January 30, 2021
By CBC News
For more than four decades, Vancouver non-profit MOSAIC has helped refugees, immigrants and other newcomers settle into life in the Lower Mainland.
As it celebrates its 45th year during the COVID-19 pandemic, CEO Olga Stachova says the organization’s focus has remained the same: to offer people the tools they need to succeed and to champion the skills they bring with them.
MOSAIC’s services helped Stachova succeed when she first arrived in Canada from Slovakia nearly 20 years ago, she said. She had left a senior management position in her home country and after handing out hundreds of resumés, was struggling to find equivalent work.
“I eventually took a job in retail in a front-line position,” she told CBC’s The Early Edition.
“I was lucky to find an employer who chose to see beyond the Canadian experience, who chose to see beyond my imperfect English and gave me opportunities to prove myself, and I was able to spend 20 years building my career in the non profit sector.”