Family pays it forward with $1.6M donation
A family that arrived as refugees in 1972 has donated $ 1.6 million to Canadian hospitals to help combat COVID-19 through research and staff support.
Nimi Nanji- Simard was 16 when she and her family got word that they, along with 60,000 other Ugandans of South Asian lineage, had 90 days to leave the African country.
Nimi and her three siblings were among the thousands airlifted to Montreal on mercy flights quickly arranged by the Canadian government.
Their mother, Gulshan, arrived a few weeks later, and their father, Pyarli, left Uganda on the 90th day of Idi Amin’s ultimatum.
Pyarli quickly landed on his feet with a logistics company in Montreal. After 18 years he uprooted to Toronto, where he started a hugely successful packaging firm.
The Nanji family never forgot this country’s humanitarian gesture, and pledged to pay it forward.
They launched the Nanji Family Foundation, which has given millions to Canadian hospitals. When asked for an overall dollar figure of donations, Nimi, a director with the Nanji Family Foundation, simply quotes her dad: “Not enough.”
But there is an amount attached to the Nanji Family Foundation’s latest donation: $1.6 million, to be split equally by 16 Canadian hospitals. The reason for disclosing the sum is that the family and hospitals are hoping the latter’s respective foundations will match or even exceed that amount.
“Yes, our lives were turned upside down when forced to leave Uganda and come here as political refugees,” says Nimi, an accomplished scarf designer who returned to Montreal after stints in Toronto and Kenya. “But we also had the advantage of being English- speaking. So compared to so many refugees who come here not speaking any of the official languages, we were able to adapt quickly. And unlike so many other refugees, we never experienced torture or death.”
Pyarvli is still a force of nature at 91, continuing to run his company and busier than ever, with such a high demand for packaging in these unsettling times. But his mantra, and that of the family, is “health is wealth.”
“He was in such awe of Canada’s health-care system, so grateful for the free health care we received,” Nimi says.
What moves Pyarli most are the front- line health workers.
“His view is that they are all someone’s family, and yet they show up selflessly at work 24/ 7. He is completely humbled by that,” Nimi says.
Ironically, two weeks after the Nanji family committed to its $ 1.6 million donation, Nimi tested positive for COVID-19, and spent nearly a month in quarantine.
For fear of alarming them, she has yet to inform her parents of her test result.
“This virus can strike anyone. But what it really drove home to me are the risks and commitment taken by our caregivers, for whom we all have to be so grateful.”