Written by: Estefania Castro Tatis | SAMU Community Assistant
I am a firm believer that everybody holds their own truth. What is difficult, interesting, bad or accepted for me, isn’t necessarily the same for others. My truth has been formed by my environment, and having the opportunity to grow in different places has kept what is real to my eyes in constant changes.
But what about all those big or small details we can’t see? They still exist, they are there, and we might not be aware of them, but it doesn’t make them any less real or insignificant to our eyes. This is the case with SRP Students. SRP stands for Student Refuge Program. SAMU (Students’ Association of MacEwan University) in collaboration with WUSC (World University Service of Canada) bring an SRP student to MacEwan Campus every two years to live, grow and study with us, just like many other students from Canada and around the world.
SRP is unique, it carries the dreams and hopes of students back in refugee camps from Kenya, Jordan, Lebanon, and Uganda that have gone through life experiences we cannot even start to imagine. This program founded by students for students offers a life changing opportunity of coming to Canada as permanent residents to begin their studies and with that a real chance for a better future.
Contrary to what you might think, these students earn the right to come here, they must meet requirements and pass many tests to prove they are ready to make the most out of this opportunity. They work hard to make it happen and between thousands of students just around one hundred fifty of them are welcome to study in Canada every year. For us, at SAMU, looking at how students first get here and adapt, then going for their education goals and achieving citizenship is rewarding enough, and we are eager to show everything we do and give the students the chance to get involved with our upcoming SRP student.
This is an invitation for all the student body to look at the small details, to expand the truth we live in, to engage with what we call SRP Month, and learn and share experiences and stories with us, because we all have the right to know and feel good about how our small actions make all the difference.
