Connect with us

Empower

Kimberlee Shelley-Ajibolade: Always moving forward

Published

on

BY: DELLIA RISMAY

Kimberlee Shelley-Ajibolade is many things: an author, a wife, a paralegal, an HR professional, a minister, and an online TV personality. Despite juggling all these hats, she ensures she makes time to give back to her community, especially young women.

Born in Jamaica, Kimberlee was raised by her mother until she was in her early teens. When she was 14, she moved to Canada with her father. She credits her grounded nature to her parents instilling Christian values in her from an early age. They also taught her the value of education, as well as the importance of giving back.

Kimberlee’s mother did this by leading by example. Watching her mother do things like often donating her time towards her church’s food bank drives or simply being there for a friend or family member in need is a big source of inspiration for Kimberlee. “She’s so passionate about it, she’s just a selfless person. Just doing so much for so many people and not expecting anything back in return,” she says.

Today, Kimberlee can be found in several initiatives in her community. In 2017, she was chosen as Brampton’s Queen Ambassador of the Black Canadian Queens Program, which celebrates the abilities, characters, and strength of young black women. To be crowned an ambassador, participants must meet several criteria, such as successfully completing a community and leadership task, as well as a publicity task. Kimberlee is using her platform as a Queen Ambassador to reach out to other women.

Just in time for Mother’s Day, Kimberlee hosted a drive called “Celebrate HER”, which aimed to helped single mothers who were living at a shelter, some of which were the victims of abuse. The women received beauty and personal care products, as well as a short motivational speech from Kimberlee.

Kimberlee also helps those in her community by doing pro bono paralegal work. She attended Humber College where she was a student in the paralegal education program. Her love of advocating for those who needed a voice inspired her to become a paralegal, however, the costs of opening her own practice were too much for her to handle as a new graduate. So, she went on to work in an administrativerole at a head office of a security guard company, which eventually led to a job in HR/administration.

“Based on my interest and aptitude of the role, it became more HR/admin. So, I began to do more of the screening,” she says. She is now a branch manager of a recruitment firm called Universal Staffing, where, at age 27, she was the youngest branch manager in the company’s history. Though her day job is to help those in her community find good, meaningful careers, in her spare time, Kimberlee offers advice to those looking for guidance with issues like landlord and tenant disputes. “I am passionate about advocacy,” Kimberlee says.

As part of her continued quest to uplift others, Kimberlee co-authored a book in February of this year called “Designer’s Original—A Woman’s Guide to Understanding Her Self-Worth and Identity in God”. “It’s by no means a devotional, but we do take it from a biblical aspectbecause we believe that the Bibledoes such a great job of reassuring us of who we are […] We’re trying to be a better version of ourselves. The only person we’re comparing to is who we were yesterday,” Kimberlee explains.

In the book, which features stories about life experiences from multiple authors, Kimberlee describes overcoming her own challenges with struggling to accept parts of her own life story. “For me, I talk about growing up in the inner city and how I didn’t want people to know that,” she says. “In my chapter, I talk about how over time, we have to learn to accept what our truth is and find a good way to sell that, so it is a truth we can be proud of. We can’t go back in time, but we can determine how we move forward,” she says. Now, Kimberlee stands tall when it comes to her past, and helps others who may be in a similar situation.

Her determination to give back and support her community has earned Kimberlee several awards. In addition to being an ambassador for the Black Canadian Queens Program, she was also recognized as a Woman of Inspiration by Soulful Image Magazine, was named “Woman On Fire-Community Activist Award Winner” earlier this year, and, on June 20th, she will receive an award for being one of Brampton’s top 40 under 40 for 2018.

So, what’s coming up on the horizon for Kimberlee? Perhaps a career in politics. “I hope to continue the philanthropy in a bigger and better way. To start my foundation, and hopefully run for office,” she says. Wherever life takes her, it’s clear she will continue to be an advocate in her community for a long time.

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Junior Contributors

It is an unfortunate truth, but the Canadian Government has a habit of not honouring their promises

Published

on

BY KAHA G – 15 YEARS OLD

In history class, we were asked to do a group presentation based on various disputes between Indigenous peoples and the Canadian government as a whole, whether that be the crown, or even our current government. We were also asked to do an OPCVL (Origin, Purpose, Content, Value, and Limitations) on the websites we use to get a good idea of who is reporting the article and what kind of biases they present on the specific topic. My group chose the Toronto Purchase as our topic, and I will explain the Indigenous and Crowns’ perspective and give an overall introduction to what the Toronto Purchase is (some of this information is from my group members as well).

The Toronto Purchase of 1805, known as Treaty 13, is a big moment in Canadian history. Partially negotiated between the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and the British Crown, this land treaty aimed to address the uncertainties left by the Johnson-Butler Purchase of 1787-88. The earlier deal lacked clarity, resulting in rage over land boundaries and usage. In response, the Toronto Purchase sought to provide a clearer understanding of land rights between the Crown and the Mississaugas, resulting in ongoing colonial expansion and the displacement of Indigenous communities.

Now, here is the Toronto Purchase Treaty from each perspective:

The Crown’s Perspective:

Britain’s defeat at the hands of the Americans in 1783 because of the American Revolution placed a lot of pressure on the crown to acquire more land to resettle loyalist refugees. As well as the crown needed to secure communication and supply lines to western outposts and unite settlements along Lake Ontario from Kingston to Niagara. Since the crown knew that the Mississaugas of the Credit had large amounts of land that could benefit them, they created a treaty. The Mississaugas agreed, however, the British had no intention of sharing this land, and there were doubts about the treaty’s legitimacy of the deed and unclear land boundaries.

