Age 38
Garima Khatri began to understand her mission in life from a young age: to work in service of others. Growing up in an Indo-Canadian family, her parents instilled the value of seva in her —a concept of selfless service done for others, without any expectation of reward.
“My culture is a huge part of me,” she says. “When I was a kid, my parents would go into the community and if anybody needed help, they’d help. So now it’s just like part of my values, like part of who I am. It’s part of my attitude and outlook towards life.”
Now, as a social worker with Covenant Health’s Community Geriatric Psychiatry program, nothing motivates her more than seeing the clients she works with every day make positive changes as a result of their work together.
“Knowing that I helped that person, that I supported them, that I helped them solve something and changed the trajectory of where things were before, that really motivates me,” she says.
As much as she guides her clients to pursue their own goals, everything she’s learned through her work has had a personal impact on her as well.
“Working with older adults, a lot of times they’re talking about things from their remote past, like their childhood, maybe their teenage years or early 20s and that time’s long gone,” she says. “So it’s a good reminder to stay present in the moment… because whatever you learned from your life that brought you to this moment, that’s your superpower to change your future.”
She brings a culture of service to her elderly clients
This article appears in the November 2022 issue of Edify
