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z | Page 5 PERFECTLY FABULOUS Volume 14 Number 39 | 50¢ Alicia Ashcroft
September 30, 2015
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Of multiculturalism and mentors Kamloops has always embraced the concept of multiculturalism, which is abundantly evident anywhere you look in our diverse and friendly community. On Friday, September 18 in Vancouver BC, the Affiliation of Multicultural Societies and Services Agencies of BC (AMSSA) announced the recipients of the 2015 Diversity Awards. This year, an independent awards committee selected Rajinder Lotay of Kamloops Cariboo Regional Immigrant Services (KIS) for the AMSSA Service Recognition Staff Award. For over 22 years she has worked passionately to bring culturally sensitive health services to the Kamloops area and has served as a role model to countless Kamloops citizens, born in Canada and abroad. Rajinder was born, raised and completed schooling in Kenya. A government sponsored refugee from Uganda herself, she understood the challenges, obstacles, barriers and difficulties new immigrants faced after leaving their home countries experiencing the struggles of settling in a new environment. Her dedication, hard work and empathy for people motivated her to explore many avenues to help immigrants through locating programs, establishing networks and developing partnerships with organizations that recognize the needs of newcomers to Canada.
(L-R) Rajinder’s team: Liza Ferris, Rajinder Lotay, Min Chen, Matthew Coutu-Moya.
Rajinder organized several focus groups to identify client needs in Kamloops and surrounding areas. She organized many workshops for young mothers, seniors and youth in order to identify and address some dire needs in the community. She promoted crosscultural understanding in order to encourage awareness of the multicultural and multi-racial character of Canadian society by organizing workshops for community agencies and organizations.
In 2002 she identified a need in the community, she organized for mental health counseling for women’s health support groups immigrant women from India and workshops on health issues. who could not access the mainRajinder’s achievements over stream mental health services due many years at KIS earned her the to language and cultural barriers. respect of peers, community memThrough survey questionnaires, bers and leaders in Kamloops and focus groups and one to one cli- surrounding areas. She organized ent meetings, Rajinder identified a Mammogram Bus service that the needs of clients in Kamloops, provided screening at the Sikh having particular focus on the large temple for 30 to 40 women every number of clients migrating from six months that ran for several India. In partnership with Mental years until the women became Health and other service providers - continued on page 2
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