Volunteer of the Month- January 2018

Jabina Ahmed is Immigrant Services Calgary’s Volunteer of the Month.

Jabina joined our Volunteer Program in the spring of 2017 and quickly became involved in a variety of activities, contributing over 140 volunteer hours so far. With a professional background in teaching, Jabina has been a very dedicated tutor who assisted in different locations of the Homework Help Club ISC facilitates in the City of Calgary. She has been a constant presence in our office too, providing reliable support with different clerical duties. This is her story.

“I moved to Canada in 2016, from Pakistan where I was a teacher. When you are a new immigrant in Canada you face a lot of challenges in terms of networking, searching for a job and getting Canadian experience. Therefore, it is important to figure out the way to cope with these difficulties. Volunteering bridges the gap between where you come from and where you are going. I started volunteering with Immigrant Services Calgary (ISC) in March, 2017 as a tutor and an office support volunteer. As a tutor, I have been providing support in different school subjects to immigrant and refugee youth. I helped students to build academic skills, develop better study habits, and improve self-confidence. I am also helping as an office support volunteer, maintaining daily incoming and outgoing correspondence via email and mail, making phone calls and accurately documenting and updating records in different systems, as per requirements. Within a month, I realized that being a volunteer at Immigrant Services Calgary was exactly what I needed and a fantastic experience at the same time. My experience with ISC has been highly positive. Everyone has been very supportive and friendly, and - what is most valuable - this has helped me find a job in Calgary. Because of my volunteer experience I started to work as an office support assistant with my LINK instructor, which helps me to further enhance my career. I'm extremely proud and excited by the honor of being named “Volunteer of the Month” at ISC and I look forward to giving back even more to this organization.”

We are delighted to know that your volunteer experience at ISC has been a rewarding one, Jabina. We too look forward to continuing our collaboration in the next year! Congratulations!