Carin Jansen van Vuuren with Speaker Rowena Alido
This week we heard an inspiring life story from Rowena Alido, the owner of R3 Cleaning. Rowena told us that in 2003 she left her two small children behind in the Philippines to come to Canada to work as a caregiver in the North-West Territories so that she could support her family in the Philippines. She found that life here was full of twists and turns and many times it was her strong Christian faith that kept her going. She said that she truly feels the need to lead a life where she can make a difference in other people’s lives. After only a short time in Canada, due to problems in her sponsor family, she suddenly found herself without work or a place to stay. She was lucky enough to have a friend who helped her to find work and later, in 2006, to start her own cleaning company. Through faith, determination and perseverance she has been able to build her company and also to help many newcomers to Canada to work and study, to make a better life for themselves and their families. She also sponsors children to come and study in Canada. She now lives in Sherwood Park, Alberta and her company has contracts across several provinces. They currently employ fifty people. Her cleaning company does both residential and commercial cleaning and more information on their services is available at r3Cleaning.com. We would like to thank Rowena for sharing her trials and tribulations with us, it was very inspiring to hear how she has persevered and overcome them through her determination to live a life that matters.