My name is Angela Poleschuk, I am new to Winnipeg since the summer of 2016. In the last days of August 2016, my husband and I emigrated from Israel with our two wonderful daughters. I worked as a financial and banking advisor in various industries. In my free time, I was volunteering as a financial consultant for families in need and supported them with all the information and tools to manage their family budget. 

Today, I am using these skills to help people during their first steps in the immigration process through a Facebook group that was created by Eka Mednikov, providing the tools and accurate information for people that are planning to immigrate to Canada.  

Since our first visit in Winnipeg we felt a deep connection to Winnipeg and its community, as a result, we decided that Gray Academy would be a perfect place to educate our girls. Moreover, we saw that Gray Academy would be able to provide our daughters Jewish values, traditions and the feeling of a warm and supportive home to replicate the family that we left back in Israel. My husband, Maxim Poleschuk and I feel very thankful for the support of Jewish Federation to immigrate and to be here in Winnipeg today. 

From the first moment when we arrived in Winnipeg, we felt that we would like to help and contribute back to our community for everything they have done for us and other families like us. Quickly, I found myself involved in helping to raise money for the Jewish Federation to support different organizations in Winnipeg, Canada and around the world. 

As a CJA donor and a canvasser, I feel it is essential to be involved and to help raise money for different organizations in our community. Increasing donations’ budget for our community will be able to support elders people, children and people with special needs, newcomers, different educational and amazing programs provided by; PJ library, Rady JCC, Gray Academy of Jewish Education, after school programs and many more.  
From my short experience with the Jewish Federation and the CJA I can share that the feeling of reaching new donors and helping fundraise makes me feel incredible. I feel that I am truly helping to change and improve people’s lives.