COVER STORY
THE MANY GIFTS FROM THE WAYFINDERS
To Baldev Mutta, giving back is about serving the community.
By SHAGORIKA EASWAR
In this season of goodwill and cheer, we will pray for peace on earth. Countless greeting cards will be mailed (does anyone do that any longer, though, in this age of instant communication?), wishing others good health, prosperity and all good things in life.
We will cocoon ourselves in our comfort zones, cuddle up with loved ones and maybe think of those less fortunate. Flyers will arrive in the mail and celebrities in television ads will exhort us to spare a thought for the homeless, the orphaned, the abused, the less privileged around the world. For youth programs, providing safe drinking water where it is not available, for programs that will fund research, and for animal shelters. Each one of them a worthy cause.
While many of us will make a donation to a charity of choice or volunteer our time and services, there are some good souls who make helping others their life’s mission. It is not a seasonal feel-good activity, but something they do year-round, year after year.
These Grant’s Desi Achievers have done immeasurable good and continue to inspire others to do so. As Peter Mielzynski, vice chair of PMA Canada, says, “Each of these individuals represent the highest qualities in personal and professional lives. They are the best illustration there could be of all the positives of multiculturalism.”
To Ramesh Ferris, giving back is about enabling others. Ramesh Ferris wants to help eradicate polio because he knows first-hand the impact of the disease. “I know the effort required for me to take a bath, how long it takes for me to put on shoes. I am living with the effects of a disease that is completely preventable.”
He stands shoulder-to-shoulder with world leaders and has met Queen Elizabeth II, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, Malala Yusufzai, Bill and Melinda Gates and prime ministers Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau, among others and has partnered with Rotary International, WHO, UNICEF and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in his efforts to help eradicate polio. He has worked in Afghanistan and Pakistan with local health officials to distribute polio vaccine. He rode a hand bike across Canada from Victoria, BC, to Cape Spear, Newfoundland & Labrador, a journey of over 7000 kilometres, raising $300,000 for polio eradication, education and rehabilitation.
Ferris, who has been inducted into the Canadian Disability Hall of Fame, contracted polio when he was six months old, the disease leaving his legs paralysed for life. His birth mother placed him in an orphanage at the age of one-and-a-half from where the Anglican Bishop of Yukon and his family adopted him.
While he describes himself as blessed to have been given the opportunities he was, he faced bullying at school. “I don’t want to see another human being crawling or kids have their crutches kicked out or be called cripples. Let’s just prevent that. I will continue to be a voice as long as I can.”
To Baldev Mutta, giving back is about serving the community. Baldev Mutta came to Canada as an 18-year-old from what was West Germany where his father was posted as an Indian diplomat at the time.
Seeing a man crying at a bus stop, he stopped to ask how he could help. The man had been injured at work but was being denied compensation as he had failed to inform his office and fill out the appropriate forms before going home. Mutta called the Workers’ Compensation Board on the man’s behalf and was told to appeal. They did and the case was settled in the man’s favour, but it led Mutta to the realization that there must be countless others in similar situations.
That experience, coupled with his own experiences as a newcomer during the late 60s and early 70s informs his life’s work as a community activist. The early years were good, he says, but with the economic downturn came a backlash against immigrants.
“People couldn’t get even entry-level jobs at factories,” he recalls.
Mutta went on to found Punjabi Community Health Services (PCHS) which offers programs in the areas of mental health, addictions, settlement services, geriatrics, better families, community development, social enterprise and services for professionals.
It is tough work, but he finds it very rewarding.
He says his inspiration to continue finding newer avenues to help people comes from the feedback he receives.
“When people come up to me at a community wedding or at an airport and say how implementing a tip or strategy they learnt at PCHS helped them and their children, I recall my grandfather’s words. He used to tell me that I was a natural born organizer and that I should use this to help people. He said it was my destiny to help others. His words motivate me to go on.”
To Strini Reddy, giving back is about sharing life lessons. Strini Reddy was surprised to receive a call from the Governor General’s office, informing him that he had been selected to become a member of the Order of Canada.
