After coming to Canada, Hadiya travelled to Ontario for a cousin's wedding. Some of her family members there wore the hijab, and she noticed how comfortable they seemed.
 

There was no hostility.
 

No one was making them feel like they didn't belong, and something about seeing that stayed with her.
 

“I was like, you know, let's try doing that,” she says.
 

So she did, and she has worn it ever since moving to Canada. For Hadiya, the hijab is an expression of her Muslim faith and the values she wants it to represent.
 

“We believe in peace more than everything else,” she explains. “We stand for peace. We are respectful and understanding of all people, all religions, every culture, and everybody. That is what my hijab represents.”
 

It is a message that seems to connect to much of what Hadiya has experienced since arriving in Canada. Before her arrival, she was pursuing her PhD in sustainable healthcare management in Poland. Her husband had completed his doctorate, and the opportunity in British Columbia meant another major transition for both of them.
 

They arrived in Canada with plans for the future. What they didn't know was just how quickly those plans would change.
 

Only about a month after arriving, Hadiya discovered she was pregnant.
 

Suddenly, her new life in Canada wasn't simply about settling into a new country. It was about becoming a mother, navigating pregnancy far from the family she knew, and figuring out how to build a support system from scratch.
 

Her husband was still a student. Hadiya wasn't working. Financially, things were difficult. On top of this, she experienced severe postpartum depression after her delivery. 
 

During one of the most vulnerable periods of her life, Hadiya says it was the community around her that helped carry her through.
 

“Family is important to me,” she says. “Community, too, is very important to me. You need a support circle when you’re going through something like that.”
 

In Kelowna, that community came in ways she hadn't expected.
 

She speaks particularly passionately about Mamas for Mamas, an organization she credits with providing support during her pregnancy and postpartum experience.
 

“I can say confidently that Mamas for Mamas’ support is one of the reasons I actually could go through the pregnancy and the severe postpartum depression that I had. They’re why I made it out.”
 

For Hadiya, that support became one of the things that made the Okanagan feel different. She describes Kelowna as having something almost village-like about it.
 

“You know how people in close-knit villages help each other out,” she says. “This city feels like a village in terms of the community. It’s incredible.”

It is a feeling she notices constantly.
 

She sees mothers helping mothers. She sees people sharing resources. She sees organizations creating spaces where people can ask for help without feeling alone.
 

“I know I can ask for help and get it very easily,” she says. “I've had a lot of support.”
 

That sense of community has also become particularly meaningful as she raises her son. Her sister lives in Mississauga, and Hadiya says the experience is different there. The larger city has a busier, more individualistic feeling, versus the close-knit community support Hadiya has found in the Okanagan. 
 

That emphasis on connection and community support is what helped Hadiya jump into her next adventure: an unexpected one, to say the least, as it involved… pickles. 
 

That’s right, pickles.
 

It was April. Hadiya was five months pregnant and, by her own admission, bored one day.
 

Someone had given her a few jars, and she had some vegetables at home that she didn't think she was going to eat before they went bad. So she decided to try something new, and she pickled them. 
 

She swiftly realized she had pickled too many. 
 

“I was like, ‘Oh, let's put them on Marketplace. For free, of course. I didn’t want it to go to waste and I’m not a professional pickler, and I’m not a professional chef. I just wanted to offer something to give back to the community that supported me too.’”
 

The response surprised her.
 

As people began to pick them up, the feedback was positive. People liked them. So she made another batch and shared them through Mamas for Mamas. This time, the response was even bigger.
 

Then, some of the mothers asked her a question she hadn't really considered.
 

Why not sell them?
 

“Charge for them?” she remembers thinking. “What do you mean? Take money for that?”
 

But she started looking into it. She researched food safety requirements in British Columbia. She completed her FoodSafe Level 1 certification. She learned what was required to sell food legally from home.
 

And slowly, something that had started with a few leftover vegetables became a business.
 

Simply Canned.
 

The name is fitting, and is one her sister helped her come up with. As a brand manager, her sister saw the potential in the business, and helped create the name and logo. What began as a simple, kind, gesture, is now Hadiya’s small, successful, business with its own Instagram page and plans for growth, because of the potential her community, and family, saw in her. 
 

Now, Hadiya is hoping to apply for a BC government entrepreneurship grant once her permanent residency status becomes active. The goal is to access funding or a commercial kitchen so she can grow the business beyond what she can manage from home.

Because these days, she has another little person demanding her attention.
 

Her son is walking, and between motherhood, her business, and everything else that comes with building a new life, she knows she can't do everything herself.
 

But the business represents something important. It is something she created here. Something that grew out of her own creativity and resourcefulness, but also out of the community that surrounded her when she needed it most. 
 

The same community that supported her during pregnancy became the first community to support her business.
 

Hadiya’s life has required her to constantly enter unfamiliar spaces. New countries. New cultures. New communities. Motherhood.A new business.
 

And each time, she has had to learn how to adapt. 
 

That is why, when asked what advice she would give to someone settling somewhere new, her answer is less about trying to recreate the life you left behind and more about being willing to embrace what comes next.
 

“The most important thing is to be open about the culture and the people there, where you are moving to” she says. “Be respectful, and be ready to adopt changes. It is important to adapt.”
 

Because moving somewhere new doesn't mean everything will be the same, and Hadiya doesn't believe it should be.
 

“You're not going to go to a place and expect it to be exactly like your hometown or your country,” she explains. “You have to be more accepting of change.”
 

Perhaps that is the thread connecting all of Hadiya's different chapters.
 

She has learned to embrace change.
 

She has moved across countries and continents. She has pursued education, built a marriage, started a family, entered motherhood, discovered a community, embraced a new expression of her faith, and accidentally started a pickle business.
 

None of it happened exactly according to plan. But maybe that's what’s special about it. 
 

Hadiya's story is a reminder that sometimes a new life isn't something you arrive with.
 

Sometimes, you build it. Or in this case, can. 
 

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