A deed is a legal document that outlines details of a land transaction, in this case, it would have the sale of the lands from the Mississaugas to the British Crown.

These concerns were bad for the crown because honouring agreements was important for maintaining the British government’s reputation and credibility. Violating treaties can damage relationships with Indigenous nations and other colonial powers, which puts them at a disadvantage when it comes to various aspects like security, defense, alliances, and trade.

The Mississaugas of the Credit First Nations Perspective:

Chief Wabakinine (wabakeyneen) was the Head Chief of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation in the 18th century. On their behalf, he signed many surrender treaties with the colonial British setters, including Treaty 13, or the Toronto Purchase.

Since the British needed more land for the settlers, Chief Wabakinine agreed to share the land with the newcomers in a beneficial way, where the Mississaugas could still hunt, fish, and gather, while the settlers would go about their way establishing villages and farms. However, the British didn’t keep up their end of the Treaty and the settlers saw the Mississaugas as trespassers, drove them from their camping places, ravaged the resources of the land and brought new diseases with them.

Sooner than later, the traditional economy was collapsing, and disease started to spread, making the population of Mississaugas drop 20%, within 10 years. The crown was now deemed untrustworthy since they didn’t respect Indigenous rights, took more land than originally agreed upon, underpaid them for the land, did not honour the terms and agreements of the Treaty and delayed the Mississaugas compensation for around 223 years (1787 to 2010).

Furthermore, the sources I got this information from were biased towards Indigenous peoples, as well as Indigenous websites that have a clear and precise analysis of what the goals of the Crown were, and why they did what they did. So, I would say the websites I used have a balance in respect to bias.

To summarize this whole article, the British Crown wanted more land for settlers and to secure their territory, but they didn’t stick to their promises in the Toronto Purchase treaty. The Indigenous Mississaugas agreed to share the land but got mistreated, lost resources, and faced disease instead. This shows how colonialism harmed Indigenous people and why we should honour their rights and finally bring justice for all of the torment they faced because of the Canadian government.

Continue Reading

The Poetic Word

How beautiful it would be to love again

Published

on

Photo Credit: Prostooleh

BY GLORIA O’KOYE

Like relearning to crawl,

Taking baby steps

Praying that there will be no falls.

Reopening back up a secured vault,

Filled with luxuries of the most potent

Human emotion,

A necessity to remain sane and strong.

 

It cures and reverses illnesses.

Prolonging healthy life

Once the barriers crumble

Like brick silos.

 

A renewed love resurfacing

Unhealed wounds

To be properly treated

Instead of decaying.

 

If only love could exist

Without any historic chains

To pierce the tender flesh

Of a beating heart

That wants to love,

Not to risk being in pain once again.

 

How beautiful it would be

To fall in love again.

Heights being reached

To know what it means to love again.

Continue Reading

Junior Contributors

What is Ramadan? People say, we’re fasting; that’s only a part of It

Published

on

Photo Credit: Way Home Studio

BY KAHA G. – 15 YEARS OLD

Ramadan is fast approaching! It’s said to be on either Sunday, March 10th, 2024, or Monday, March 11th, 2024, based on the sighting of the crescent moon. However, what is Ramadan? In Islam, Ramadan is the ninth month in the Muslim calendar (we use the lunar calendar) and is the holy month of fasting.

Like I said earlier, it starts and ends with the sighting of the crescent moon. This calendar is different from the Gregorian calendar because “Ramadan begins 10–12 days earlier each year, allowing it to fall in every season throughout a 33-year cycle,” according to Brittanica. This is why, in some cases, Eid (the celebration after Ramadan), can fall on the same day as Christmas.

Additionally, Ramadan is a period where Muslims practice self-restraint, from dawn to dusk from food, drink, sexual activity, and all forms of immoral behaviour. This includes bad deeds as a whole, like swearing, disrespecting your parents, music, etc. Keep in mind that these should be stopped no matter if it is Ramadan, or not. In addition to that, we are encouraged to do many good deeds during this month because the reward for it is multiplied immensely. So, we would partake in good acts like charity, reading the Qur’an (the holy book for Muslims), prayer, and so on.

Before the dawn prayer known as Fajr, we wake up for suhoor which translates to the meal eaten before dawn. We wake up one hour before dawn prayer, eat our suhoor, and read the Qur’an. On the other hand, after the sunset prayer, we have something called iftar, which is the meal we break our fast with.

Now, here is the amazing part of Ramadan. During Ramadan, in the last ten nights, there is a day called Laylat al-Qadr (Arabic word for the night of power). Allah (God) revealed the Qur’an to the prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. This day is so special to the point where all of our supplications are answered, and the angels descend giving the day a sense of tranquility.

According to zakat.org, there is a hadith (a statement, or action from the prophet Muhammed peace be upon him) from An-Nasa’i (a scholar who collects the hadith and puts it into a book) that states the following. “There has come to you the blessed month of Ramadan, in which God, the Mighty and Sublime, has enjoined you to fast. In it, the gates of heaven are opened, and the gates of Hell are closed, and every single devil is chained. In it, God has made a night whose value is greater than a thousand months (Laylat al-Qadr), and whoever is deprived of its goodness will indeed have lost.”

I would like to end with a quote from Mufti Menk, an Islamic scholar. “What is Ramadan? People say, we’re fasting; that’s only a part of it. It is the month of peace, the month of tranquility, the month of cure, the month of goodness, the month of forgiveness, the month of mercy, the month of attaining paradise, the month of the Qur’an, the month of revelation, the month of celebration of being a Muslim. “We don’t just do what we want, we do what the Almighty has ordained.”

Continue Reading

Trending