Making Choices, Using Opportunities

With a strong drive to complete his education, to help his family and to give to his community, it is easy to see why Noorullah believes his success in Canada has been about making the right choices and using as many opportunities as he can.

Born in Kabul, Afghanistan, Noorullah and his family fled the Taliban twice before eventually emigrating to Pakistan and then to Canada.

“At one point we lived in a mountain cave for a week, very afraid and unsure of what might happen next,” says Noorullah. “When we finally reached Pakistan, my older brother Abdulkarim was teaching at the time. He was applying through the Canadian Embassy to go to Canada, and asked us to join him. Of course, the reply from us was yes!”

Arriving here in 2000, Noorullah and his family landed in Toronto, then travelled to Winnipeg on their way to settling in Regina.

“It was overwhelming at first,” he says. “We had known very little about Canada before we came, and I knew it would be challenging. But there was an excellent community to support us.”

Getting settled in Canada meant pursuing an education for Noorullah and his brothers and sisters — a goal greatly encouraged by his parents. Through an accelerated series of programs, Noorullah made up for lost high school years and is now enrolled in the nursing program at the University of Regina. He has worked as a taxi driver in the summers to finance his education, and plans to work in a hospice while finishing his degree.

Demonstrating his strong enthusiasm for his adopted country, Noorullah says one of the best days ever was July 1, 2004, when he and his family participated in a citizenship ceremony with dignitaries from all levels of government attending. They were the largest family attending the ceremony.

“That was one of the best days,” he says. “You cannot help but think about coming from a place with no rights, no freedoms, where you feel barely human, to a place with so much freedom, opportunity and peace. My family was together, we were getting educated, we were making the right choices in our new home. It was a very emotional day for all of us.”

The choice to go into nursing also makes sense for the kind of Canadian Noorullah has become.

“My father taught us that to save a life is to save humanity,” he says. “My life is full of meaning and now I can give back through my new profession.”

The past is never forgotten by Noorullah and his family. He says his parents guided them all to make the right choices and take the opportunities offered in their new country. Noorullah has shared his love of his new country and his advice about making choices most recently in 2006 at a citizenship ceremony, and says he thoroughly enjoyed the chance to tell his story and the choices he made in becoming a Canadian.