“I am Canadian” were the first words a Mount Forest volunteer remembers a 5-year-old refugee saying upon her arrival in the county last month.
Cherry Soe, 5, arrived in Canada from Malaysia with her father Thuya, 35, and mother Pone Mein, 39, on May 11 at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.
The Mount Forest United Church sponsored the family and volunteer sponsorship group member Janice Benson, as well as Thuya and Pone Mein, said Cherry seems to feel very much at home in Mount Forest.
“Cherry is like … it’s my country, it’s my home, it’s my place. She likes Canada,” Pone Mein said.
Thuya laughed as he explained Cherry likes to say he and Pone Mein are from Malaysia but she makes a point of saying she’s now Canadian.
Thuya and Pone Mein are actually from Myanmar. They escaped the country in 2007 because of conflict there.
“My village is on border of Thailand and Myanmar,” Pone Mein said. “I walked to Thailand … over the river.”
Cherry was not yet born so it was just the two of them taking the journey together. It took them about 45 minutes to cross the river into Thailand from their village in Myanmar.
Once there they went to an agent’s house, who then arranged ground transport to take them to Malaysia by car.
Pone Mein explained that they didn’t have any papers and what they were doing was illegal. They had to hide in the car when they went through immigration so officers wouldn’t see them.
The couple made safely it to Malaysia, where they lived for about nine years.
Over that time both of them worked and Pone Mein’s boss gave them a one bedroom apartment above the business.
“We don’t have anything, ID,” Pone Mein said, adding it was “scary” to stay there.
The family registered with the Myanmar Community in Malaysia, which then joined with the United Nations. With the United Nations ID card, Cherry couldn’t attend school and long-term residence in Malaysia was discouraged.
“We can stay, cannot working, cannot go to school and cannot drive and so many things,” Thuya said.
So the family was told they’d be coming to Canada.
“In Malaysia … United Nations say ‘you got Canada county’ … I try to (learn) English,” Thuya said. “My friend teach for me and Cherry, the whole family and we see TV in English.”
The United Church refugee sponsorship group had been working toward sponsoring a family for quite some time. The group began looking at lists of potential refugees in December and eventually chose the Soes.
“I think in March or April we knew that they were coming, but we didn’t have a date so we rented the apartment for May 1, not sure when they were coming and then it worked out very nicely,” Benson said.
“We had time to clean it and get the furniture together and have it ready for them.”
The week after the family arrived it snowed. The family donned the winter clothing they received at immigration and went outside to make snowmen. Cherry especially took to the snow and thinks it should be around every weekend.
The 5-year-old is in senior kindergarten at Victoria Cross Public School and she’s thriving.
“She loves school,” Benson said. And her English is sufficient.
The family has also visited various farms in the area because Cherry really likes animals and they celebrated Thuya’s birthday on June 5, something that isn’t traditionally done in Myanmar.
“Saturday I forget,” he said. “A cake – oh tomorrow is my birthday.” The family also went to a barbecue at another sponsorship group member’s house to celebrate.
At this point neither Thuya or Pone Mein are working. However both are taking English as a second language lessons so when it comes time to find a job they can find a good one, Benson said.
“It’s all new to us as well so we feel very lucky that we got Thuya and Pone Mein,” Benson said. “They’ve been just great to work with and to be with.
“They’re very forward looking, like ‘Canada is our home now’ and that’s wonderful.”
