Bios

My name is Nelia. I’m from Portugal, but I was born in France. My parents emigrated to France in 1972, and after 9 years they returned to Portugal with me. I have a sister, but she was born in Portugal. I’ve been married with my husband for 27 years, and we have two sons.

In my country, my job was a dialysis assistant, but I have a degree in Food Control and Quality, Then I found I love to work in the healthcare environment.

Then in 2013, we decided to come to Canada. A big adventure, it was my first time moving, first time on the airplane only with two luggage and everything left behind: family, friends, our community, house, car and the hardest our pets and the only thing we had here in Canada was my husband’s cousins. But we made it. We are here happy for coming.

Now, at this moment, we can breathe peacefully. We got the most important thing when someone moves to Canada, PR, Permanent Residence. Our PR was something very hard to get but again, we did it. We are working, my husband in construction and me, I have two jobs, one is full- time in healthcare environment as housekeeper and the second one I’m part-time PSW.

Thinking about the future of my life, I would like to still work in the healthcare area but doing a different job and not cleaning. For that I have some steps ahead: learn English better and then college maybe for nursing. These are my goals.