U of T student Myuri Manogaran credits the losses in her life for getting her the Ontario Medal for Young Volunteers, awarded her by the provincial government last week in recognition of years of volunteer service dating back to her childhood.
Though 20-year-old Manogaran, currently in her third year at U of T at Scarborough, has had to scale back some of her volunteer commitments to a still-hefty 12 hours a week in order to study, she continues to be active at Mount Sinai Hospital. She was given the award with 19 others by Lieutenant Governor James Bartleman at Queen’s Park on October 6.
In many ways, Manogaran’s story seems positively saintly. When her young brother Sivaram died in 1993, Myuri decided to get involved in supporting Growing Together, an organization that helped her and her family get over her loss. While still in elementary school, Manogaran helped Growing Together run community art events and fundraise. Her brother’s death proved to be pivotal for her.
“Sivram is the main reason why I want to go into medicine,” she said.
One of her other brothers had major health problems when he was born, only recovering with the aid of both Sick Kids’ and Mount Sinai Hospitals.
While still a student at Jarvis Collegiate Institute, Manogaran became a major community leader. With the help of her guidance counselor mentor Janice Ficker, Manogaran set up a club to fundraise for the Kids Help Phone.
“When I was 16, I started to volunteer at Sick Kids,” she said, a practice that extended and grew in university. Manogaran began to serve as a volunteer in several Toronto hospitals. She started volunteering at Toronto General as an intern during high school and later ran a project for several years to purchase Christmas gifts for patients.
Mangoran donates almost as many hours to Mount Sinai and Sick Kids as many students would spend at a part-time job, in addition to her studies in integrative biology and health studies. Most of her volunteering these days involves pregnancy wards or working in neo-natal care.
Manogaran’s activism is not limited solely to hospitals. She has also participated in the “RACISM STOP IT!” campaign in elementary school and helped found an organization called Tamil FEM. FEM was designed to provide female Tamil students with a safe place to go outside the home.
“I managed to get $1,000 of funding from Bell to get the organization off the ground,” Manogran said.
At one point, she was even a student liaison with Toronto Police 55 Division.
In addition to her brother’s death, Mangoran was also inspired by the work of Princess Diana.
“Princess Diana was an inspiring example: she used her influence to help with charities, landmines, and other issues she cared about; it is a really inspiring example for women,” Manogaran said.
