Thank you. Yes, I do speak fast.
—feeling welcomed, making friends, getting involved, and receiving homework support. These programs empowered not just to learn English and excel academically but volunteer and start new programs in my community (English Welcome Club) in my city in order to empower other youth like myself. However soon I learned that in fact, the support I was receiving was technically not for me because I was a refugee claimant therefore not qualified to receive these essential supports so crucial for my success. VSB staffs helped me regardless of caring about my status, and I am grateful for their courage because it took my family 3.5 years to receive a refugee status which meant I would get qualified for these support after leaving high school.
Myriam arrived in Canada as a refugee claimant and was very fortunate to make it to Canada alive, as many of people from her country of origin don't. The three and a half years it took to become a refugee was quite fast for immigration processing time.
Those are some examples of the differences between receiving settlement in that time frame and not.