08/11/2022
Found this on a LinkedIn Profile, worth sharing....."No condition is permanent; bad times don’t last forever, neither do good times”. This statement has kept me hopeful on my most challenging days, while being a humbling reminder on days when I celebrate. In the first picture is me at my first job when I arrived in Canada 🇨🇦 in early 2020. Having bagged an MSc degree in Global Health and Policy from the Queen Mary University of London, I was full of confidence. I thought I was going to change the world. Rather, the world changed. As companies shut down and lockdowns were effected, I could hardly find any job, especially one in my field. Eventually, I worked a general labour job in a spray paint shop, under a boss who mostly didn’t have a modicum of respect for the employees. It was laborious. It was dangerous. It was hardly worth it, but I reminded myself that it wasn’t permanent. I persevered through it and all the in-between jobs which were neither permanent. A week ago I started a new page of a new chapter, in a position as a Program Coordinator at the Central Toronto Youth Services CTYS, the R.I.T.E.S Collaborative Program with the George Hull Centre for Children. In this position, I’ll be advocating for African-Canadian youths through dismantling systemic racism and oppressive structures that impede their successes. Also, I’ll work to provide socioemotional, cultural-specific, and Africentric-based interventions for these youths to navigate the systems, while fostering in them a sense of community and connection to African values. Once again, I remain congnisant of the fact that this position will not be permanent. Hence, my aspiration is to make the time I have here count. I hope to make lasting impact on the youths I’ll be privileged to work. I look foreword to learning and growing from the amazing managers, supervisors, colleagues at CTYS. I’m open to networking and learning on the job with this community.
