Niagara-on-the-Lake's Jenny Wright wears many hats. She is a member of Shaw’s ensemble (although not on stage this year), a personal support worker, a mum, a chicken farmer, an aerialist and trainer, a palliative care volunteer, and now, an advocate for a new friend.
Wright is helping Maysaa Shat, a St. Catharines resident, bring her family to Canada from the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
Wright first met Shat at a peace rally in Niagara Falls and they soon became fast friends. But it wasn’t until Wright saw Shat selling homemade confections at the Muslim Family Market at Brock University in early April that she began to understand what drives her.
Family. “Our family is our everything,” said Shat.
Born and raised in Gaza, she first moved to Canada 20 years ago, followed by an extended visit to Qatar so that her and her husband’s children “could get to know their other grandmas and uncles.” The family moved back to Canada six years ago, but her mother, two brothers and their family still live in Gaza. Her father died last month in a Gaza hospital, at the age of 68.
“We are always dreaming of having our family visit us,” she said, and even though the federal government announced a new temporary resident pathway to support extended family members who are able to leave the area, it is still cost prohibitive, she added.
Shat estimates it will cost more than $7,500 to bring each family member to St. Catharines. That includes transportation and border fees, accommodation and basic needs while in transit, air fare, accommodation for six months in Canada and basic needs during those six months. She has started a crowdfunding page, which currently has raised over $13,000 to bring to Canada 10 family members: her mother, her two brothers and their families.
She has also started her own business called The Healthy Habit, making black seed (chia seed) jam, chocolate-covered dates and Prophetic Talbinah, a soothing broth made from ground barley that has many healing properties. She had always made delicious, healthy and photogenic meals and was finally convinced by her daughters to share her savoury-looking products online. Soon they created an Instagram account called The Healthy Habit.
“I started The Healthy Habit in 2020,” said Shat, who was on a weight loss and health journey at that time. Others became interested in the health benefits from the food she made, and soon she created an online community of people who wanted to become healthier.
She started selling her homemade goods on Instagram @thehealthyhabit.store, with proceeds being saved to bring her family to Canada.
Shat has five nieces and nephews she wishes to bring here, aged between six months old to seven years old. Her GoFundMe page can be found by typing Maysaa Shat into the search bar at GoFundMe.com.
Her family has been forcibly displaced from the home they’ve lived in for generations, “the home I was born and raised in,” said Shat in her narrative on GoFundMe. “They are all currently living in tents by the coastline of Gaza. It’s been incredibly challenging for them to survive with the day and night bombing all around them with no safe shelter and the lack of food, water and medical supplies.”
As for Wright, she will continue to advocate for the oppressed. She said she will play her bongos at peace rallies around the region, buy dates from The Healthy Habit, and hope for a ceasefire.
