BCHS Celebrates Black History Month 2022
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Join us in celebrating Black History Month at BCHS!
Throughout the month of February, we will be celebrating Black History Month through the lens of Health and Wellness. By learning more about historical figures and our current colleagues, we will be shining a light on some of the many contributions of Black men and women to the past, present, and future of healthcare.
Stay tuned, we will be adding features all month.
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 Dr. Fikre Germa is a hospitalist at BCHS, and has spent his career working not only as a physician but as an educator, mentor, and global health advocate. After emigrating from Ethiopia in 1986, he completed his residency at the University of British Columbia, and before coming to Brantford 10 years ago, worked in BC, Yellowknife, and Cape Breton.
Dr. Germa has used his experience living in Ethiopia and practicing medicine in diverse areas of Canada to inform both the way he practices and invests back into the communities he has called home. Recognizing that each community has unique experiences and social determinants of health, he has used his platform to advocate for stronger, more holistic approaches to medicine and education. He has been instrumental in establishing emergency medicine training programs in his country of origin as well as other African countries. Having witnessed firsthand the different priorities and concerns people in Indigenous Canadian or African communities might face, he encourages current and future healthcare practitioners to examine the way history – individual and collective – impacts a person and a community’s health and wellbeing. Especially in the light of the COVID Pandemic, he stresses the importance of collaboration within care teams and the community at large, working together to find creative, holistic, and informed solutions to complex problems. In his words: “All human problems have human solutions. There is always opportunity for learning and understanding each other, and those of us who have found success in medicine should provide leadership to those coming behind us. It’s in our best interest to have health equity and representation of all groups.”
 Muriel Yankey is a Registered Nurse at BCHS and grew up here in Brantford. She was used to being the only Black student in her class until she moved to more-diverse Toronto to pursue her BScN at York University. She did her co-op at BCHS, and knew that this was where she wanted to start her career. She’s now been a nurse here for 5 years, on the B8 Medical floor.
To Muriel, Black History Month means everything. It’s about expressing and celebrating culture, educating other people on the historical and present issues faced by the Black community, and making sure that people understand the power of language. Her advice for Black youth pursuing a career in healthcare is to just go for it. Don’t let anyone stop you! There might be people trying to drag you down, but there are even more people cheering you on as you pursue your goals. Especially in communities like Brantford that are growing in size and diversity – it’s so valuable to see representation in the healthcare workforce. In her words: “If I were a patient, I would want to have a healthcare worker who is my colour caring for me and advocating for me. In order to get there, it’s important to address racism in the healthcare system. Not only in the way that patients are treated, but also healthcare workers. Black healthcare workers need to know that they are supported, and the public needs education on how to provide that support. This will improve outcomes for everyone.”
The opportunity to provide patient-centred care is her favourite part of the job, particularly supporting her patients through isolation throughout the pandemic. Even with all the challenges that come with working at a hospital, Sandra looks forward to waking up and coming into work every day. She also particularly appreciates that she can be a support and a safe place for patients of colour at BCHS. In her experience, her Black patients feel freer and more open with her because of the representation she carries. She is filled with joy when she sees Black youth aspiring to get into the healthcare field, following their passion to save lives. “Black History Month is a time to understand the Black struggles, and the things that we have been through, and also an opportunity to celebrate the resilience of our Blackness. How do we change the narrative? How do we make things better for our future generation? Let us all be activists. Let us use our privilege to help those who are marginalized, give them a voice, and give them hope for the future. Black History Month means working towards a more inclusive and diverse Canada, a world in which everyone has the opportunity to contribute to the future.”
Along with the many things that she enjoys about her work, Florence also shares some of the difficulties that she experiences being a Black healthcare worker. She shared that as a Black woman, as much as she may have the same knowledge and training as her colleagues this is not always seen. As a result she finds she has to work three times as hard in order for others to have the same level of confidence in her abilities. Florence believes there is benefit in creating safe spaces for other Black and visible-minority healthcare workers to share their experience and their strategies, supporting each other and helping to strengthen the community. “Black history month is very special. It’s special to be a Black woman every single day, but this month makes it even more special. When I think of Black history month, I always think of the struggles my ancestors had to go through, but I also celebrate the achievements, the innovation, the courage, the resilience. I celebrate culture, and I celebrate success. Even as we still go on with the struggle, I know one day we’re going to be successful.”
Dr. Abayomi “Yomi” Ajayi has been working as an intensivist and respirologist at BCHS for over ten years. He has been the Head of Service/Medical Director of Critical Care for the last seven years. Born in England to Nigerian parents, he attended university in Nigeria before moving to the United States then finally settling in Canada. He lived in a few different provinces, starting in British Columbia, then Nova Scotia, before settling in Ontario. As a young man, Dr. Ajayi visited his unwell father in the hospital, and noticed that there were some Black nurses like his mother, but no Black doctors – and the rest, as he says, is history. That was his key inspiration for his decision to become a physician. He noted that at that time, he didn’t know how many different opportunities there were in healthcare. Culturally there is a focus on specific approved professions such as doctor, lawyer or engineer. He spoke about the importance of the many other professions specifically in health including accounting, maintenance, environmental services, and more. He noted that all of these groups are vital parts of the overall team, and especially that without the exceptional people on our maintenance and ESA teams, he doesn’t see how we could have made it this far through the pandemic. Drawing on his own experiences as an immigrant, a Black man and a physician, Dr. Ajayi seeks to treat every patient and care partner he encounters with fairness and sensitivity. Everyone comes from a different context with diverse cultural needs and understanding of the healthcare system. That is what Black History Month means to him; a celebration of the diversity of experience and culture that has led everyone to where they are right now. He encourages everyone to make extra effort to truly listen to the needs of their peers, patients, and community members, not just hearing their words but seeking to understand. “We hear, but we don’t listen. If we don’t listen to what people are saying, then nothing else really matters, and there will be no change.”
