Since the result of the 2022 Residency Match was announced, the KAINJI community has been buzzing with the joyous emotions of another successful year. We have indeed achieved the targets we set for ourselves.
As I normally do, I would have loved to stay in the background, and reserve my comments to the tail end of today’s event. But, I had to yield to the requests of the KAINJI community, many who urged me to make an early appearance. So, indulge me to steal a piece of the early part of today’s event.
Gratitude is the dominant emotion in my heart – to God Almighty, and to many in this community, that I refer to as ‘KAINJI Angels’; they work in the background, day and night crossing different time zones in the US, Africa, Europe, and Asia, connecting African international medical graduates. With this formidable group of people, I share the credit of many of our achievements.
I thank Mrs. O’, for tolerating my excessive altruism, a silent partner, who perseveres with my endless demands on behalf of KAINJI. It is indeed a risky business, to marry an empath and altruist like me, but thank God, she has gotten used to my idiosyncrasies. I must tell you, this work is not without cost, many of which I will share with you as time goes by. Mrs. O’, herself, has adopted several sons and daughters in the KAINJI community, packing them breakfast and lunch during the duration of their observerships, and serving as a listening ear for those conversations one would rather have with a mother-like figure.
I am thankful to our daughters, the ‘Oladipo Sisters’, five of them, who continue to work in the background to support this mission. We cannot forget the professional organizations connected to our community, whose collaboration, and encouragement have kept us going.
I thank fellow professional colleagues who continue to champion our cause and offer timely wisdom.
Today’s session is a culmination of the several activities of the past twelve months, giving a few the opportunity to give gratitude to whoever it is due, to share testimonies, to motivate others and to offer hope to those who are still on this journey.
The vision of KAINJI extends beyond simply mentoring young medical professionals who have immigrated from their home country; in fact, the original blueprint had other professionals in mind, a goal that we have not yet abandoned.
KAINJI is about a world, where through mentoring and advocacy, our society is transformed, by educating our community to shift from a mindset of that basic human instinct of ‘self and individualism’, to that of ‘collective responsibility’ and ‘altruistic mentoring’ in the lives of others.
KAINJI is the equivalent of ‘village-centric’ parenting, except that in this case, the focus is on career advancement. In other words, rather than focus on the generous act of giving the ‘gift of fish’, we devote our attention to empowering professionals on the ‘skill of fishing’. Our collective work, in a sense, is an indebted service to mankind, where all of us become what KAINJI has defined as ‘career activists’, looking out for one another, and seeing collective advancement as a means to make a positive impact on our society. It is a world, where your primary ambition is to assist others in all ways possible, to make a success of their personal endeavors.
While, as immigrants, we cannot ignore the issue of ‘brain-drain’, a phenomenon that is outside our control, where the brightest of affected countries immigrate in search of better opportunities, KAINJI sees it as an opportunity to make sure that those ‘brains’ are vigorously guided at all stages of their journeys, such that wherever they end up, they can attain their maximal potentials. We truly believe that, by doing this, the balance of equation is favorably tipped, such that both the home and the adopted country benefit from the individual.
In this work, we are motivated by the understanding that the greatest asset of any nation are the youths, and as a result, we make it our mission to make an impact in our own special way.
At KAINJI, we have coined the word ‘brain sharking’ to describe what happens when an immigrant professional becomes a victim of poor mentoring, and end up making costly career mistakes, that often take months, if not years to fix. This term is comparable to the practice of borrowing money at exorbitant interest rates, from loan sharks, only to be overburdened by their debts.
Our mission is to play the role of career activists, guiding professionals and reducing the number that fail to attain their potentials.
I will end this introductory speech with a story, see link to video, one that I believe will set the pace for the testimonies that follow;
Link to the full video:https://youtu.be/Mx7FwiAf4pU