Staff
Family Drop In
GINI BONNER
Executive Director, Mount Pleasant Family Centre Society
Originally from Vancouver, BC
Speaks English
"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty." - Maya Angelou
KELSEY MAKIHARA
Program Manager, Family Drop In
Originally from Japan
Speaks English
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" - Winston Churchill
MARIA LUZ FERNANDEZ
Playroom Coordinator
Originally from Argentina
Speaks English and Spanish
"It is the time you waited for your rose that makes your rose so important." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery - The Little Prince
ALMA TULIAO
Family Support Worker
Originally from the Philippines
Speaks English and Filipino
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"
DANIELLE VERZOSA
Family Support Worker
Originally from the Philippines
Speaks English and Filipino
"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart." -Helen Keller
BERNADETTE AQUINO
Administrative Assistant
Originally from the Philippines
Speaks English and Filipino
"Believe you can, and you're halfway there." - Theodore Roosevelt
FLORA PURCELL
Adult Program Coordinator
Originally from Vancouver, BC
Speaks English
"No mud; no lotus." - Thich Nhat Hanh
EWA PACIOREK
Family Support Worker
Originally from Poland
Speaks English, Polish, and Russian
"Festina lente."
RAZIA WAZIRI
Family Support Worker
Originally from Afghanistan
Speaks English and Farsi
Circles of Care & Connection Early Years Refugee Program
THERESA TANG
Program Manager, CCC
Originally from the West Kootenays, BC
Speaks English
“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou
JASMINE OLSON
Child and Family Settlement Worker
Originally from Salt Spring Island
Speaks English and Setswana
"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." - Archbishop Desmond Tutu
FARNAZ KARIMIZADEH
Playroom Coordinator
Originally from Iran
Speaks Farsi and English
"Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love." - Mother Theresa
CHERYL MIXON
Case Manager
Speaks English
MANJIT GARCHA
Senior Child and Family Settlement Worker
Originally from England
Speaks Punjabi, Hindi and English
"The hand of friendship has no colour." - Unknown
MAALY BRAKE
Child and Family Settlement Worker
Originally from Israel
Speaks English, Arabic, Hebrew and Arabic sign language
"I deal very little in facts, facts can obscure the truth, you can tell so many facts you never get to the truth, you can tell the places where, the people who, the times when, the reasons why, and never get to the human truth which is love and pain and loss and triumph." - Maya Angelou
RASHIDA SAMAR
ECE Assistant
Originally from the Pakistan
Speaks English, Arabic and Urdu
"Beauty is not in the face; beauty is the light in the heart." - Khalil Gibran
JULIE SHIM
Child and Family Settlement Worker
Speaks English and Korean
“There is nothing more beautiful than someone who goes out of their way to make life beautiful for others.” - Mandy Hale