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NATIONAL VOLUNTEER WEEK - High achieving SFU student grateful for gifts gained through volunteerism
Her grandmother has been a part of her life since the day she was born in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. Watching Alzheimer’s disease take over such an important female figure in her life has been difficult for 22-year-old Zoyah, a fourth year SFU student completing a degree in cell biology with honours and a minor in gerentology. Zoyah also holds down a part-time job at the university’s Academic Advising and Student Success department as a peer advisor.
When the progression of Alzheimer’s disease became more apparent, Zoyah remembers feeling she didn’t really understand what was happening to her beloved grandmother. Her mother reminded her that when Zoyah was a baby, anytime she cried and her mother wasn’t able to calm her, she would be handed over to her grandmother and baby Zoyah would almost instantly stop crying. “She took care of you, so now it’s your turn to take care of her,” said her mother.
“When my family was faced with Alzheimer’s, like many other families, we did not know what to do or where to go,” explained Zoyah. “The Alzheimer Society was a big part of helping my family cope with this illness; it provided us with resources and information that has allowed us to find the best possible care for my grandmother.”
Zoyah turned her family’s experience into further action by training to be a support group facilitator and co-facilitates an Alzheimer Society of B.C. support group in New Westminster.
“I am so happy to be able to provide other caregivers and families with resources and support in the same way that the Society provided support to my family, it feels great to give back and hopefully I am making a difference in people’s lives,” said Zoyah. “But the exchange is not one way; I feel like I learn something every time I co-facilitate and I’m very fortunate for that.”
Zoyah’s career aspiration is to go into medicine, now through her volunteer experience at the Alzheimer Society of B.C. and the Queen’s Park Care Centre, she would like to focus on geriatrics specializing in neurology so that she can help the medical field make more strides in Alzheimer’s disease research.
The Society provides free education and training for volunteer facilitators of its support groups, an integral part of the service it delivers to families in communities across British Columbia.
There are a variety of volunteer opportunities at the Society, including helping to coordinate and deliver key programs such as First Link®, to taking a leadership role in a local community for events such as the Investors Group Walk for Memories, or helping the Provincial Office staff to support the Society’s province-wide network.
If you have time and energy to contribute and would like to know more about volunteering with us, review current volunteer job postings or contact Jo-Anne Teal, HR and Volunteer Administrator at 604-742-4924 in Vancouver or 1-800-667-3742 elsewhere in B.C.
