By ALICE COWDREY - The Nelson Mail
MARTIN DE RUYTER/Nelson Mail
Concilia Chitsa arrived in New Zealand at midnight on the last day of 2002 with no money, no work permit and without her two children at her side.
Seven years on, the Zimbabwean lives in Motueka, is about to graduate from the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology as a registered nurse and has a new job lined up. She can also call herself a Kiwi.
Ms Chitsa was among the 20 people who became citizens during the Tasman District Council citizenship ceremony yesterday. The new citizens were from Germany, Russia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Australia and Britain.
Ms Chitsa said she decided to leave the city of Harare when the economy started going downhill.
"I was looking for greener pastures, a peaceful better life for me and my children."
After arriving in Wellington, she found out that a job she was promised in the city did not exist and there was no work permit organised for her. She also found out that her two children Wadzanai, 17, and 14-year-old Panashe Dzimati were unable to join her in two weeks, as she had been promised.
Ms Chitsa decided to move to Motueka to find seasonal work and began a battle to get a work permit and residency.
She also had to wait 14 months for her two children to move to New Zealand.
After working in orchards and at a supermarket, Ms Chitsa decided to study nursing at NMIT. She will start a new job at Nelson Hospital after graduating in December.
"I wanted a secure job. I just wanted to give back to the community because it looked after me when I first came.
"I just want my children to have a place where they can call home," she said.
She said yesterday's ceremony was wonderful. "I feel like I belong." Neville and Carolyn Greaney, who attended the ceremony, met Ms Chitsa through the Motueka Church of Christ. They took her under their wing, giving her a place to live, helping her financially and with citizenship paperwork. Mr Greaney said Ms Chitsa came to New Zealand on a work scam.
Mrs Greaney considers Ms Chitsa a sister "even though we don't look anything alike" and described her as a "very strong" woman. "They are just like our extended family," she said.
Other new citizens in Tasman are Adam James Arnold-Kelly, Britain; Kenneth and Tracy Banner, Britain; Janet Bensemann, Australia; Lester, Patricia and Brent Fletcher, Britain; Elaine Hemi, Britain; Katherine Hoad, Britain; Christopher, Judith and Nicholas Mason, Britain; Jamie Mathews, Britain; Thi Hoan Nguyen, Vietnam; Sardhoun Nud, Cambodia; Patricia Packer, Germany; Alexandre Plotnitski, Russia
1 comment:
it is good.
www.onlineuniversalowrk.com
Post a Comment