Immigrating to Canada can be stressful for a family.
Humboldt Regional Newcomer Centre Executive Director, Janine Hart wanted to help with that.
Through a grant with the Community Health Program run by the Saskatoon Health Region, the Newcomers Centre was able to sponsor 19 women to take part in Zumba on Thursday nights as the Ladies Involved with Fitness and Exercise night and provide childcare for their children.
“Because of our organization,” says Hart, “we’re always looking for ways people can integrate and enjoy in a successful life.”
Isolation can be a big problem when it comes to coming to a new place.
“Quite often you put your health, especially as moms, we put our health on the back burner.”
Zumba instructor, Terry Christensen understands to some extent what these women go through. When she moved to a different city in the past, even with her outgoing personality, she still found it hard to go out and meet people and get involved in the community.
“Coming from a new country, where language can be a problem too is much harder. And then if you’re not an outgoing person, I think a lot of these women are very quiet.”
Economically, socially, culturally coming into a new country can cause a lot of stress, says Hart. The program provides these women, who may not have the finances or the time to go to Zumba class once a week the opportunity.
The women are also provided with childcare for their children while they get the night to enjoy themselves.
Getting out and meeting new people is another goal of the program, forming friendships with the other women they get to meet at the class.
This is another reason that instructor Terry Christensen opened up the night to ladies from her other Zumba classes.
“The ones that do come from the public, they’re all really friendly. Some of them have come to my classes before and they’re really good at make everyone feel welcome.”
Forming friendships with women outside of their own culture can help them integrate in the community more easily, says Hart.
“Quite often you’ll find, because there is a language barrier, people will form friendships within their own ethnicity because they have a commonality of being able to understand each other.”
Newcomers want to join the community and see what it has to offer, says Hart, but by the time they get settled the economic hurdle they’ve become more isolated.
Dance is a cultural commonality, it does matter where you come from, says Hart. So when people come to a Zumba class, everyone finds it enjoyable, says Christensen.
“Some got the moves and some don’t but that doesn’t matter because as long as you’re moving, you’re having fun.”
People are all the same, says Christensen. They come to a Zumba class for the first time and they are self conscience and thinking everyone is going to be looking at them stumble through the class. That’s not the case, says Christensen.
“Everybody’s looking at me,” she laughs, “but people catch on quick.”
Christensen looks out and sees the smiles, especially when they start catching on to the moves.
Christensen’s class does not allow for those shy ones to be lost in the back row. She rotates the lines so people from the back have move forward. This helps people feel more comfortable,
“That’s is the key element to why it’s been a success. The ladies that have been attending, they just want to get out and have fun and stay fit.”
Lorena Ondong is one of these ladies who is having fun in Christensen’s class. She says she is really benefiting from the class.
“This is the best benefits for a woman because this is activities and you get exercise.”
Ondong has three kids so she does not have to worry about who will take care of them while she exercises.
“You’re always at home or at work, you don’t have any activities so this is fun for us to join.”
Hart says this is something they’d love to continue with and if funding cannot be granted through Community Health Programs, Hart says she will look elsewhere to get the funding they need.
“There are so many great organizations within our community that we can develop those partnerships so more of our clients can come together.”
With more partnerships comes more women, and Hart says not just newcomer women but all women are “buddying up” and coming together to get healthy and make friends.
If there are women still interested in getting involved they should contact Hart at the Newcomer Centre. The Newcomer Zumba will run until Dec. 17.
