Together Project was delighted to be on CBC Metro Morning!

Years ago, Samuel, one of our Welcome Group Program newcomers, was on the show, which led to Avery of SickKids reaching out to help him start his career in Toronto.

Today, not only are Samuel and Avery still friends, but they’re celebrating Samuel’s new Canadian citizenship. Read the interview transcript below:

CBC: “We have an uplifting lovely story that began right here in the studio: several years ago, Samuel Kimuli arrived in Canada as a refugee from Uganda. It was not an easy start— he spent months living in a homeless shelter. That’s when we first met him.”

Samuel: “When I landed, I didn’t know what to do. I was confused. I didn’t know anybody in the country, and really, I was very scared. I went to a shelter. That was the only place where I could get some help and a roof over my head. At that time, I was thinking to myself, I’ve just come here to escape some bad things and now more bad things are happening.”

CBC: “Listening to the Metro Morning radio program, Avery MacLean decided to reach out. Avery and Sam have since become close friends and today, they’re celebrating Samuel getting his Canadian citizenship.”

CBC: “Congratulations on Citizenship Day.”

Samuel: “Thank you, thank you.”

CBC: “Now Avery, I want to go back to that point several years ago. You heard the interview. What said to you, ‘I need to do something’?”

Avery: “So the interview was playing in the background while I was getting dressed, and it was with Together Project, which is a lovely organization that offers a social network for newcomers and immigrants and refugees. I was interested in what they were talking about, but when Samuel‘s piece came on, I was just really drawn in by his story, but also his resilience. I think that was the thing that came through for me: just how he was finding the bright lining to everything that he was going through. And Matt Galloway was the host at the time, and he asked a number of probing questions around Samuel‘s aspirations. Professionally, Samuel had had a little bit of work, but not in his chosen field. He talked about how he had accredited himself because he recognized that although he had skills– an education from Uganda– he needed to upgrade his skills. So I was just very impressed by this young man. He was taking all of this advice that he was receiving from people, taking every opportunity to better improve himself and make himself more eligible for opportunities. 

And Matt asked this really important question at the end: ‘What is your chosen profession? Where do you want to be?’ And Samuel said, ‘I want to be a DevOps engineer,’ and at that moment I thought, ‘Well, I work at the Hospital for Sick Children, and we actually have a DevOps position open– not in my department, but in an adjacent department.’ So, I reached out to the hiring manager as soon as I got to work, and I asked him whether he would be willing to take a look at Samuel’s résumé. We have a very competitive hiring process, a transparent public sector, but I knew that Arun, the hiring manager, would take a look if I asked him to.

I then reached out to Together Project— and it’s interesting, Sam and I were just looking at the email exchange from that morning; I’ve saved that email— and I reached out to Together Project at 11:57 AM. It’s volunteer run, and I thought maybe they’d get back to me in a couple of days, but I was trying to find Samuel. And I said, ‘There might be an opportunity. Can you connect me to Sam?’ And they wrote back four minutes later and said, ‘Absolutely.’ And by the end of the day, they connected me to Sam and then I connected Sam to Arun. Sam had applied to the job posting through our job portal and sent his resume by 5:55. It was all ready to go.”

CBC: “What’s changed in your life, Sam, since?”

Samuel: “Ever since, I’ve moved up in my career.”

CBC: “Did you get the job?”

Samuel: “Yeah, I got the job. It helped me build my career, and from Sick Kids, I had another great opportunity, and then afterwards, I finally landed a much better opportunity, so right now, I can say I’m doing well. Considering at the beginning, I’m really grateful for the chance that Sick Kids and Avery gave me. Going through all those moments, it really got me to where I am right now.

CBC: “When you look at the time from the moment you landed here, you ended up in a shelter— did you have hope in that moment? Could you see the possibility of where you’ve got to today?”

Samuel: “At that moment was so difficult, and to be honest with you, everything was bad, but I was just grateful that I was accepted because I was fleeing somewhere where things were bad and I was in a place whereby you know, they gave me food, shelter. Things were bad, but I had some hope that probably, you know, it might get better, right? So I was just grateful for the small things I was getting, grateful for the food that I was having, you know, being on welfare, and the difficult moments, but I had hope that one day, you know, probably, there could be a change for the better.”

CBC: “What does citizenship mean for you now?”

Samuel: “Citizenship, for me, means that this is a place where I felt that I belong. It marks a long journey in my life to get to this very point. You know, from the very moment, interacting with Canadians, and I always feel, you know, that welcoming spirit, right? And I always studied about Canada’s history, the beautiful things about Canada,  and I fell in love with the country and I always wanted to be here and to make this my home, so I feel so privileged and I feel like this is the greatest opportunity in my life, to be honest.”

Avery: “I’m incredibly grateful that Sam has chosen Canada. I think that he has earned all of these opportunities for himself. It’s taken Canadians to make those connections. So it took Together Project, Metro Morning– it was easy for me to make a couple of phone calls. It was easy for the folks at Sick Kids to help Sam with his first professional job in Canada, and learn the ways of working here. He’s capitalized on every single one. He’s so well-deserving of citizenship and he’s giving back in so many ways.”

CBC: “I said at the beginning of this interview, it is a heavy day in a heavy week, and it is just so great to hear some good. Thank you for coming in and telling us your ‘together story.’ That’s Samuel Kimuli, becoming a Canadian citizen on the very day we record this. He’s also celebrating with Avery MacLean who reached out to him after hearing his story on CBC Radio’s Metro Morning.”