Reunited After 28 Years: One Refugee’s Family Reunion
When Yalda arrived in Canada in the winter of 2002, she was nine months pregnant, knew only a few English words, and was overwhelmed by snow, cold, and the challenges of beginning life again in a new country. To add to the overwhelming feeling, it was only ten days after her arrival that she gave birth to her second child. Yalda had always felt beyond grateful for safety and freedom, but what emerged more and more strongly over the year was a deep ache for the family she had left behind in Afghanistan.
Her journey to Canada began in 1997. At just 17, she was already a mother and newly married. Despite graduating from teaching college, the escalating conflict in Afghanistan forced her to abandon her profession. Together with her husband and infant, she left her homeland, navigating a long and uncertain path through countries like Iran and Turkey before eventually reaching Canada with the help of her brother-in-law, who privately sponsored them to Canada.
Canada offered safety, dignity, and the promise of opportunity, especially for women. Yalda was profoundly grateful for that. But over time, she began to feel the weight of absence: her mother, siblings, and extended family were still scattered and unreachable.
Despite being settled, she could not truly find peace. She yearned for some hope that “one day my children can see my mother and have tea together, have picnics together, make memories together because they never had it,” she said.
Like many refugees, she faced the heartbreak of bureaucratic barriers. Multiple attempts to sponsor her family were denied because her income didn’t meet federal thresholds. But one day, by chance, crossing the street outside St. Joseph’s Church, she met a pastor from the church. In tears, she told him her story. Then things began to change.
He connected her with the Diocese of Hamilton, Office for Refugees where her long and painful wait for family reunification found a new path forward. With their help, the paperwork began, and hope returned. But just as her family’s application was nearing completion, disaster struck. They were deported from Tajikistan, where they had been waiting, along with many other refugees. The whole long process had to be restarted. After so much hope, “my heart was broken, shattered into so many pieces,” she remembers. She called the Diocese of Hamilton. They didn’t give up on her.
Thanks to the determined support from the Office for Refugees, the process was restarted. And finally, in December 2022, after 28 years of separation, Yalda welcomed her mother, brother, sisters, and extended family to Canada.
It wasn’t the fairytale ending she might have imagined. Shortly after arriving, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. But with treatment, care, and resilience, her mother recovered and embraced Canadian life wholeheartedly. “Now she comes with me to yoga, to walking groups, to art classes,” Yalda says, smiling. “She uses a walker and goes outside to enjoy nature here. She’s so happy.”
This wasn’t just a reunion. It was a new beginning. Her sister finished high school and is now in a social work program at Conestoga College. Her brother is entering medical school. The family that had been scattered across borders and decades is now rebuilding together, integrating and contributing.
Yalda’s story is not just about escape and arrival. It’s about the ongoing cost of displacement and the life-changing impact of family reunification. It reminds us that safety is only the beginning. Belonging is what comes next.
And that belonging wouldn’t have been possible without the persistent and compassionate work of the Diocese of Hamilton. Their quiet, behind-the-scenes efforts don’t just change lives. They reunite generations.
Yalda expresses what it means to have her mother back in her life after 28 years: “Every time my ears hear her voice calling my name, I am grateful.”