When you enter the Petites-Mains building, just in front of Jarry Park, you immediately feel a wave of heat and comfort invade you. This is not trivial: here everyone, from the reception staff to the café-caterer employees, seems benevolent and cordial.
Petites-Mains, a non-profit integration company, was born out of a specific request: to help immigrant women integrate and gain autonomy. Permanent residents, refugees, asylum seekers or even without status, women with an immigration background go through this organization and come out with their heads held high. La Converse met with Abir Mansour Ali, a program participant who became an employee of Petites-Mains, and Mariam Abdali, the deputy director of this organization, who introduced us to the mission she has supported for years.
“I found the right shoe for me”
Abir Mansour Ali arrived in Quebec almost three years ago. “Two years and seven months,” she says with a laugh. She is in charge of hot meals in the cafeteria and the caterer at Petites-Mains.
Wearing a white apron combined with the beige scarf she wears on her head, she warmly welcomes us to her workplace, the organization's café-caterer. “I was born in Djibouti and have spent my whole life there, but I am of Yemeni origin,” the 42-year-old mother tells us. After applying for immigration in several countries, Abir, her husband and her three children moved to Montreal, as she and her family only speak Arabic and French.
“When I first came here, I hadn't done anything other than take care of my family for 17 years,” says Abir. “The first three months in Montreal, I was awfully bored. I didn't have to do anything, and I didn't think I would be able to find work because I had no experience, no degree,” she recalls. However, a new life in Canada was a chance for her to work and to help her family stuck in the conflict in Yemen, where the conflict is raging. One of the most serious humanitarian crises in the world, according to the UN.
One day, she decided to take the plunge. She leaves her house, gets on the bus in Saint-Laurent, the district where she lives, and goes to various employment assistance organizations for newcomers. By dint of introducing himself, attending training workshops and even taking courses to improve his English, Abir meets Mr.Me Naïm, from CARI Saint-Laurent. She directed her to Petites-Mains when she learned that Abir loves to cook, and that she has been doing it for her family for 17 years.
“When I arrived at Petites-Mains, I had no experience. But everyone helped me. The managers and trainers were very patient, and the other participants and I ended up forming a family,” she recalls with a smile. After a few months, once Abir's paid training was over, the company officially hired him as the café-restaurant's hot meal manager.
“When I came here with my husband, I didn't know anyone. I had no friends and no family other than my kids. Here, I met people who became more than colleagues: real friends! ” she confides with emotion.
Later, Abir would like to open her own restaurant serving Yemeni cuisine. “I want to buy a house for my family and work hard to open my restaurant one day,” she said, with stars in her eyes. “I am happy. I am living my dream life here, and it is thanks to the people I met in Petites-Mains. Here, I found the right fit”, she ends in a happy tone.
The creation of a family
There are plenty of courses like that of Abir in Petites-Mains. The genesis of this family dates back 20 years ago and did not happen in an unusual way.
In 1994, following the closure of a food bank in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood due to a lack of budget, the officials who took care of it noticed that the majority of their beneficiaries were immigrant women. “The first thing the founders asked themselves was: why? Why are they the most likely to benefit from food banks? ”, says M.Me Abdali.
Following this questioning, meetings were held with these women in order to understand their needs. All, whether they were mothers, former entrepreneurs, seniors or young adults, were clear: the first need is to become more independent. The second is to integrate. In order to better meet these needs, Petites-Mains was then created and tried to offer these women concrete solutions to better find themselves in a new environment, in a new country.
Sister Denise Arsenault and Nahid Aboumansour, the founders of the organization, install sewing machines in a small room located in the Côte-des-Neiges borough. Sewing courses are offered free of charge to the women concerned in order to provide them with adequate training in this field. That's how Petites-Mains was born.
“Here, we're like a big family,” Mariam tells us passionately. “We ask women what they know and like to do, and we try to combine that with their lifestyle in Quebec, in Montreal,” she summarizes.
Helping those who need it
“Every time a woman enters our building, she must leave with solutions”: this is the mission of the organization that Mariam jointly manages. “The best way to give solutions to newly arrived women is to offer them tools. Something that can be useful for them in life outside, in the world of work and in their personal lives,” she adds.
“For newcomers, the first barrier is often language,” says Mariam. She herself arrived in Montreal at the age of nine after spending several years traveling between Lebanon and Iran, her two countries of origin. “We offer francization courses from the Ministry of Immigration to facilitate the integration of newcomers,” she continues. “Then, according to the needs of each of them, we adjust ourselves in order to give everyone the right training and the right job integration program,” she says..
“There are women who come here with no experience, and others who come with lots of unrecognized degrees, but no Quebec experience. Our objective is to allow all these women to find the right fit by finding them transferable skills, regardless of their background,” assures Mariam. For example, a woman who has taken care of her family's personal finances all her life without having worked in the field has a skill that is considered transferable. “By offering this woman a broader background in finance, we are giving her an alternative to her background that is considered 'irrelevant, '” she illustrates.
Petites-Mains also offers assistance to asylum seekers and people without status in the process of obtaining an open employment or study permit in order to get them to be more financially independent while waiting for a decision on their situation.
Concretely valorize the work of the participants
The organization offers training in specific areas, such as sewing and catering. Employment assistance programs are also offered, and all participants are paid for their apprenticeships.
An early childhood center (CPE) is also on site. Social and intercultural workers also work for Petites-Mains and offer support and follow-up to participants.
The organization also has a café-caterer, which is located on the ground floor and where a dozen women work in the kitchen and in customer service. “The catering service allows us to hire a dozen people to meet the needs of our customers,” says the assistant director.
Recognizing that integration is a two-way relationship between the host society and the immigrant, the organization encourages participants to get involved in their own way, by asking them to share their knowledge, for example the preparation of dishes for those who work in the kitchen.
A long term story
“Petites-Mains has agreements with several companies in various fields that are among our employer partners. This allows us to provide several participants with a job once their training is over here,” explains Mariam. For the organization, this is a bit of a way of showing recognition to those who attend the integration company.
“In addition to training in specific fields, we offer job search training. We help women get their first work experience in Quebec by helping them write a resume, prepare for an interview or approach potential employers,” says the manager.
Those for whom these experiences do not necessarily work in the long term or who encounter obstacles on the way to professional integration can always come back to Petites-Mains. “When you join the Petites-Mains family, you are there forever, you are there forever,” Mariam assures us. There are women who come back to see us years after we first met, and that's normal. Integration is never easy. There may be more difficult times,” she explains. She assures that the organization will always be there for those who have already visited it in the past.
LITTLE HANDS IN A FEW NUMBERS:
- Approximately 30,000 women have benefited from the services of the organization since its creation in 1995.
- Each year, 80% of women who receive training through the Little Hands program find lasting employment immediately afterwards.