Father and husband Deeq Gure graduates with honours from York University

October 27, 2023

It is not how and when you start that is important, but rather how you finish.

Deeq Gure knows this very well having entered a classroom for the first time at age 11 in a refugee camp in eastern Ethiopia intended for displaced people from northern Somalia.

Up to that point, he could not read or write.

“It was there that I developed a thirst for education,” Sure recalled.

Sent back to relatives in Hargeisa that was recovering after the civil war and where he could access secondary education, he completed high school at age 22 and graduated from a local university with an International Development degree in 2015.

After four years working in the humanitarian and development sector in Somalia, Gure migrated to the Greater Toronto Area in January 2015 to join his wife of seven years.

Dr. Safia Aidid is an interdisciplinary historian of modern Africa and an Assistant Professor in the department of History & African Studies at the University of Toronto.

Earlier this month at age 33, her husband graduated with honours from York University with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology.

Gure’s wife and their four-and-a-half-years-old son attended the ceremony.

“This is a wonderful moment for our family,” said Aidid who, just before her first birthday, came to Toronto with her parents in 1991 from war-torn Somalia, graduated from Vaughan Secondary School with a 94 per cent average, attained her undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto and graduate degrees at Harvard University.

“He has really overcome a lot in his life to graduate as a young father in the midst of COVID. He went through a lot and we are so proud of him.”

In high school, Aidid volunteered with the Ogaden Somali organization and was part of a team that prepared a grant proposal, approved by the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, to promote breast cancer health in the Somali community.

In 2008, she was the recipient of the Allon McKenzie Memorial Award administered by the Markham African Caribbean Canadian Association. It is given to a student that exemplifies academic and community excellence.

The journey was not easy for Gure who was on the Dean’s Honour Roll.

Arriving in the middle of winter, he encountered issues with the evaluation of his Somalia education credentials.

“It was like starting all over again,” Gure said. “But I was determined to do whatever it took to prove that I would be an asset in my new home.”

He enrolled in Seneca College’s English Language Institute for international students before, in 2019 joining the two-year diploma program that enable students to pursue a university education to complete a diploma and a university degree in as little as four years.

Completing the diploma program in 2021, Gure transferred to York University that summer to start Sociology Studies.

“This was during the COVID-19 pandemic and most of my classes were online,” he noted. “As if adapting to a new country was not difficult, this was yet another big challenge. I also had to balance full-time studies with parenting a young child through lockdowns, daycare closures and numerous illnesses.”

Deeq Gure & his wife Dr. Safia Aidid and their son (Photo by Ron Fanfair)

Last month, Gure was accepted into the one-year Ontario Internship Program that helps graduates start and accelerate their professional careers.

He is a Program & Policy Analyst with the Ministry of Colleges & Universities.

“I am still trying to get more Canadian experience,” said Gure who was raised by a single mom after his dad died when he was very young. “After that, I will figure out my options that includes pursuing graduate studies.”

While overwhelmed with his success, he does not forget the thousands of young Somalians who were deprived of the opportunity to secure higher education and thrive in their homeland.

“I have high many friends who took the risk to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe in search of better of opportunities and died at sea,” said Gure. “I will never forget.”

Reflecting on his journey, he said, ‘I am a non-traditional student in every sense of the word’.

“I belong to the lost generation of Somalis whose lives were interrupted by war and who grew up without proper access to education,” said Gure.

Given an opportunity that far too many didn’t get, he is making the most of it.