Helping women develop better mental health
Gurmit Sarpal addresses 27 women gathered in a bright conference room at the Genesis Centre, which provides health, fitness and recreation services to Calgary’s northeastern communities. She is speaking in Punjabi and calling on individuals to come up and share their talents with the others.
One woman stands up and sings a song while another reads a poem she has written. After each woman is done showcasing her talent the group applauds them. They listen intently to one another and laugh when something funny is said. A few ladies tear up when hearing about the experiences of some, but they also smile when others come up to perform a traditional dance.
At the end, many come up to shake Sarpal’s hand and thank her for her time and help. Organizing these meetings is important for her because when she immigrated from India she experienced feelings of loneliness and depression.
But it was out of those experiences that she co-created the Royal Women Association to help other immigrant women cope with their struggles and become more confident by developing their hidden talents, just like she has.
Sarpal grew up in Punjab, India, and recalls feeling very lucky as a child because she was raised in a religious, honourable and well-respected family. She was the middle child of seven siblings.
Sarpal is especially appreciative of her older brother because he helped her realize her interest in music, teaching her how to play the harmonium — a kind of pump organ — and encouraging her passion for singing.
As she grew older, though, she also became passionate about nursing. “It was calling inside that I want to be like them ... I want to serve the humanity like them.”
Sarpal studied for four years at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research and worked as a nurse in India for two years before she immigrated to Canada with her husband in 1976. The move was difficult because neither of them could find work in their fields.
“Whenever I go and applied, they said that we need Canadian experience. And I think I have applied at each and every nursing home and the hospital.”
Sarpal was desperate to find work because she needed to support her infant daughter. She began cleaning downtown while her husband took care of their child. When that job didn’t work out, she worked at a fast-food restaurant.
“They said, ‘Your English is not proper ... our clients don’t understand your accent,’ ” she says. “So, then they fired me there.”
Sarpal struggled with suicidal thoughts. Her husband offered to look for a job so that she could stay home with their daughter. However, he faced discrimination, having to take off his turban and cut his hair to find work.
While he was working in a factory, Sarpal studied, applied and got a licence to run a day home. Her depression continued. But then her older brother told her to develop her talent for singing and get back in touch with the Sikh holy scriptures. Upon hearing this, Sarpal was able to see that her life still had a purpose.
“So then I open the school over there in the Gurdwara to teach the children and I sing every Sunday on the worshipping day on the stage, and that gives me light and my life and strength.”
Sarpal also began hosting a radio show teaching children the Punjabi language.
Sarpal says many women started coming to her for guidance because they were experiencing depression “due to culture shock, due to loneliness, due to their hard work.”
“Finally, one day on the air, when I was speaking on the radio one lady ask me, ‘Gurmit, you are helping a lot of our children, why can’t you do something for the ladies?’ ”
So, in 2006 Sarpal and a few others created the Royal Women Association. Seeing the women she’s helped “gives me the internal happiness, it gives me the contentment, it gives me the satisfaction that, yes, I have made some difference in their life.”
I sing every Sunday on the worshipping day on the stage and that gives me light and my life and strength.