Young volunteer wins top honour
By Dana Borcea
The Hamilton Spectator
(Nov 7, 2006)
Alim Nagji first caught the bug when he was eight years old.
His family’s local mosque in Scarborough was raising money to buy shoes for children in Afghanistan. The young Nagji started thinking about the challenges that needy kids his age face daily.
“It seemed so unfair,” he says. “I had shoes and they didn’t. Why?”
So he set to work, doing chores around the house and hitting up family friends for cash.
The desire to help has been with him ever since.
This summer, the second-year McMaster health sciences student was honoured with the Ontario Medal for Young Volunteers by the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration.
But he wasn’t here to collect the prestigious award. Nagji, 19, was on a six-week volunteer trip in India, working with groups affected by HIV/AIDS, in the slums and rural areas around Mumbai. He created education materials and worked on the front lines with patients in hospital wards and camps.
“I learned about the stigma and discrimination they face,” he said. “But there was also such a determination and energy to live.”
The teenager has already raised tens of thousands of dollars and clocked endless hours helping others through fundraising for international development projects, organizing charity runs and tutoring recent immigrants.
He says he does it as much for himself as for those he is helping. Nagji, who hopes to become a doctor, says there’s a lot to be learned from volunteering.
“You cannot spend all your time in front of a textbook. Volunteering means meeting new people, growing and always learning.”
Nagji finally picked up his medal last month at a ceremony with Lt.-Gov. James Bartleman. Nagji was one of eight finalists from across the province chosen from a pool of more than 81 nominees.
The executive director of Volunteer Hamilton, Christopher Cutler, described the Ontario Medal for Young Volunteers as an important honour.
According to the 2000 National Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating, youths aged 15-19 had the highest volunteer rate of all age groups.
dborcea@thespec.com
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