BN Posted June 15, 2003 By ERIN ANDERSSEN From Saturday's Globe and Mail Photo: Tibor Kolley Fahima Osman, in her med-student gear, making her rounds and consults with colleagues on the surgical ward at McMaster University Medical Centre The envelope arrived on a Tuesday, a sunny and hot June 4, 2000, just before 1 p.m. All the Osmans remember it: The day before, Fahima and her mother had gone to the end of their street in Markham, Ont., to the brown super-mailboxes, shoving the key into 10A slot with their hearts pounding, only to find it empty. They knew the mailman delivered just after noon. They knew McMaster University had sent their answer off on Friday. Fahima hadn't slept all night; she had borrowed a cellphone to call the long list of family waiting to hear. On Tuesday, her mom, Zahra, who considers herself "a lucky woman," insisted on being the one to open the mailbox and reach inside. It was a package so deliciously fat and bulging, they didn't even have to open it. There was no mistaking what it said. Screaming, Fahima tackled her mother in a hug and kissed her. Zahra started crying. Her daughter was going to medical school. "I used to wonder how people cried with joy," Fahima, now 25, recalls. "That day I found out." The next big date is May 14, 2004, when Fahima Osman will have earned the right to put two long-dreamed-of letters before her name. And in that moment, the Somali refugee - whose parents had no formal schooling, whose father nearly drowned trying to flee a life of poverty, and whose high-school guidance counsellor once warned her not to aim so high - will become an original: the first Canadian-trained medical doctor in the country's largest African community. To reckon with how far Fahima has come, you have to look back more than 50 years, to an enterprising 10-year-old named Adam Osman, born to a long line of nomads in the desert. He spent his early years wandering in the dust with the sheep and camels, trading for water or food and living under makeshift canopies of branches and cloth. Years later, when his children refused to finish their suppers, he would tell them about getting rationed his one cup of milk every second day. Adam's mother died when he was little, and his father remarried. As the second-oldest boy among 12 children, he was sent to make his way in the northern city of Hargeysa, working for a local merchant and farmer. At 15, he learned to drive a taxi and he saved enough money to bring two brothers into the city, and send the youngest to school. But he had ambition and he was clever, and with a bit more money, he managed to buy a one-way ticket to Yemen, where he paid 500 Yemen shillings - a fortune - to join 100 other stowaways on an unstable fishing boat bound for the United Arab Emirates. Finally, approaching land after days of motoring, the boat began to sink. Adam Osman could not swim. But while people churned helplessly in the water around him, he was pulled to safety by one of the other passengers and dropped on the beach. His luck held in Abu Dhabi: He landed a job with a Canadian oil company, and worked himself up to a public-relations position that saw him organizing visas and ferrying around staff members. He paid for more siblings to go to school. At 38, well past the age Somali men typically marry, he decided he was settled enough and sent home to his brothers and father to look for a wife. The name they produced was Zahra Ali, the 17-year-old daughter of the now-deceased merchant who had given him his first break. Zahra was nervous about marrying someone so old, but she knew the way of these things. "I didn't have a choice," she says now. "I respected my family." She was married in white in Abu Dhabi. Two years later, in April, 1978, their first daughter, Fahima, was born. By the late 1980s, the Canadian oil company had come up dry. Adam was given six months' notice, and with no job, he was not allowed to stay in the UAE. But the couple could not go home. They had six young children, and the political situation in Somalia was deteriorating, heading toward civil war. Zahra's family fell on the wrong side: "If we had gone back, they would have killed me," she explains, wiping a finger across her throat. Part 2 http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030613.nesom2/BNStory/SpecialEvents3/ Part 3 http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030613.wnesom3/BNStory/SpecialEvents3/ Part 4 http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030613.nesom4/BNStory/SpecialEvents3/ Part 5 http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030613.nesom5/BNStory/SpecialEvents3/ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Coloow Posted June 15, 2003 BariNomad, thanks for the article sxb. In this biased world you seldomly read somali success stories. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ and whose high-school guidance counsellor once warned her not to aim so high - will become an original: the first Canadian-trained medical doctor in the country's largest African community. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The first trained medical doctor???? Is this true? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bachelor Posted June 15, 2003 Good Job Bari, Such a stroy is what we as SOL member need the most. Anyways keep it up sxb. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
