On June 21st, India Rainbow Community Services of Peel held an ‘Open House’ to celebrate the opening of its ‘Services for New Immigrants’ location at 3038 Hurontario Street, Unit 1. The ribbon cutting ceremony was done jointly by chief guest Cliff Fast, Operations Manager, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and Sam Malvea, President of India Rainbow. This additional site is a one-stop shop for providing settlement counselling, referrals, information and employment support to all walk-in clients. This location also serves as an employment resource centre to meet the employment needs of newcomers.

Guests from networking agencies, funders and supporters of India Rainbow, including members of the Board of Directors were present. All guests, community members and clients got a tour of the facility and staff members were present to show them around and answer any questions. The event was to create awareness about our programs and services that are available free of charge to all newcomers.

Kitty Chadda, Executive Director, welcomed everyone and said that having a street level-store front location will enable the organization to serve many more walk-in clients as there has been a steady increase of immigrants in the area. Cliff Fast was extremely delighted to be part of the expansion of India Rainbow and has been supporting the organization for many years. He commended India Rainbow for being in the forefront to serve the clients. Kitty thanked the funders for their continued support and mentioned that one of our long-standing Board member‘s dream of having a store front location for India Rainbow is a now a reality. Among the many funders who graced the occasion were Yolanda Chung and Linda Lawrence, Settlement Officers, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, IldaGaizas, Program Supervisor, Ministry of Community and Social Services and JaninaOlechana, Program Consultant, Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration, Ontario.

The open house was followed by the Annual General Meeting. “For an organization to grow and develop, it is important to look not only for opportunities for expansion, but also qualitative improvements in all its aspects”, said Sam Malvea. Later, clients from different departments narrated their experiences about how the services offered by India Rainbow helped them and their families. Staff who completed 10 and 15 years with India Rainbow were given pins for their service.

For the business part of the meeting, the Chairs of various committees presented their reports. The Board acknowledged the contribution of the members whose terms came to an end, namely, Sheela Joshi, NazliRehman, and VandnaNayyar, while special recognition was given to RinaKukdé, a long standing member who could not be present. FerzanaChaze, Secretary, then presented the slate for new Board members which was approved by the membership. MohitNarang, Jatinder Pal Singh, RanaBrarThiara and ShivaniSharda were acclaimed to the board.