Tuesday's Webinar, Open Opportunities, Healthcare Heroes, and more!

	CANADA 07 June 2021 \| CANADA

Vein to Vein: The Journey of Donated Blood in Canada

TUESDAY, JUNE 2021 - 5:00PM PT / 6:00PM MT / 8:00PM ET

Blood donation can make a lifesaving difference and blood donors are needed every day. In honour of National Blood Donor Week, we invite you to join Dr. Kareem Jamani, Clinical Assistant Professor at the Division of Hematology, Alberta Blood & Marrow Transplant Program, University of Calgary, and Ms. Stephanie Pederson, Territory Manager with Canadian Blood Services in British Columbia for this educational and informative webinar. The panel will discuss the indications for blood transfusion, the importance of blood donation, and will take you through the journey of donated blood from donor, through processing, and finally through transfusion to the recipient. Information will also be provided on how participants, their friends, family members and colleagues can participate in a blood donation drive being run by Ismaili CIVIC and Canadian Blood Services from June 13-19, 2021.

Missed an event? Visit The Ismaili Canada Health & Wellness page on for up to date news, events, resources and much more. Find recordings from past events at iicanada.org/videos.

Blood Drive

Save the date: IHP Conference 2021

Are you a healthcare practitioner, health professional or health tech entrepreneur?

Are you looking for thought-provoking exchanges, connections, professional development opportunities and mentorship? Would you like to learn more about the institutional objectives for improving the quality of life of the Jamat and surrounding communities?

This year’s virtual conference theme will be COVID-19: A catalyst for resilience, innovation, and advancement. It will give us the opportunity to reflect back to the start of the global pandemic crisis; dive into the novel solutions, unprecedented collaborations, and digital innovations that resulted in response to the pandemic. It will also propel us to look to the future with readiness, bringing forth the learnings highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Save the date! This year’s conference will take place from Friday, August 13 to Sunday, August 15.

Stay tuned at iicanada.org/ihpc.

Introducing Five to Thrive

We are excited to launch a new program called Five to Thrive to assist with your progress on the road to wellness. Five to Thrive is all about simple, healthy lifestyle habits that are easy to start and continuously build upon. They include:

1. Healthy Eating - Choosing a variety of healthy foods each day.

2. Meaningful Movement - Adding movement as a regular part of your daily life.

3. Staying Positive - Building a positive and resilient mindset despite challenging situations.

4. Connecting with the Community - Being socially connected to family, friends, and your community to support your well-being.

5. De-stressing - Learning simple strategies to manage everyday stresses.

The launch begins with an Introduction to Five to Thrive, which will help everyone get motivated. In the coming months, information and easy to-do actions will be posted for each of the five lifestyle habits. The first, Healthy Eating, will include simple tips and recipes to take your eating to the next level!

Visit Five to Thrive and take the next step on the road to better health and wellness!

Our Most Recent Healthcare Heroes

Canadian Healthcare Hero: Humairea Shairzai

Healthcare Hero Humairea Shairzai is a nurse clinician from Laval, Quebec. Humairea works in the Emergency Department, and has also worked in many specialities such as cardiology, neurosurgery, and digestive surgery during her career. In her current role, she is treating patients in the Emergency Department. Like many healthcare workers, her own mental well-being has been affected due to increasing concerns for the health of her patients and the potential risk of impacting her family members by working with individuals who have COVID-19.

Canadian Healthcare Hero: Riyana Babul-Hirji

Riyana Babul-Hirji is a Genetic Counsellor at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto, as well as an Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Assistant Program Director of the M.Sc. program in Genetic Counselling at the University of Toronto. As a Genetic Counsellor, Riyana provides information and support to patients and their families who may be at risk of a genetic condition, and helps them adapt to their condition. Her role at SickKids involves assisting children, parents, and families in understanding their genetics enabling them to make informed decisions that align with their values, while also providing important emotional and psychological support. Over the past year, the pandemic has disrupted healthcare delivery, including genetic counselling, and Genetic Counsellors like Riyana quickly adopted a new approach to meeting the needs of their patients by transitioning fully to remote counselling. Her greatest lesson from this time has come from her positive experiences with genetic counselling virtual care, and its value post-pandemic in increasing access to counselling services.

Canadian Healthcare Hero: Alshaba Billawala

Healthcare Hero Alshaba Billawala is a registered psychologist in South Calgary who works collaboratively with adults, adolescents, and couples regarding various challenges that they may be facing. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Alshaba has developed new approaches and adapted her practice in order to continue to support her clients with in-person and remote care. With many clients experiencing increased stress, anxiety, and depression as a result of these unprecedented times, her role as a psychologist has been crucial in supporting their mental healthcare needs. Like many of us, Alshaba has also had to learn how to cope with the increased uncertainty in her life and find new ways to connect with her family and friends.

