Refugee gets a leg up through LINKS

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This article was published 22/07/2023 (1206 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This week marked a major milestone for Winnipeg resident Alfred Inyani, who received his mental wellness and harm reduction worker diploma from the Brandon-based LINKS Institute on Thursday.

Talking to the Sun following his graduation ceremony at the Riverbank Discovery Centre, Inyani said he has always been passionate about helping people, even when he was living in a Ugandan refugee camp for around two decades.

Despite being born in South Sudan, Inyani fled the African nation when he was a child due to the Second Sudanese Civil War and eventually ended up in the bordering country of Uganda.

While living conditions were far from ideal in this camp, Inyani still went out of his way to support his fellow refugees, working as a primary school teacher and assisting people with special needs.

After serving this community for roughly 19 years, Inyani finally got the opportunity to immigrate to Canada through his cousin, who worked as a missionary.

Once Inyani and his family settled in Winnipeg in 2008, he eventually found employment as a disability support worker and attained Canadian citizenship alongside his wife Jacqueline six years later.

Wanting to find some upward mobility in his chosen profession, Inyani decided to enrol in the LINKS Institute in 2021, since the local organization offers an expedited path to obtaining certification in the areas of mental wellness and harm reduction, child and youth care and intensive applied counselling.

LINKS president John Jackson previously told the Sun that he came up with the idea for this institute during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Westman communities were in desperate need of addictions, crisis intervention and family service workers.

“Because, let’s face it, the longer it takes us to do these things, the less chance we have to actually be out there, helping people with the skills and the knowledge that we have,” Jackson said during an April grad ceremony at the Riverbank.

“So I think you folks have been successful because this [program] makes sense for you and we’re going to continue to do what we do and grow with your help.”

LINKS — which stands for Linking Integrated Networks of Knowledge Systems — also offers a robust remote learning option, which is very attractive to someone like Inyani, who works and lives with his family in Winnipeg.

“When I came to Canada, I was working and looking for a school where I can fit in my schedule,” he said during Thursday’s ceremony.

“On my way, I found the LINKS Institute and called John and we went from there. So … I’m very happy.”

Because of his experience with the institute, Inyani is planning to return to LINKS in the future to obtain a child and youth care worker diploma, with the hope of rising through the ranks in his field and provide more complex care to people living in Winnipeg with special needs.

But for right now, Inyani, who currently works at SPIKE (Special People in Kildonan East), was just happy that got the opportunity to celebrate this big academic achievement alongside his family in Brandon and hopes that this leads to more job opportunities down the line.

Thursday’s ceremony at the Riverbank Discovery Centre also celebrated seven other LINKS graduates, including Brooke Fillip, Maxine Roulette, Leaha Tacan, Samantha Pommer, Deseray Babiski, Camille Beer and Heather Duguid.

LINKS’ next student intake period is scheduled to end Aug. 22. Anyone looking to apply for this program can visit links-institute.ca.

The LINKS Institute’s head office is located at 1202 Princess Ave. in Brandon.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

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