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Nivin Jamshir
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Baghdad, Iraq - Vancouver
Art by Emily Honderich
Nivin Jamshir story
Nivin Jamshir was born in Baghdad, Iraq, and moved to Kurdistan, Iraq, in 2003. She has a degree in management and economics and has worked in various fields, including humanitarian work in Kurdistan, helping Syrian refugees. She is passionate about learning, and she loves to make others happy by helping them when they are in need.
Thirty-Nine Masks
Leaving a country is hard in any way, imagine traveling all the way from Kurdistan, Northern Iraq to Canada during COVID-19!
After we arrived in Turkey, we were so lucky to finally move to Canada on February 18, 2020. My husband, my son, and I had mixed feelings about our upcoming new life. We were happy but also scared to enter this new life and culture, but the most stressful thing was thinking of spreading the virus everywhere.
We were afraid to catch the disease. We wouldn’t allow anything to keep us from making a living in this beautiful country come true. So, we came up with a plan. We bought a full box of face masks. We took three masks for us, and then my son and I shared the remaining masks with all thirty-nine passengers who were with us on the same plane to Canada.
We arrived safely to start our journey without having anything to make our new home, but nothing was as important to have as the old masks that stayed with us all the way to Canada. We used them until June.
Even though arriving as newcomers during the pandemic was hard, we were lucky to have the support from my brother and uncle, who helped us resettle.
"We were happy but also scared to enter this new life and culture, but the most stressful thing was thinking of spreading the virus everywhere."