On a day like any other, Omnia Abdelazim knocks on the door of an immigrant family living in Nova Scotia. Welcomed inside, she is happy to see everyone, especially the children. Settling into their home, she is ready to facilitate some activities.
As a home visitor for the Home Instruction for Parents of Pre-School Youngsters (HIPPY) program with ISANS, helping families teach and support their children is all part of her job. It’s highly fulfilling work for Omina because she not only loves to help and shape young minds, but also, at one time, she was the parent welcoming a HIPPY home visitor into her own house.
She and her husband came to Canada for a fresh start to continue their studies, work, and raise their family. “Picture this,” she tells us: “it’s June 2019, and I step off the plane directly into Halifax. The excitement and nervousness blend together as I leave Egypt behind on this new chapter.”
In 2021, Omnia became an ISANS client, and she found herself diving into various ISANS programs like our employment services, our Bridging the Gap for Internationally Educated Early Childhood Educators program, and HIPPY. She says the moment she read about HIPPY, she was hooked.
“Life as an immigrant parent isn’t all rainbows. We face language barriers, cultural adjustments, and the daunting task of raising kids in a whole new community. I understood HIPPY could help me and my family with our settlement and find calmness in our new start in Canada.” So, she signed up for the HIPPY program to learn how to be her child’s first teacher and grow her social network.
HIPPY is an international program that has been in Canada for over 20 years, with 32 HIPPY sites across the country. The program prepares children for school while giving their parents a deep sense of purpose in nurturing their children’s education. The program also provides comprehensive employment, parenting, and settlement support for the parents. Families build networks and strengthen bonds while improving English skills through free resources.
“What is so cool about HIPPY is that it covers everything – literacy, math, science, motor skills, language – all wrapped up in playful activities. As a mom, I like those family moments, bonding with my kids while secretly boosting their self-esteem and learning confidence.”
Omnia says HIPPY helped maximize her children’s chances of enjoying school and doing well in it, and, as a mom, the program empowered her. “Teaching literacy, numeracy, and life skills became my superpower.” Her children are successfully balancing bilingualism (they speak Arabic at home), and the program helped her overcome her feeling of isolation by expanding her social networks and attending meetings with other HIPPY parents.
Omnia was a recipient of HIPPY for two years, and during that time, Omnia learned that parents in the program could become HIPPY Home Visitors. This opportunity appealed to Omnia because in Egypt, she worked in translation as a German/English & German/Arabic translator, and for five years, she was a German teacher for students in primary to high school. “My home visitor (Naima) advised me to submit my resume as a home visitor; she has always supported me.”
Naima Alnajjar, HIPPY Home Visitor with ISANS (and Omnia’s Home Visitor) tells us that she “built a strong relationship and bond with her [Omnia] and her children that created a lot of trust between us, as I would visit every week [ . . .] She applied the program with her children exactly as I teached it. Every week she sent me the pictures she took of her children while working HIPPY activities with them.”
Naima knew Omnia would be a good HIPPY Home Visitor, saying that Omnia is flexible, passionate, loves to teach her children, and has very good experience, and so Omnia became a HIPPY Home Visitor in February 2024. “I am very proud and happy to be a part of the HIPPY team and share my experience with HIPPY moms. It is wonderful to help people and kids.”
In the future, Omnia wants to become a level 3 Early Childhood Educator, continuing her passion for nurturing young minds, celebrating diversity, and making a difference.