As a child, Laadi Salifu (MA ’24) almost missed out on education of any kind.
While it was not the norm for girls to attend school in her region of Ghana at the time, Salifu’s mother insisted she go despite her father’s objections. Crossing the stage at Brock’s 116th Convocation on Friday, Oct. 18, Salifu is driven to help others reach their full potential through education.
The Master of Arts in Social Justice and Equity Studies (SJES) grad now holds a full-time job stemming from her graduate co-op placement and plans to pursue a PhD in order to effect change in Ghana’s educational system for students with disabilities.
While she was able to attend school herself, Salifu still faced obstacles to completing her education. Each day, she woke around 3 a.m. to help on her family’s cocoa farm before the long walk to school, collecting kola nuts along the way to sell for lunch money. Each night, she completed her homework by the light of a kerosene lamp with her mother at her side.
For high school, Salifu moved to Accra to live with her uncle and learn English. Sadly, her mother passed away. But with her uncle’s support and encouragement, Salifu succeeded at school.
While volunteering in underserved communities with International Citizen Services under Voluntary Service Overseas Ghana, Salifu’s research interests began to take shape. She spent three months trying to improve the literacy rate at a small school, where she says the students reminded her of herself.
“The school was in a remote community where there was no electricity, no water and no access road,” she says.
Salifu also learned of a local disabled child who was kept isolated instead of attending school due to stigma attached to disability. These experiences prompted her interest in applied disability studies, a field in which she earned her undergraduate degree.
In order to tackle issues of stigma and accessibility, however, she wanted to learn about effecting policy changes.
Starting her SJES degree proved challenging. She enrolled one semester after the rest of her cohort due to delays in obtaining a student visa. Tragically, within a month of arriving at Brock, Salifu’s father passed away and she became responsible for her seven younger siblings. She says she relied on colleagues, professors and Brock staff for direction and support as she navigated these difficulties.
But before long, she was helping organize the 2023 Niagara Social Justice Forum and taking additional classes to expand her understanding of policy-making. Earlier this year, she completed her major research paper under the supervision of Professor of Sociology Ifeanyi Ezeonu and Professor of Kinesiology and Applied Disability Studies Maureen Connolly.
“I completed my research on inclusive education in Ghana, with challenges and lessons from Canada,” says Salifu. “I wanted to find out what is Canada doing that Ghana can incorporate in our inclusive education to make it better.”
She also completed a co-op placement with Brain Injury and Community Re-entry Niagara, where she is now a full-time rehabilitation counsellor in addition to working as a teaching assistant at Brock’s Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies.
Ultimately, Salifu plans to pursue a PhD to further her research around inclusive education.
“I want to continue learning about leadership and policy, because I want to contribute back to Ghana,” she says. “It all boils down to policy and decision-making from the top, because if government does not include policies that support the system for inclusive education, then inclusive education will not come to pass.”
Salifu says her own journey is a testament to those who worked so hard to ensure that she could be educated.
“I strive to make my mom proud because she fought for me every day to ensure I could go to school,” she says. “I also want to honour my uncle, who brought me from the village to the city; without him, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I want to show him that the little girl he believed in is not only capable of succeeding but excelling. I want to achieve this for him.”
