Posted: May 26, 2023
By:Allison Barss
Aurum Award泭娶梗釵勳梯勳梗紳喧泭Nada Haidar (BSc93, DDS97)can recall from an early age how it felt to be offered a helping hand. Her hard-working parents, both hairstylists, emigrated from Lebanon in the 1960s. Growing up, we were given everything, when we had nothing, she says. I wouldnt be where I am today without help and advice.
Now, Haidarthrives on offering others that same feeling.
Today, she is a Halifax-based dentist, educator and active community volunteer. She teaches at DalhousiesFaculty of Dentistryand practices at her dental clinic in Halifax, but her favourite day of the week is the day she volunteers at the(NECHC)s Dental Clinic.
A ripple effect
It was a 2019 trip to Honduras with her daughter, Mya (a 2022 Dal Science grad and aspiring dentist, pictured below) through an international, non-profit organization that strives to meet a communitys health and economic goals that opened her eyes to the gift she could offer others.
For one week, we visited different villages and treated patients, she says. It felt like we were really doing good, like we were really making a difference. It proved to me that change can start with one person. It only takes one pebble in the ocean to create a ripple.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, it grounded their international volunteer efforts. Soon after, Haidars mother, Naomi, became very ill and was eventually hospitalized.
My mother had always been strong and independent, but my biggest fear was realized when I saw that I couldnt help her, she says. I knew I had to channel my sadness into a more positive energy, so I came back to volunteering. Helping others became my way of helping her.
And so began Haidar and Myas journey volunteering with the NECHC.
It took some time to earn the patients trust. They needed to see that wed be a consistent part of their community.
Its the appreciation from her patients that keeps bringing her back to the NECHC. When you give someone back their smile, you give them back their self esteem, she adds. Its life changing. I was put on this planet to help make that life change.
Naomis Outreach Fund
In the summer of 2021 when Haidars mother (pictured left) passed away, she began to consider other ways to keep her memory and generous spirit alive. Haidar had been donating to the Faculty of Dentistry since graduating in 1997 and decided to set up a new fund in her late mothers name.
Over five years, Naomis Outreach Fund, like Haidars community volunteer efforts, will help make it possible for disadvantaged community members to receive oral health care that would otherwise not be possible for them.
Its the perfect way to honour my mother, Haidar says. Helping others to look and feel their best was part of her career, too. I know she would have wanted this.
The gift of giving
In December of 2021, Haidar and Mya, along with the team at the NECHC, expanded their volunteer efforts and helped organize the clinics firstDental Blitzen, an event that offered free extractions and restorations to help clear a backlog of dental work caused by the pandemic.
It was Myas idea, originally, to perform as much dentistry as we could over the holidays, Haidar says. I told her, I have a better idea. Grab my contact book. They reached out to dentists from across Nova Scotia, many of whom quickly responded and were eager to help, and together they provided over $50,000 in free dentistry to community members in need.
The Blitzen continues as an annual event at the NECHC, one that Haidar, Mya, local dentists and community members look forward to every year.
Its not about what you have, its about what youve done thats my greatest lesson in this life, she says. Its the legacy you leave behind, and how youve helped others. Being able to change someones life, thats what dentistry has done for me, and continues to do for others.
