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Gaining confidence through mentorship

Masha Baeva, 19, shares how having a ‘Big Sister’ impacted her life
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Masha Baeva, 19, needed someone to look up to.

The shy, self-conscious girl was eight years old when her mother enrolled her in the Big Sisters of BC Lower Mainland program.

“My mom is a single mom, my parents divorced in a very ugly situation,” Baeva told Peace Arch News Wednesday, describing a difficult upbringing for her and her younger brother.

“My mom had to work crazy long hours to put food in the fridge and a roof over our heads. She wasn’t around as much as she would like to be, because she had no choice. The other thing, because she immigrated here, she wasn’t very familiar with Canadian anything – everything was totally different for her.”

Baeva’s family moved to Canada from Lithuania when she was just one. Her mother enrolled her into the Big Sisters program so that she had a Canadian mentor to look up to, she said.

“It has been absolutely incredible. Martina Lee, my big sister, is a super fancy lawyer for ICBC. She’s super successful and from an early age I’ve had that as a goal to look up to. That’s motivated me throughout my entire life,” the Vancouver woman said.

Lee described the mentorship as one that has benefited both parties.

“The most important thing has been to see how a young girl has really grown and developed, come into her own and build her confidence,” Lee told PAN Wednesday.

”Just to know that if you have been a little part in her journey to become this amazing woman that she is now, then it’s a tremendous feeling of satisfaction.”

Big Sisters, which is funded almost entirely through donations, is in need of more volunteers in the Surrey area.

Executive director Brenda Gershkovitch says the organization matched more than 180 girls in Surrey/Delta last year, and there are more than 40 girls in Surrey waiting to be matched.

More information can be found at www.bigsisters.bc.ca



About the Author: Aaron Hinks

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