GRANT’S DESI ACHIEVER
MOTHER NURTURE
Diana Alli D’Souza. founder, Access Empowerment Council.
By SHAGORIKA EASWAR
Diana Alli D’Souza wanted to be a doctor, but life had other plans for her.
From a well-to-do Mangalorean Catholic family in Bombay (now Mumbai), she was sent to England to do her O and A Levels but the passing of her father and brother in tragic accidents six months apart had her set her dreams aside to begin working to support her mother and younger sister.
She ended up healing in ways she couldn’t have found in textbooks. She has also nurtured generations of future physicians.
Alli D’Souza served at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, for several decades as Senior Officer, Service Learning, Community Partnership and Student Life; Coordinator and Business Officer; Admissions Officer; Awards Officer and UofT diversity representative nationally.
She founded and co-founded twenty-plus outreach programs in the Faculty of Medicine to serve under-represented and marginalized populations in the GTA.
These include a summer mentor-ship program in the health sciences for Black and Indigenous youth that offers opportunities to shadow health professionals from their own communities.
The program that began with seven students has seen over 1200 graduate and move into rewarding careers. One is an ophthalmologist. Another, who was told he should consider carpentry, is completing his residence in urology, and an Indigenous student was accepted into the residency program in plastic surgery.
“These students didn’t see themselves reflected in the medical professions,” says Alli D’Souza. “Giving them role models opened up a whole new world of possibilities.”
Imagine, a student-run health clinic in downtown Toronto co-founded by her offers healthcare to the homeless with no ID, no OHIP, and at no cost.
She also started an outreach program for isolated senior citizens.
“Sometimes, we forget to take care of our elderly. They can be so lonely. I used to send two students at a time to spend some time with a senior, matching their hobbies wherever possible. Students who enjoyed opera and dance were connected to a senior who had been a performing artiste. She ended up mentoring the students. And they learned that those who give of themselves also receive so much in return.”
She spearheaded global scale benefit concerts through the University of Toronto International Health Program (UTIHP) and Medical Society, raising tens of thousands of dollars for destitute children around the world.
And through Books with Wings and UofT’s GotTalent Benefit Concert, she helped send medical textbooks to libraries in war-torn and developing countries like Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Ethiopia as well as the Indigenous Southwestern Library. They also, famously, shipped an ambulance filled with books to Ethiopia.
When the number of student suicides rose in the late 80s she was called upon to start the Office of Student Affairs to help students in crisis.
“There was not one suicide, since,” says Alli D’Souza, who helped build a model for positive student experiences, incorporating a humanitarian approach towards physical and mental wellness. This included taking her students shopping for groceries and fresh produce and showing them how to eat healthy for a few dollars a day.
She has helped students – who refer to her fondly as den mother or doctor mom – in her personal capacity, too, once handing the keys to her condo to a student who was pregnant and finding it hard to commute to classes.
On retiring, she channelled her passion for social responsibility to found the not-for-profit Access Empowerment Council. Inspiring our youth, engaging our elderly – globally, the tagline says it all.
“Many of us who have been through the initial struggle, can help and encourage others. Show them ways to access the ample resources that are out there, help them build new lives filled with hope.” - Diana Alli D’Souza.
Our youth, our elderly. There’s no separation between them and us.
“My work from a young age has been all about accessibility and opening doors, about empowering those who are marginalized and vulnerable,” she says.
It has taken her to a village in the Himalayas, where she works with underprivileged children. She helped found Suriya Charitable Society with full funding in one of the poorest slums.
At Jeevandhara (a Catholic ashram) she supports two kids from Jharkhand (who live at the ashram) and has tutored them every morning in all their subjects including Hindi. They could barely speak English when she began working with them but came first after lessons with Alli D’Souza.
She intended to get involved as a donor at first at Khushi Charitable Society but while there witnessed the way differently abled children were being treated. They were harshly disciplined and other kids bullied them, calling them dunces.
In her work in Canada, she had removed the word “failure” from her vocabulary and replaced it with “children with potential”, she says, and when she shared her thoughts with the people at Khushi, they asked if she would like to teach there.
“I told them to send all the ‘dunces’ to me,” says Alli D’Souza. “One was dyslexic. Another, who had ADHD, was soon solving complex math equations. I taught the kids to play Scrabble!”
