The long journey of Faith Igogo: Mother who fled Ukraine with family steps across UNB grad stage
'We had to make a lot of sacrifices,' says Igogo, mother of 3 young children
It's been a tumultuous few years for Faith Igogo and her family.
That's why walking across the stage at her University of New Brunswick graduation ceremony is a moment for the books.
"It's been a journey," she said. "I pushed myself extra hard. We had to make a lot of sacrifices.
"It was filled with lots of emotions."
Igogo and her husband, Shadrach, and their two sons, Ivan, now almost four years old, and Viktor, now two, arrived in Canada right before Christmas 2022. And since then, they have welcomed a daughter, eight-month-old Eliana.
The family fled Ukraine because of the war and faced difficulties during the process. They got separated for some time, and Igogo had to give birth to Viktor in a bomb shelter in the basement of a Ukrainian hospital.
Before the war, Igogo was completing her UNB master's degree in health, online, from their home in the western Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankivsk. She's a pediatrician and had planned to move to Fredericton on her own once the pandemic settled down.
After a months-long attempt to get to Canada, the family arrived and was embraced with open arms by their new community. But the struggle didn't end.
Igogo said that prior to arriving, Viktor was already seven months old but didn't have any proper health screening because of the family's circumstances. Accessing a pediatrician in her new community wasn't an easy feat, and Igogo heard from other newcomers who experienced similar challenges.
The ordeal inspired her to change the focus of her master's research.
Igogo began interviewing newcomer mothers about their experiences accessing the health-care system. She soon learned that families faced long wait times, even for important prescription renewals their child had started prior to moving.
She said some interviewees also faced culture shock, expecting the Canadian health-care system to be better off than in their home country.
But Igogo said there are a lot of options put forth by the government to enable better access to health care — they just isn't properly communicated to newcomers. She would like to see families be given pamphlets upon arrival in Canada with all of the necessary information about where to go, who to talk to and what options there are besides the emergency room.
And now that Igogo has finished her degree, she hopes to continue her work and make a tangible difference in the health-care sector.
It's a rewarding feeling for Igogo, who went from starting her degree four years ago in Ukraine to being handed her diploma in Fredericton.
There were several moments, she said, where she wanted to give up but didn't — crediting her husband for pushing her to continue.
"He believed so much in me, even at the times that I felt like, 'No, I couldn't do this,'" she said.
"He was like, 'Faith, I know you, and if there's anyone that can do it, it is you.' And he said that to me on the graduation day too: 'I told you [you] were able to do it.'"
But the moment was also bittersweet for Igogo, as the memories of graduating with her medical degree came rushing back.
As much as the family tries not to focus too hard on what is happening in Ukraine, they are cognizant of the fact that many of their family and friends are still there and that people they know have gone to war and not made it back.
"That's home for us," she said.
"I really look forward to going back someday, taking my kids, because for Ivan and Viktor, that's their home, that's their nationality, that's who they are, it's who they identify as — Ukrainians.
"It breaks our heart to see that things are still the same way, but that's a huge part of our lives, and we can only but keep praying for peace to be restored."
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With files from Jeanne Armstrong