A $150,000 grant will help a local organization provide better counselling for survivors of war and trauma, a counsellor said yesterday.
Bertha Mo manages the Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization’s counselling program, which helps newcomers to Canada deal with the stress of moving to a new country and, in some cases, living with what they went through before they got here.
“This involved keeping data that is very sophisticated,” she said. “With this funding we are able to update our data systems.”
Dr. Hamdi Mohamed, Executive Director of the Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization, joined MPP Yasir Naqvi and Ontario Trillium Foundation representative Chikwa Zahinda Wednesday morning to announce that the organization is the recipient of a $150,000 grant from the Foundation, an agency of the Government of Ontario.
Mohamed said the 33-year old non-profit will use the funds to hire a part-time manager and human resources consultants to review and implement foundational changes to the organization’s policies and practices and information technology systems.
OCISO is “a microcosm of the community,” said Mohamed. The grant will help it become a more effective and culturally respectful organization, reflective of the city’s ethnic make-up.
