Why would Tia Tariq receive the Carl Rayaz Jadunandan Award for Humanitarian Service?

By Anela Jadunandan

“The best way to find yourself, is to lose yourself in the service of others” – Ghandi

Tia Tariq is living as an embodiment of this quote. Her life's work is to put others before herself. She has travelled across 13 different countries in her quest to help improve the lives of those suffering. Starting locally at the tender age of 11 volunteering at a shelter for women and children, Ms Tariq found a passion in helping others. This passion gave birth to her first charitable organization, Ontario Youth Empowering Service, when she was only 14 where she spent hours at a time feeding the homeless.

In her early 20s, this later evolved into spending weeks at a time in disaster stricken areas of the world such as Pakistan and India after the devastating earthquake in 2005 and most recently on the Greek island of Leros where she volunteered in the refugee camp which has been a hub for refugees escaping war from areas like Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

I met Tia at Hajj in 2012 where we all bunked in a tent at Mt. Arafat. I had no idea that I would share space with this amazing woman!

https://www.facebook.com/torontostar/posts/10153884958246151

And hence the nomination for the Carl Rayaz Jadunandan- One Love Humanitarian Award. Carl met his tragic end at a very young age and his passion for sports made him an inspiration to others after his passing.

http://www.torontosun.com/2015/06/07/late-sons-passion-sparked-baseball-tournament

And the plaque is aptly a celebration of our First Nations art as we acknowledge we stand on their territories- an Inukshuk!

2017 Will be 10 years since Carl passed away and he loved Bob Marley's One Love song. He was also very interested in the Inukshuk.

What an honor!