UBC Reports | Vol. 55 | No. 5 | May 7, 2009 By Daniel Presnell
Nailyn Rasool recalls something her father, a family doctor in Burnaby, told her one night after they helped a recently landed immigrant family with their sick child.
“That was us 30 years ago,” said the elder Dr. Meenaz Rasool, a Ugandan refugee. “When we came to Canada, we were in the same position as those people; we didn’t have money for medication, and we didn’t know where to go for support.”
The events of that night awakened the younger Rasool to a new calling: becoming a doctor, and helping refugees with stories similar to her own family to lead productive, healthy, and meaningful lives in their new communities.
“In medicine we empower people to take responsibility for their health,,” says Rasool, who graduates from the UBC MD undergraduate program this May. “To me, we’re working with refugees to empower individuals not only with health, but with their education, their finances, their self-confidence and identity.”
Ismailimail 