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Francisca arrived here as a refugee from Guatemala on urging from her cousin Alexandra who arrived in Canada two years ago from Columbia. Through marriage, they had grown as close as sisters. Francisca was escaping domestic violence and almost death and had no support through family or authorities in her home country.
She was fearful of the violence and insecurity there and did not believe she would live to an old age if she stayed. In coming to Toronto, she was hopeful for a life of safety for herself and for an opportunity for a better future for her new husband and four, soon to be five, children.
The Peel Family Shelter found a new apartment for Francisca’s family and she came to Furniture Bank with the hope of making it into a home. After selecting living and dining room furniture, a television and beds, a desk and dressers, she felt this was an incredible gift and it ignited her optimism for a brighter safe future in this new land. Francisca was touched that in a country where she was a stranger, people were willing to support her family by providing them with a place to sleep and a place to eat, sit and be together. For Francisca, the stability that this created for her children was the greatest reward. She was filled with sadness before visiting Furniture Bank, feeling that her children could not understand why they had to live with nothing. The little bit of comfort that the furniture offered her family, endowed Francisca with the far greater reward of relief, faith and a dream for the blessings that the future might hold here in Toronto.
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