To your comment, a lot of us actually were talking about how we work together, so to any of my peers on the call, please feel free to also jump in.
I'll answer the question in two parts.
When I was working in Cairo, a lot of our cases were cases of human trafficking. What I saw pre-arrival to Canada of newcomers is that a lot of the times, these issues are linked back to your original question and issues of abject poverty. When people lose everything in the process and they're desperate to rebuild their lives, those who don't have the means to navigate those systems tend to end up falling victim to exploitation. This is something that in my career—and I have been lucky to work in this field for quite a while—I see time and time again. When I come back now to Canadian soil and our work in Newfoundland and Labrador, I do see a lot of the same parallels. In fact one of the things the Association for New Canadians has done is feasibility studies specifically around shelter services for newcomer women in our community, which are next to non-existent. When we have victims of trafficking, survivors of trafficking, in our programs what becomes extra challenging is how to support them when we're trying to get them out of these situations.
Whether it's labour trafficking in the remote communities of Labrador or trafficking right here in the city of St. John's, the response is much more difficult to provide when there isn't that housing. But so too are the conditions that lead to that exploitation to begin with, so much like in my talk where I drew the parallel between my experience in Egypt and my experience here in Newfoundland, these parallels exist here in Canada as well. A lot of the cases we are seeing are at heightened risk for trafficking or become victims of trafficking because they end up turning to people who offer what seems like genuine help to get them out of this abject poverty.
Therefore, housing underpins a lot of the work we do, and housing first is often what we find as a trauma-informed approach to the same issue. A lot of this boils down to exactly that.
I see that my colleague Chiara wants to add, so I'm going to leave her some space.