Escape to Canada

Bona Zoto was distraught. A refugee from Albania, she had no family or friends in Canada, and no home save for a cot at The Salvation Army women’s shelter in Toronto. What meagre possessions she brought with her had just been stolen and now she literally had nothing.

“I sobbed for three days straight,” she says. “I felt as if I was looking at my life from the bottom of a deep, dark hole.”

Journey to Canada

Bona’s journey began in Albania, where she was born. As a dissident to the ruling socialist party, her life was in danger. “I needed to create a better, safer world for myself.”

Bona, her brother and sister-in-law resolved to leave Albania and go to Canada. “We’d heard that Canada was the best country in the world.”

Leaving was next to impossible through ordinary channels, so they paid an “agent” thousands of dollars to facilitate their departure. They arrived in Los Angeles only to find that the agent’s promised plane tickets to Canada had never materialized. It took 10 days and the last of their depleted funds to arrange a new flight. By the time they landed in Toronto, the three of them were broke with no place to go—but they were in Canada.

No Turning Back

In her best broken English—“My brother and sister-in-law could just manage ‘yes’ and ‘no’ ”—Bona explained to the immigration officials that they had nowhere to go and no money, and they were directed to a Salvation Army shelter, where they stayed for three months.

“Fortunately, I was advised to go to legal aid, and the caring lawyers there helped us negotiate our citizenship,” she explains. “But it was a frustrating and depressing time.

“I never thought I would end up at a shelter,” she smiles ruefully. “By day, I wandered the streets when I wasn’t dealing with the immigration paperwork.”

At her lowest point, someone robbed Bona of her possessions. But despite that, she never for a moment thought of returning to Albania.

“Canada is my home now,” she says simply.

New Life

It was soon after this that things started looking up.

Major Faye Sturge was the director of the shelter, and the caterers there also ran the cafeteria at The Salvation Army’s national headquarters in Toronto. One day, Major Sturge told the catering supervisor, “I have two lovely women here who want to work if you have jobs for them.”

At that time, Bona was searching for ESL courses and found one operated by a Salvation Army church. This put her in good stead as she assumed her new job.

“I loved working at The Salvation Army,” she smiles. “Coming from a communist country, I had never worked with people of faith. They treated me like family.”

Three years later, an office clerk position in The Salvation Army’s legal department became vacant and her friends there encouraged her to apply. A nervous Bona did so, and was hired.

“The entire department welcomed me as if I were already part of the team. I was humbled to be chosen.”

Bona, her brother and his wife have since become Canadian citizens, and she is completing her studies to become a paralegal.

“The Salvation Army gave me hope and a future,” says Bona. “What more could one ask for?”

by Ken Ramstead