Representatives from two of United Way of the Lower Mainland’s community partners - Surrey’s Options Community Services and MOSAIC immigrant services – have helped unite a Kenyan refugee living in Canada with her young daughter after almost 4 years apart.

The mother, Zeynab Mahamed, had been forced to leave her seven-week old baby behind in Africa when she moved to Canada with her other children, as she had fallen pregnant while her application papers were being processed.

Ruth Beardsley, a senior manager at Options Community Services, worked with lawyers at MOSAIC, to break through red tape and various requirements to make this heart-warming reunion take place recently. Beardsley even travelled to Nairobi, Kenya, to bring the young girl home to her mother in Canada.

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