SHAHEEN ALLIBHAI - DIMEMOND OF THE WEEK - JUNE 15th 2015

NAME: Shaheen Allibhai

AGE: 25

BACKGROUND: Born and raised in Vancouver BC

OCCUPATION: Aspiring Registered Nurse, Bachelor of Arts in International Relations & History from UBC

Dimemond Mentality approached Shaheen to be featured as part of the Dimemond of the Week roster for the sole reasoning that she has the ambition and the courage. The 'ambition' and the 'courage' are two charactertistics that individuals, sometimes, get distracted from, or scare individuals from approaching goals in life. Shaheen has been able to experience so much already, while still being a young, driven individual. 

She is a current volunteer who visits and helps at the senior home in Richmond BC, while planning to continue her education into Nursing. Already obtaining her Bachelor of Arts from UBC, she only came out of that chapter, to make her chase even greater, and ambigious. In that essence, ambition and courage are the perfect words to describe Shaheen.

Shaheen was able to share her experience(s) of travelling to Uganda, with the Dimemond Mentality team. She travelled on two different occasions; almost polar opposites of experiences. Her background, and family roots go as far as to being born and bred in East Africa, Uganda to be specific. At the young ripe, teen age of 16, she took her first trip to Uganda, being accompanied and hosted by her family that already are established in Uganda. She was able to experience, the tourist experience of staying in Uganda. However, when she was able to truly take a few steps back and begin to really observe her surrounding in Africa, she had the mentality, that one day she would want to go back, but to experience the "village" living as oppose to staying on her family's estate. Finally being in university, at UBC, she was able to find a program within the school, where it allowed her to travel and volunteer in Uganda, where she then was able to stay with a host family in a rather different environment, than her first experience. She was able to first hand experience the culture of living in one of the many Ugandan villages; experience the food, experience the resources that young Ugandans have, experience what it means to be a part of a family, and she also experienced what it was like to actually get sick as well. Luckily, she came out of that experience healthy as ever, but she came back to Canada with even wider eyes. 

Now she is rather deteremined to obtain more education, more experiences and a greater network, to only go back to Uganda and other parts of Africa again, to provide new methods and potential ideas of how to embetter living conditions, and raise awareness of how to implement better health methods within the communities and villages. She truly believes in order to create change, we need to fully fulfill the understanding of culture, and live in the conditions before we implement and plan.

What does Dimemond Mentality mean to you? Do you think it'll be successful?

"I think its all about individuality and celebrating how everyone’s unique interests and passions can impact the city we live in in so many different ways – the diversity and how we all come together is what makes it amazing! I think with continued hard work and dedication, it will be incredibly successful!"

What do you enjoy about Vancouver?

"I love that there are so many different types of people, cultures, and the amazing food that comes with it, all in one city! I’m also loving these beautiful summer months."

How has your multiple trips to Uganda motivated you to become more aware and appreciative of you being able to live in a busy hustle and bustle city, such as Vancouver?

"I actually want to move to Uganda! There are personal pros and cons to both for me. I feel like Uganda is somewhere that I feel my happiest, where I feel like I’m doing some really meaningful and satisfying work, and I love the lifestyle and especially the weather! Things are a lot more relaxed and laid back there. The things I appreciate most about Vancouver after experiencing Uganda would be a way better social safety net/social services system (although it still needs a lot of work here too), our medical system, education system, clean water, less pollution, and more opportunities for jobs and post-secondary schooling for youth."

If you could provide one of many potential solutions that exist, to heighten the potential changes you believe Uganda needs, what would it be and why?

"I’ve had many sleepless nights thinking of all of the atrocities, injustices, tragedies, wars, genocides, starvation, and suffering in the world, and I realized that I need to focus on one thing that I can do to make a positive impact universally. I decided to pursue a career as a Registered Nurse, and plan to focus on Public Health. As a nurse, I will be able to provide ethical and quality health care and try to work towards improving the quality of life for as many people as I can all over the world, and I plan to spend a lot of my time working on this within Uganda.  I especially want to try to stop deaths from preventable causes, like HIV/AIDS, Malaria, pneumonia, in childbirth, malnutrition and starvation. I want to work towards helping populations achieve better health outcomes and live longer, healthier lives."

Do you have any aspiring role models you look up to? Why?

"There are thousands of amazing, dedicated, brave, and selfless people allaround the world, some working in their own communities and others in places where most people wouldn’t ever dare to go. Many of these people potentially put their lives at risk by going into conflict zones, unstable countries, or straight into humanitarian crises and natural disaster zones to help others in need. Usually they do it without reward or recognition, and very few people in the world know their names. There are unfortunately billions of people who the world seems to forget about after an epidemic of Ebola in West Africa or an earthquake in Nepal become redundant in the headlines, and even more tragedies that don’t even make the headlines. The people who continue their amazing work helping the world’s forgotten and most vulnerable populations, in Canada and around the world, are truly inspiring to me."

If you could potentially choose any career (if you were given the opportunity handed to you), what would it be?

"My ideal career would be to work with organizations such as Doctors Without Borders, The United Nations, and the World Health Organization to improve global public health, particularly for women and children who face barriers to accessing health care. I want to to make quality health care more available globally. I want to provide information about general health and offer access to contraception, sexual education, nutrition, and life saving medications and immunizations."

SHAHEENS ASPIRING AFFIRMATION:

"Nelson Mandela is my hero, and I love this quote of his: 'Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again'."

Follow Shaheen on Social Media:

Shaheen on Instagram