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C Upon receiving her MD in 1967, she earned Specialist Certificates in Pediatrics and Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, for which she has been named a Fellow of both the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons (Canada) and the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology. She practiced in Winnipeg until her retirement. For her work, Dr. James has been a recipient of numerous awards including YMCA Woman of the Year (1981), and most recently was named in the 2020 Top 100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women. Alongside her many accomplishments in her medical career, Dr. James has served on over 20 boards and committees, remaining involved with organizations promoting health and social equity. She also played an instrumental role in founding the Harambee Housing Co-op, which provides social housing at an affordable cost to a culturally and racially diverse population in Winnipeg. Dr. James continues to be active in her community since her retirement.
In her family’s words, “Her story is one of triumph over obstacles. Mom excelled in the nursing profession and overcame barriers with faith, intelligence, perseverance, integrity, humility, and professionalism.” After winning an election as president of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Nova Scotia (now the College of Registered Nurses of Nova Scotia), the runner-up asked her to step down so that she, a white woman, could become president instead. Ms. Douglas-Yakimchuk refused, and in 1988 became the organization’s first – and to this day, only – Black president. She was also the founding president of the Black Community Development Organization, which helped provide housing to low-income people. She produced a radio show highlighting Black culture, and she contributed to a book, “Reflections of Care: A Century of Nursing in Cape Breton” (2006) which helped fund an award for nursing students at Cape Breton University – where Ms. Douglas-Yakimchuk helped push for the nursing program to be created. Ms. Douglas-Yakimchuk spent part of her career in Grenada, where she served as director of a mental health hospital. Upon returning to Nova Scotia in 1966 she resumed her work as a nurse and upon her retirement in 1994 she was director of education services at the Cape Breton Regional Hospital, remaining involved in social justice projects. She was honoured with appointment to the Order of Canada in 2003 and the Order of Nova Scotia in 2018. Clotilda Douglas-Yakimchuk died April 15, 2021, at the age of 89, with COVID-19. One of Nova Scotia's first Black nurses remembered for groundbreaking career | CBC News
Born in 1904, in Washington, D.C., Charles Richard Drew was an African American
surgeon and medical researcher. He researched in the field of blood transfusions, developing improved techniques for storage which led to the creation of large-scale blood banks in early WWII – allowing medics to save thousands of Allied forces’ lives.
Dr. Drew studied at McGill University Medical School, where he achieved membership in Alpha Omega Alpha, a scholastic honour society for medical students and ranked second in his graduating class. After his graduation in 1933, he worked on a thesis about his research in blood plasma preservation, which led to him becoming the first ever African American to earn the Doctor of Science in Medicine Degree in 1940. Due to his race, he was never permitted to join the American Medical Association.
Dr. Drew created what are now known as bloodmobiles – trucks containing refrigerators of stored blood – and was appointed as director of the first American Red Cross Blood Bank in 1941, a position he would ultimately resign from in protest to the Red Cross’ policy excluding African Americans from donating blood.
Despite facing many prejudices throughout his career, Dr. Drew was and is still widely regarded as a pioneer in healthcare. Since his death in 1950, Dr. Drew has been named one of the 100 Greatest African Americans, and has had a number of posthumous honours, including an extensive list of primary, secondary, and postsecondary schools named after him, a USPS 35 cent stamp, US Navy ships, and a park in Montreal.
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Please see below for a list of upcoming events throughout the month of February.
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Watching her mother work as a nurse and experiencing her grandmother’s time in a hospital is what inspired Sandra Nimusiima-Kikulwe to become a healthcare worker. She moved to Canada from Uganda over 25 years ago. She studied social work at Mthe University of Regina and began working as a social worker at BCHS in 2020. In her role she serves patients and families in the medical inpatient units, the surgical unit, labour & delivery, NICU, and day surgery with “the most amazing team.”
After emigrating from Zimbabwe to Canada in 2001, Florence Chemhazo started her career as a healthcare worker, first as a PSW and now as an RN. She’s worked at BCHS since 2010, for the last seven years in Central Resource which takes her all over the hospital. She intends to spend her entire career at Brantford General, crediting her team for making it such a wonderful place to work.
elebrating Dr. June Marion James, a trailblazer in Canadian healthcare. Born in Trinidad & Tobago, Dr. James came to Canada in 1960 to become the first Black woman admitted to the University of Manitoba’s School of Medicine.
Clotilda Douglas-Yakimchuk was the first Black graduate of the Nova Scotia Hospital School of Nursing in 1954. Throughout her 40-year career, she served as a psychiatry nurse and community activist devoted to social justice, the education of Black youth, and the well-being of older adults.
A big thank you goes out to our amazing employees and medical staff for sharing their experiences, words of wisdom and encouragement on this important matter. Together, we will continue to shape the future of healthcare!
"What does Black History Month mean to you?" video:
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