"Canada and the community that we live in welcomed us and gave both my husband and me a great opportunity for education, career, and a peaceful life," says Moira, a PhD graduate in Anatomy and Neuroscience from the UBC and a management professional.

Moira moved with her husband Sammy to Canada in 1987 to take up higher education in the field she was in. Teaching Human Anatomy to medical students and doing research in Alzhiemer’s disease at the University of Jaffna in Sri Lanka, Moira won a scholarship from the Canadian Commonwealth as well as the Association of Colleges and Universities of Canada to pursue her dreams at the UBC.

"I wanted to use my education and skills to improve the lives of people wherever I lived," says Moira who believes that the education, even re-education of healthcare professionals, as well as the research that leads to the advancement of medicine is crucial to developing and developed societies.

True to her calling, Moira took up a position in the Division of Infectious diseases Faculty of Medicine to direct and manage the Canadian Institutes of Health Research-University of British Columbia-Vancouver Coastal Health Training Program in Infectious Diseases.

Moira was recently appointed by the UBC Department of Health Care and Epidemiology to manage all its graduate programs. "I particularly enjoy helping the best and the brightest students get their graduate education in the health research fields that they are interested in," says Moira.

Strongly bonded to her roots too, Moira served as president of the Thamil Cultural Society of BC, a group that aims to introduce Thamil culture to Canada and bring Thamils of all countries in B.C. together.

Her advice: "Canada is a place full of opportunities.
In order to find suitable jobs that will make us (migrants) happy we have to always think positive even in difficult times and work hard towards educating ourselves for the particular jobs that we want."