Canadian immigration launches mentoring scheme

June 15 2009 by Ranjan Chakraborty

Canadian immigration minister

A mentoring scheme to help young Somali-Canadians settle in Canada is being supported by Canadian immigration.

Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister, Jason Kenney revealed the plans to invest some CA$473,640 in the groundbreaking scheme, which is intended to promote integration and encourage leadership skills among young people on Canadian visas.

The project will bring together young Somali-Canadians with older Jewish-Canadian mentors in an attempt to improve cross-cultural understanding and respect.

Kenney says, “the project is the first of its kind in Canada… it brings together leaders from a well-established community with the future leaders of a community that is striving for a more complete inclusion in Canadian society.”

The two-year project is being organised by the Canadian International Peace Project and is intended to be the first of many cross-cultural mentoring programmes. It CEO says, “the Somali-Jewish Canadian Mentorship Project brings two very different and diverse groups together to work towards building stronger communities.”

The plan is to establish 130 mentoring partnerships for young people aged between 18 and 25 years-old from the Somali-Canadian community who have Canadian visas or were born in Canada.

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