How the kindness of Canadians helped a marathon champion adjust to new life in Niagara Falls, Ont.

Philes Ongori tin go the likes of the twist, but it isn't simply when she's blasting past the competition at marathons that she's moving faster than most could imagine.

Her life has been moving at a blistering place for the better part of three years, since she and her husband John Mochama made the difficult decision to move to Canada as asylum seekers, leaving their children behind in their home country of Kenya.

But as hard as some of the choices have been, the couple say the kindness of Canadians has gone a long way toward making them feel embraced by their new city of Niagara Falls, Ont.

"People are welcoming, they are friendly to us," said Ongori, 39, who beat more than 900 other racers to win the women's competition at the Toronto Marathon in early May, in just two hours and 40 minutes. It was the second time in three years that she's won the marathon since arriving in Canada as a refugee in 2023.

The couple made the tough decision to become asylum seekers after Ongori was confronted by masked men in Kenya while she was running in a secluded, wooded area.

"They threatened me," said Ongori. The men told her in no uncertain terms that her life was in danger unless her husband, who was considering running for election at the county government level, gave up his political aspirations and returned to the town where he grew up, hundreds of kilometres away.

Fearing for their lives, they moved to Canada. Their twins, a boy and girl who were seven at the time, have been staying with family in Kenya while they worked on getting settled.

The couple first landed in Toronto, where overwhelmed shelters were filled to overflowing. They turned to a crowded church shelter, where they lived for a month and a half, before being sent by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to live at a hotel in Niagara Falls along with hundreds of other asylum seekers in October 2023.

Asylum seekers began flooding into Niagara Falls in 2022, when the federal government sent more than 1,500 refugees to city hotels after the Quebec shelter system reached full capacity, stopped taking referrals from refugees at hotel rooms leased by the IRCC, and began turning away claimants.

Ongori and Mochama lived in the hotel for eight months before finding an apartment in a house in the city.

Since arriving in Niagara Falls, Ongori has obtained her high school diploma, landed a job in administration at a property management company in Welland, and is coaching young athletes at a Thorold elite track club.

She is planning to go to college and wants to pursue a career through which she can give back to the community that's stepped up for her and her husband.

"My dream is to become a police officer," she said. 

Mochama, 40, who taught history and government in high school and university in Kenya, is working at a chemical plant in Niagara Falls, has obtained his Ontario College of Teachers certification, got his driver's licence and is volunteering to teach kids at a Niagara Falls worship centre.

He hopes to soon begin work as a teacher.

The couple say the trauma of moving 12,000 kilometres to another country and trying to rebuild their lives without their children, now age 10, has been made more bearable because of the kindness of strangers.

Mochama said his wife was coaching a man in Niagara Falls when the man learned Mochama needed a car to get to his job at the chemical plant. The man's niece stunned the couple by giving them a car.

"It was a miracle," Mochama said. "We are so grateful. The community has helped us a lot. The Canadian people have given us hope."

The couple said they hope to soon bring their children, with whom they do daily WhatsApp video chats, to Canada. They're closer to that dream now that their new lives have become more stable.

"We started from zero and now we are integrated into the system," said Mochama. "Getting these opportunities we have here in Canada is a moment in life we can't forget."

Reporter/editor

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