Description:
"If I had stayed in Somalia, I believe I would not be alive today," shares Ali Duale, a refugee who fled Somalia in 1990. Duale, who lived with his wife in a Kenyan refugee camp for seven years, now calls Halifax, Nova Scotia home. He recalls arriving in Canada in the middle of winter in 1997: "I remember there was snow on the ground." Duale learned English and became a firefighter with Halifax Fire and Emergency Services. A practicing Muslim, Duale describes his desire to give back to the country who accepted him and gave him a second chance. "Being Canadian is being who you are."
Biography:
Salima is a lawyer, filmmaker and yoga teacher. She has worked for almost ten years in leadership in the not for profit sector and is currently the CEO of Calgary Centre for Global Community and its production house, Humainologie. Salima has created about twenty short films on location across Canada and in Jordan and Bangladesh including the innovative 'under an umbrella we met' series, where viewers who watch films on individual tablets can step into the actual shoes of the person they are watching in the film.. A number of the films in the series, including the award-winning film About Adnan, tells the stories of Syrian refugees. In 2015, Salima hiked 1,200 kilometres from Switzerland to Spain to raise awareness of the world’s 59.5 million displaced people.