“Never occurred to me that I might be the recipient of such an honour,” he says. “That’s the natural progression when you think you are a has-been that not too many are paying attention to! But seriously, I was not working for the honour and recognition.”
Recognized for his engagement in community causes and as an advocate for social justice, racial understanding, literacy and poverty reduction, Reddy is an educator who has served as principal, chief superintendent and consultant in Manitoba. He is the co-founder of a program that has made a positive impact in the lives of thousands of students.
He was shaped by his experiences growing up in Apartheid South Africa and credits his mother for his passion as an educator. “She used to say, if you are going to defend yourself against injustice, get an education.”
He moved to Canada in 1971. “People want to know why we chose to settle in the cold north and I say when you are trying to survive, the geographic location is the least of your worries. That said, I feel blessed I was given the opportunity to work with Indigenous communities, particularly children from the First Nations who didn’t have an easy path to success.”
With the support of Rotary Club, Reddy has also involved children in Winnipeg schools in clean water projects in Zimbabwe.
“I am often asked why I am still at it when I retired over 20 years ago. I say, there is so much inequity in the world, one can’t not do anything. As long as I have a body that is moving and a half-active mind, I will continue to do so.”
To Ishita Aggarwal, giving back is about empowering girls. Ishita Aggarwal has been advancing girls’ rights and creating opportunities for them since she was in high school. She received the YWCA Young Woman of Distinction Award for her work in gender equity and empowering women and is also a Top 30 Under 30 Sustainability Leaders honouree.
She launched Science4Girls to highlight the contributions of women scientists and to show that science would not have progressed as much as it did without their work. The project was adopted by neighbouring schools as well. As an on-air reporter at York University, she profiled women’s human rights stories. Aggarwal says it’s not so much that the rights are different but that women aren’t necessarily granted their rights to the same degree.
“And when they try to claim their rights, they are ridiculed. Women, essentially, have to work harder to participate. Women have to fight for things men don’t even think about. Access to sexual and reproductive health info is a case in point. Take maternal health. Women belonging to lower income groups find it difficult to access services if it means taking time off work – those in precarious work situations actually risk losing their jobs if they take time off. Men don’t have to deal with such choices.”
It was to address some of these issues that Aggarwal founded Mom’s The Word, a network of on-call volunteer-run travelling workshops to support and educate pregnant women and new mothers.
“Sometimes I am caught off-guard by the deep, heartfelt gratitude of someone when I was just doing my job. Their spur-of-the-moment response, when I realise how much it meant to them, makes me feel I am working towards something meaningful, something with a bit more purpose. I have always wanted a more meaningful life.”
To Renu Mandhane, giving back is about ensuring human rights. Renu Mandhane, the chief commissioner of Ontario Human Rights Commission, possibly the youngest and certainly one of very few South Asians to head the commission, is a recognized expert in the field.
She has been before the Supreme Court of Canada and the United Nations and has trained Canadian and foreign judges through the National Judicial Institute of Canada. Always interested in human rights issues, she says she knew deep down that this was the field she wanted to work in. She has worked to advance women’s human rights at Canadian and international organizations and has represented survivors of domestic and sexual violence and federally sentenced prisoners.
“We have to find ways to give back to the community, to value and champion the ideals of diversity and inclusion,” she says. “When we live in a diverse society, the issues are complex, and the problems can be subtle. And sometimes if we scratch a little beneath the surface, the racism we believe eradicated still exists. So while we may not see overt racism, we do see issues of conflicting rights. How do we balance those rights? How do we deal with issues of religion at the workplace? If the concern is security, how do we address that rather than getting bogged down with how we feel about the niqab or the kirpan?
“Addressing issues of systemic and persistent discrimination, public enquiries, outreach, writing policies, engaging with the public, we have different tools with which to address issues of structural inequality and to bring about change... our work covers so many vulnerable groups across many sectors. We work with the most marginalized, including the ones we don’t hear from that need our help.”