She was “promoted” to teaching high school kids preparing for university entrance exams and also local youth working as labourers and waiters who saw learning English as a way out of the cycle of poverty.
One passed a pharmacy course. A young boy whose father used to carry fifty-pound bags of potatoes on his head to earn a living now has a good job at Delhi airport. Another young man, now fluent in English, is not only her yoga teacher but also her assistant teacher at the foundation. He has completed his B.Com and is enrolled in a Master of Yoga Sciences program.
And since her youngest daughter was born in Guyana, she supports an orphanage called the Oaks of Righteousness in Guyana.
Alli D’Souza spends six months of the year in the Himalayan village. Unable to go due to COVID, she remains in regular touch and updated on her students’ lives.
She came to Canada in 1974. Racial tensions and a lack of personal safety had her and her then husband seeking the safety of Canada.
“My ex-husband was a jeweller and we were victims of frequent robberies. After a break-in at our home when I was expecting our youngest baby, I knew we couldn’t stay there any longer. He had family here and we applied for immigration, were accepted and landed in Canada with $50 – that’s what we were allowed to come with those days!”
Those days were difficult in other ways, too. Looking for a job in winter, with three young children, Alli D’Souza met with rejection many times for her lack of Canadian experience.
“I spoke good English, I’d been in England and then in Guyana, I knew about different cultures. These struggles didn’t deter me, I was resilient. When I was called the P-word by someone, I thanked him for calling me clean (pak means pure in Urdu). I asked him why he had used what he knew to be a slur and he was dumbfounded by the question. He said he didn’t know. We went on to become friends.”
She was working as a temp when she got job offers from RBC and UofT. The bank offered investment opportunities and the university, free tuition for her kids. She chose to secure her kids’ education.
Things were finally turning around on the financial front, but her marriage was falling apart.
“It was an abusive relationship and I ran away,” she says, quietly. “The medical school was so good to me, they helped me rebuild my life. They gave me two months’ rent and said not to worry about returning it, they’d call it overtime. People helped with clothes for the children, with things we needed for the home. Now, by the grace of god, I own a place of my own on the waterfront – on my own steam – and I’m compelled to give back a thousandfold. I’m always thinking, what else can I do to help someone?”
Neither a burst water pipe at her condo nor inclement weather can keep her from volunteering at Paroisse du Sacré-Cœur (Sacred Heart Church) where the homeless gather for a meal through the Ripples of Kindness initiative. She fills containers with pea soup or srcubs pots, pitching in where needed.
Her parents were her role models, bringing in homeless children to feed them in their Bombay home.
“My mother instilled in us values of equity and equality before they were fashionable words,” she says.
Alli D’Souza has three children and nine grandchildren. They are very proud of her achievements, but have also become somewhat immune to the recognition she receives.
“They say, ‘Oh, mum got anther award!’” she says, with a laugh. “Ironically, my ex-husband is the one telling everyone about my awards!”
She was a governor (member of the Governing Council, the highest Board of Directors at UofT) and received the U of T’s Centre for Health Promotion award.
An Order of Ontario recipient, she is also the co-recipient of the Faculty of Medicine’s Aikins esteemed teaching award.
Over the years she received over ten awards given by medical students for role-modelling, compassion and excelling the students’ experience. But perhaps the most unique honour is the establishment of awards in her name. Medical students established the Clinician Investigator Trainee Association of Canada (CITAC) Diana Alli Community Service Award available to MD-PhD students nationwide, in recognition of the national and global impact she has had. University of Toronto’s undergraduate medical students also established the Diana Alli Award in recognition of the enormous contributions she has made to student life.
These are in perpetuity and Alli D’Souza presents them each year in front of an audience comprising the who’s who of the medical fraternity.
Welcome learning from each other, she tells newcomers to Canada. Don’t be isolated in your own culture and faith.
“My grandchildren are Hindu, Ismaili and Catholic. They are being raised as compassionate adults with a moral compass.”
She also tells newcomers not to lose hope.
“We may meet callous people, but we have it in us to rise above You will get into university. You will find a mentor. You will find a job.”
She also has this to say to those who have been here longer.
“Many of us who have been through the initial struggle, can help and encourage others. If you meet someone who is worrying about if they’ll be able to make it, show them ways to access the ample resources that are out there, help them build new lives filled with hope.”
• Grant’s is proud to present this series about people who are making a difference in the community. Represented by PMA Canada (www.pmacanada.com).
