“Paying back by helping others” with a gift to support students in the School of Health and Community Studies
Posted on Thursday, August 19th, 2021
Dr. Misbah Islam and Dr. Nigar Fatima Islam have established the Islam’s Health Care Bursary with an endowed gift to Algonquin College.
The annual bursary will be awarded to a second-year student in the School of Health and Community Studies who is enrolled in Diagnostic Medical Sonography, Practical Nursing, or Medical Radiation Technology. Preference will be given to students who self-identify as Muslim or Indigenous, with the award then being extended to other students demonstrating financial need.
According to Mark Savenkoff, Vice President, Advancement, “Dr. Misbah Islam and Dr. Nigar Fatima Islam’s generosity is a great example of how members of the community are rallying behind our students — especially now as they emerge from a particularly challenging period.”
By creating the bursary, the Islams wanted to encourage young people in their community to obtain hands-on professional skills. According to their sons, both radiologists, nurses and medical technicians are not well represented among Muslim Canadians.
The Islams’ positive experience as immigrants motivated them to give back to the Ottawa community. “We are from Pakistan and have been here for 40 years. My wife and I, and our two sons, were given so much by this country,” says Misbah. “Ottawa provided us with a healthy, happy, friendly environment in which to raise our family. So our objective with this bursary is paying back by helping others.”
The Islams’ spirit of philanthropy goes back decades. In 1999 Nigar sponsored a family of six from Kosovo. In the early 2000s, she wanted to help the Iraqi women and children during the Iraqi war. As Nigar recounts, she first needed to come up with a way to raise the necessary funds: “Pakistani clothes are very well made. They are elegant and have colorful handiwork. In Canada, they are worn only occasionally at festivities. They often end up in storage and unused. I thought, ‘Why not collect them through my network and sell them for charity by organizing a bazaar?’” The event raised $7,000.
Encouraged by the bazaar’s success, Nigar and other volunteers organized a second event. This time, sales generated nearly $15,000, which Human Concern International matched. “After that,” says Nigar, “I became a veteran of bazaars. We held them for floods in India, and earthquakes in Haiti and Pakistan.” She has continued to use her fund-raising skills to collect $54,000 to sponsor two refugee families from Syria that are now well settled.
The Islam’s learned about Algonquin College through Nigar’s involvement with the Ottawa Muslim Women’s Organization (OMWO), which is committed to building bridges with people of all faiths. The OMWO established two bursaries at Algonquin College. “I was the OMWO’s treasurer and I saw the College was doing a good job helping students with these bursaries,” says Nigar. “Misbah and I realized the amount needed to set up a bursary was within our financial means. So that’s how our own bursary came about.”
The Islams’ established the bursary in memory of their parents Dr. Ali Akhtar and Mrs. Badrun Nisa, and Syed Akhlaque Hadi and Mrs. Nisar Fatima Hadi. Nigar points out that they “made a lot of sacrifices for us and encouraged us to be responsible members of the global community.”
The Islam’s sincerely hope that their gift will encourage others in their community to make similar contributions.
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