel isolated from the community and their relatives whom they've left back home. Some are even suicidal.

Many of Upreti's clients are reluctant to tell their stories for fear of putting their relatives in danger, but they can trust her because of her background in human rights organizations.

Upreti is a valuable resource because she speaks English, Hindi and Nepali. She also has experience in advocacy, lobbying and networking for gender equality and human rights. In Nepal she observed protests and gathered information for the United Nations and Amnesty International.

She has taken a one-year training program in cultural counselling and is currently training as a clinical counsellor for five hours a week. She has traveled to Southeast Asia and the United States for comparative education.

Upreti sees herself as a peacemaker because she has been thinking of peace since her childhood. All her life she has been defending human rights, especially those of women and children. She has worked with Amnesty International's Group 56 here in Ottawa, and in 2000 she received a peacemaker award from the Women's Peace Foundation.

Peace is hard to attain in Nepal, a country of 61 indigenous groups and 61 languages, where the Crown Prince and his predecessors have killed thousands of people. But for Upreti, her work is rewarding. Knowing the pain her clients have gone through, when she sees them happy, it makes her feel happy too.

OCISO also helps newcomers find homes and legal help, celebrate and protect their culture and learn English. It is funded through its members, donations, fundraising events, various levels of government, the United Way and the United Nations (for services to victims of torture and war).