The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

7i j t c k lvll ifiirlly m jvv venbmist sun7 stoufiville tribune sunday dec 27 1998 13 otiimlwbbisb 4 i i i 31 is 4 i i b from page 10 s society has a small prayer cenf 7 tieinarentedhbuseintownhutloltsof m already lai is encouraged to get local muslims still go to daily prayers in calls from parents and students who scarborough mpsques abdurladha a approach on their own member of the society council said they feel that they can trust me after three years of searching for a andtheywantt6talktomeshesaid sitethe society is raising funds for a but the thfeedayaweek placed millikeri mosque billed as the first ment is temporary and only funded irimarkham and construction should until june emys has applied for a sec ond year of- funding from the united way lai said wfiile it looks for private donors in the chinese community markham is also home to most 16035 of- the regions south asian population estimated at27695 people in 1996 but south asian agencies doing settlement services in the region are still few and far between said jan shafriia vicepresident of women of india in canada awiq the northyorkbased group teach es immigrants in their own languages skills likehowtoget a canadian social insurance number or how to find a job a markham resident sharma said awic finds people unaware of what they should betold when they enter canada unfortunately a lot of- people get lost in the shuffle she said in a recent planning forum for the region a lot of fpeople said services have to be friendly and accessible to the new ethnicities and staff should be cultifrallysensitive and respectful social services commissioner joann simmons said last month vthey are as much entitled to these councillor tony wong held a crime l ii 1 lit r r in i r it services as anyone else is she added simmons said the local business community has to get involved in things like program planning and sponsorship last week john waller the regions long term planning director said get ting the fight services can be confusing for anyone regional council ordered staff this month- to prepare a human services plan to get volunteer agencies hospi tals schools and other providers of ser vice better coordinated and hopefully more efficient in tlieir delivery religious groups are also trying to- keep up with york regions suburban growth markham is now home to more than 10000 muslims most of them immigrants from the middle east pakistan and india according to the islamic society of markham prevention forum in pacific mall trying to get residents of multicultural milliken to participate in the areas- slowlywaning neighbourhood watch and in new anticrime programs for local schools no one showed up although a few strolling shoppers seemed interested wong was reminded of the opinion of leyland gudge a milliken social work- er that a north american institution al approach to crime prevention can- not work in milliken and there must be an informal yet traditional wayto get people involved but wong said since milliken people come from many different back- grounds no one approach would- appeal to them all so in the absence of any better package we have to use the canadian package he said york meg i on district- school board aduit esl citizenship literacy classes registration and first class week of january 4 1999 call 905 7319557 for location information watch for the york region district school board t ckntihuirig education course guide note due to the late arrival of the guide adult students may register late start in 1999 ladhasaid our target is to finish it within one year romberg said thornhill already has a myriad of jewish services but many others are lookifigto relocate to york or build branch operations north of steeles avenue romberg a thornhill resident said the federation is looking hard along bathurst for land that can serve as a campus for two or three key jewish organizations x allison lawrence a social worker with the african and caribbean com munities for catholic community services of york region encourages outdooractivities for newcomers who dont know whatto do with children in winter telling them its okay for the kids to play in the snow lawrence tries to show her clients how to tap into community centres and how to understand an education system that encourages children to speak up caribbean parents might think the kids are being trained to be disrespectful she said last month markham regional on new years eve markham transit the markham economist sun and the thornhill liberal want you to leave the driving to us ride transit after 700 prrudn december 31 for free markham routes 15 and ttcmccowan 129a will operate extended service hours with the last departures at approximately 300 am for more- information callmarkham transit at 4754888 markham transit holiday schedule dec 28 saturday service extraearly morning runs dec 29 30 regular weekday service dec 31 jan 1 regular weekday service extra service starts at 200 pm sunday statutory holiday service