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Chhiring Tamang was only nine years old when her family had to leave Bhutan to live in a refugee camp in Nepal.

Nearly three years ago, she and her husband left Nepal for Canada, following her brother Ramesh’s path to a new life in Saskatoon. Ramesh is the Nepalese group’s pastor at the Meadowgreen House for All Nations on Saskatoon’s Avenue W South, where Chhiring — known as Puunam to those closest to her — learns English.

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There, they also found a friend in Pastor Rick Guenther, who oversees the House for All Nations.

“He can help us, everything. How to respect people, how to deal with friends, everything when we move to another place,” she says.

Chhiring lived in the Nepalese refugee camp for 18 years. Her family’s home was made of bamboo and their kitchen was constructed with mud. The home was decorated with paper crafts.

The family was among the many thousands of ethnic Nepalese who were subject to restrictive policies in Bhutan. The Bhutanese royal government enacted those policies in the late 1980s out of fear over the growing ethnic Nepalese population within its borders.