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Taking steps to live a normal life in Canada
Posted: August 29, 2011Ebenezer Asare is working his way through exams, courses, internships and classes for provincial and federal regulators to achieve his goal of simply “living a normal life in Canada.”
Ebenezer is a pharmacist. He took six years of university to receive his bachelor in pharmacy in Kumasi, Ghana, and worked as a pharmacist in Accra for three years before love led him to Canada. The 30 year old came to Edmonton in August 2009 to be with his wife, Sylvia.
When Ebenezer arrived in Canada, he submitted his credentials from Ghana to the federally regulated Pharmacy Examining Board and wrote a series of exams, including English proficiency and evaluations of his pharmaceutical knowledge.
That completed successfully, Ebenezer is working toward becoming a registered pharmacist in Alberta. For that, he needs to study further and complete a practicum that involves 1,000 hours of volunteer time in a pharmacy under the supervision of a licensed pharmacist.
He enrolled in the Bredin Institute, where he could take a 10-month program for international pharmacists and find a pharmacist willing to oversee his practicum and help him prepare for his exams. He will be tested on the skills he learned during the practicum and on his classroom learning. Ebenezer hopes to get his license in May 2011.
“Since I’ve come to Canada, I haven’t worked,” Ebenezer says. “It’s not only the studying. Pharmacies are much more patient focused here and I need the experience.”
Meanwhile he and Sylvia have a six-month-old son. With his wife on maternity leave, Ebenezer needed funding to pay exam fees and to make ends meet. He was grateful to find the Immigrant Access Fund, which unlike micro loans elsewhere, allows borrowers to use funds to offset living costs.
“It really helped,” he says. “It’s allowed me to concentrate on my studies and given me hope that I will practice as a pharmacist in Alberta. I don’t think that’s too far fetched.”
