QENDRESA SAHITI: FROM FLEEING THE WAR IN KOSOVO TO A CANADIAN MEDICAL HALL OF FAME AWARD
Qendresa Sahiti has a bright smile that warms up an entire room, bright enough to make her patients feel well cared for. She is currently a resident physician in the Department of Psychiatry at Dalhousie University. With her curls intact and behind her bright smile is one inspiring story of a young woman beating all odds.
Sahiti’s story begins in Kosovo. During the war in 1999 Saiti was a baby. As the situation in the country became critical, access to food and medicine became very scarce where at times her family ran out of milk to feed Sahiti, something many other mothers with young children report having faced at the time. “We fled to my mother’s village in the countryside, thinking we would be safer there. Unfortunately, this did not last very long. “ Sahiti says her parents have shared their difficulty journey where they ran for their lives.
Before immigrating to Canada, Sahiti and her family flew across the world to Australia as refugees to escape the difficult conditions they faced at the refugee camp where she says Aussies gave them a warm welcome. Her family chose the opportunity to repatriate back to post-war Kosovo where the country was in rebuilding stage from the damages of war. Sahiti’s family lived in Kosovo until 2004 who then immigrated to Canada due to the ongoing difficult social and economic conditions in Kosovo.
A REFUGEE FAMILY HELPING SHAPE CANADA'S FUTURE
Although Sahiti may not personally remember much of her story, her family has shared their remarkable and difficult journey they and other Kosovar’s faced during the war. A time and history that’s also inspired Sahiti’s passion in the medical field.
In Canada, she’s an inspiring face to the Albanian community and beyond. Sahiti’s family arrived with just a few suitcases in Canada, starting over a new life. Sahiti is a TD Scholar, a recipient of a $70,000 scholarship for community leadership, she’s also been recognized by the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame Award for Medical Students, the Dalhousie Research in Medicine Award, the 3M National Student Fellowship.