Canadian Healthcare Hero: Alim Somani

Healthcare Hero Alim Somani is a respiratory therapist in Richmond, BC, where he works to support patients experiencing different breathing disorders and diseases such as lung cancer or infections. In 2020, with the growing rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, Alim began working in acute care where he predominantly supported COVID-19 patients in the ICU wards and Emergency Department, along with other patients experiencing acute respiratory illnesses. As we now know, COVID-19 can lead to respiratory complications, and Alim saw first-hand the impact that the virus had on his acute patients as well as his colleagues. Like many health professionals, he experienced fear at the beginning of the pandemic due to the many unknowns, and the potential risk of transmitting the virus to his family at home.

Canadian Healthcare Hero: Zenah Surani

Healthcare Hero Zenah Surani is a pharmacist and pharmacy owner in Ottawa, where she works tirelessly with her team to meet the healthcare needs of her patients. Zenah is passionate about helping the community, and serves as a Board Member for the United Way of Eastern Ontario and the Canadian Club of Ottawa, and she is the Director of Education for the Ottawa-Carleton Pharmacists’ Association. She is also the Deputy Communications Coordinator for the Ismaili Council for Ottawa.

If you are interested in nominating a Healthcare Hero, please fill out this nomination form or email akhbc@iicanada.net.

Volunteer Opportunities - June 2021

For additional information on any of the below roles, please visit the website or email our HR lead.

Ismaili Health Professionals (IHP) Annual Conference

The IHP Conference team is looking for volunteers for the upcoming virtual conference in August. The team is looking for volunteers in the following areas:

Sponsorship Lead
Finance Lead
Logistics Team
Content Writers
Virtual Activities Lead
Zoom Moderators (3)

Family Navigator - Future Ready Initiative (FRI)

The Future Ready Initiatives the Council for Canada’s integrated, institutional response to some of the most significant, urgent changes facing the Jamat in Canada, and those with whom the Jamat lives.

The Program responds to four inter-related needs within the Jamat:

Family mentorship
Employment, including the Future of Work and Future of Business
Mental health; and
Youth mentorship and leadership development.

The Council for Canada is seeking Family Navigators to work effectively with the Institutions to support Jamati members. The Family Navigators should demonstrate strong people and process management and sound assessment skills. Full details can be found here.

Administrative Officers

Global Health Partnerships (GHP) is seeking Administrative Officers.

Position holder will provide support administrative tasks such as organizing meetings, taking minutes, updating relevant documents and spreadsheets, and ensuring the portfolio’s MS Teams/MS SharePoint folders are up to date and organized. The position holder may be called upon to assist other administrative officers within the portfolio, when necessary.

Skills:

Good knowledge of Microsoft PowerPoint, Excel, Word and Teams
Collaborative
Team Player
Background in healthcare administration would be considered an asset

Baby2B Facilitators

The Baby2B program is a 6-week national program that is coordinated by the Aga Khan Health Board for Canada (AKHBC). AKHBC is looking for Facilitators (English and French speaking) to support and facilitate weekly sessions. The Baby2B program aims to drive a strengths-based approach with a focus on empowerment, healthy and mindful approaches to decision making and creating community-based support. Training will be provided. Note: At this time sessions will be conducted virtually due to pandemic.

Ismaili Nurses Alliance Ontario

Are you passionate about advancing the nursing profession and connecting with your colleagues? We are looking to add to our steering committee team!

The Ismaili Nurses Alliance Ontario aspires for an empowered, impactful, well-connected, prosperous and informed nursing community which is able to inspire, support, enhance and benefit the nursing profession as a whole. If you are interested in serving as a member of the steering committee, please contact ismailinursesalliance@gmail.com

Volunteer Ambassador Lead

Global Health Partnerships portfolio would like to set up a Global Health Ambassador Program, whereby previous Canadian healthcare volunteers, who have served at our Institutions abroad, will form a network to primarily support and encourage other healthcare workers in Canada, who wish to do the same. This network will also form a great resource for knowledge exchange, network building, and strategy development for the wider Global Health Partnerships portfolio. We are seeking to recruit a lead to manage this network.

Responsibilities

Maintain and keep current a data base of contact details for ambassadors.
Identify new ambassadors with the assistance of Global Health Portfolio and Aga Khan Health Board members.
To connect volunteers wishing interested in serving aboard.
Showcase volunteer work from ambassadors through a variety of channels.
Keep the network engaged.

THE ISMAILI CANADA

Opportunities to Serve

RESOURCES

Ismaili Health Professionals Engagement

Mental Wellness Corner

Active Living

Medical Advisory Service

Jamatkhana Re-opening

Access - Jamati Services

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