Sisters Shania Bhopa and Anya Bhopa co-founded the Canadian Courage Project, a non-profit that supports young people facing homelessness.Supplied
The organizers: Shania and Anya Bhopa
The pitch: Co-founding the Canadian Courage Project
As a child, Shania Bhopa’s health was always a concern. She had gastrointestinal problems, kidney stones and struggled with mental-health issues.
“I was just a really sick kid and I always felt like doctors never communicated to me the things I needed to know,” Ms. Bhopa, 28, said from her home in Toronto.
Her experiences led her to study communications at university, with a focus on health care. She went on to earn a doctorate from McMaster University in global health. She also spent time working on health care concerns in youth shelters and she wrote a children’s book about the “gut-brain connection.”
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“I think that true human connection comes from good communication, and it really does lack in the health care system,” she said.
In 2020, she launched the Canadian Courage Project with her sister, Anya, who is a veterinarian. The non-profit works with more than a dozen foundations and organizations to provide a range of services for youth experiencing homelessness, including animal care programs, community libraries and workshops.
The project has recently partnered with Friends of Ruby, a Toronto shelter for 2SLGBTQIA+ young people. They opened the Jade Health & Wellness Room, which offers primary care, mental health, dental and wellness support services to people served by Friends of Ruby. The project has been backed by around $20,000 from Telus Health, a division of Telus Corp.
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“We’re able to collaborate with family medicine, nurse practitioners, two dentists and dental hygienists, and three alternative medicine specialists,” said Ms. Bhopa. She added that current and former residents of the shelter have been involved in the programming.
Ms. Bhopa is studying to become a doctor, and her dream is to blend her interests in medicine and research. Her goal is “to spend half of my week in a clinic with my patients and then half in my lab building the interventions to help them.”
pwaldie@globeandmail.com
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