king_450 Posted June 15, 2003 Wonderfull story, i like it , this is what i would like to see , we somalian are not getting inot medical field , we can count how many of us are in that field , sister fahima i am wishing her the best , i know how hard it is doing the residency, and all the hard work it comes with it, because i am one of it. So keep reporting the good stories and i promise i will check in and drop my thoughts even thought i am not going to be in all the time, good story i loved it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dhimbil Posted June 15, 2003 Mansha allah, may god make it easy for her to accomplish her mission, amiin. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MD Posted June 16, 2003 Ameen Illmatic WOOW masha'allaaah an inspiring story Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aussie Posted June 16, 2003 Now thats what i call a bloody motivation. thats just what i needed to pump me up on a Monday After noon 4 me cricket game.....shoooot Bari_Nomad thanks 4 that bro Sami you sure do have a good eye for one thing i wish you good luck on your BIO exams though one day you might motivate me too. peace Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
xiis Posted June 17, 2003 Xcellent story just to show I do have a heart sometimes I wish my enemies the same success as my sista fahima. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
king_450 Posted June 17, 2003 If i were you i would not even have responded that tapoo projection, but did it well, no matter where you from or where u r going, it is in our best interest as in general to have a lot of somali doctors, should i mention who i am when i finish my degree, not , cz it is useless. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Libaax-Sankataabte Posted June 17, 2003 will become an original: the first Canadian-trained medical doctor in the country's largest African community. As much as the success story of another nomad makes me happy, it sadens me to see how Canada hasn't been good to the Somalis there in general. In the US where I call home now after I scaped from the Canadian drought, it is much more easier to see Somalis studying at the best schools like Harvard(One of the nomads here actually has a fiancee that goes to Harvard medical school), Somali professors at the best universities, regular students at Ivey League schools or MIT graduate students for that matter. I don't know, Canada hasn't been good to the Somalis somehow. A whole generation of Somalis is waiting to be rescued there. Something seriously went wrong with the Canadian formula. I think I know Fahima. I am wishing her all the best. May Allah make her even more successful. Aamiin. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LANDER Posted June 17, 2003 Nice story Bari, I'm impressed you put your differences aside to post this topic. Libaax, I have to say I disagree with you strongly. I believe the canadian social system is far more even handed and presents better oppurtunity for young somalis to get ahead. I myself attend University, and if it wasn't for the canadian government supporting me, I don't phantom how I could pay for my education. That goes for most somalis living here in Canada. Both the provincial and the federal governments pich in to lend money to those students in need of financial aid. This comparison of the superior canadian social system to that of the extremely capitalist american system goes beyond education, it can be demonstrated in health care, housing, overall living standard etc... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
xiis Posted June 17, 2003 Fahima waa ina Adan dhegey Somalilander thru and thru. Weliba reerkeeda ayaanu idiin sheegey lahayn lakiinse meeshan waa ka mamnuuc. Ka nax oo nafta waaa! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Libaax-Sankataabte Posted June 17, 2003 Originally posted by LANDER: Libaax, I believe the canadian social system is far more even handed and presents better oppurtunity for young somalis to get ahead. I used to think so Lander. Not anymore. You would have to come to the US(Minnesota) and see it for yourself. You would be amazed how many Somali students are going to the best schools here for almost free with goverment grants, interest-free loans and easy scholarships. Students also have far more job opportunities in the US. Don't get me wrong. I am one of those who benefitted from OSAP(student loans) when I was studying at U.of T, but I think the opportunity for government grants and scholarships is far more available here than in Canada. Student loan is also available in the US to any Somali who needs it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
xiis Posted June 17, 2003 Yeah but at least we don't get fingerprinted by the FBI. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
QUANTUM LEAP Posted June 17, 2003 Now this makes a huge difference from the mundane things people here are always caught up in. When you see a sister like Fatima in her attire and despite all the ups and downs getting through it and achieving her dream career, it makes you still have faith and think there are still many more brothers and sisters who work hard enough to escape their past and embrace the future with both hands. May Allah bless us all Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
