Patrick Bizindavyi

Transcript

Many years ago, I was in Burundi, my country. I was at university and I was taking an Arabic language course. And at the end of the course, the professor came to us before he said goodbye and he said, "I wish all of you to suffer." And we were like, "What What do you mean?" And he says, "When you suffer, there are lessons that you learn that you couldn't learn otherwise." And for me, that was strange because prior to that moment, I had never suffered in my life.

And I was like, "What What do you mean? Even in 1993, when I lost family members, brothers and co-workers in a war, that was suffering, but I don't remember learning anything from it." Then fast forward, 2012, I'm here in Toronto with my family in North York. And then I hear a noise on the door. Bam! Bam! Bam! My wife runs for cover. I rush to the door. I open and I see three police officers and my landlord. And they say, "Sir, you have 5 minutes to get out.

You are being evicted." So, I found myself on the street with no money, with my wife and my daughter who was 6 months old, pushing her in a stroller. And we went to the food court with nowhere to go, no money in the pocket. We spent 4 hours in the food court with no idea where we were going to be. Thank God my wife was still breastfeeding my daughter because we had no food. The next 9 months we were homeless five times.

And I remember standing on the on the street and I had see a taxi leaving with my wife and daughter and I didn't even know where they were going. So, I spent the next four days in a Tim Hortons watching TD Jakes on on my laptop. Then the next 2 weeks I was in a church basement until a friend of mine came and took me in his home. Where I spent the next 6 months. How in the world did I survive that?

First of all that was not my first time being homeless. 2002 I landed in Canada with $60 in my pocket. That was not even my money. That was my mom's life savings. And I found myself in a homeless shelter. When I met some friends and I start sharing my dreams to work in the media. And all of them laugh at me. Dude, you're homeless. What do you mean working in the media? The second thing that helped me survive all those struggles was that I overcame every struggle before it came to me.

Because I said to myself whatever comes my way, I don't care how big it is, I'm going to fulfill my dream. I paid the price in my mind before the struggle came to me. And looking back I couldn't agree more with my professor because struggle has changed me. I learned about the value of friendship when nobody could take my phone call when I was struggling except one guy who's here in the audience today. I learned Thank you. I learned about compassion.

I will never judge anybody on the street begging for money because I did so many time on Queen Street begging for $5 to buy diapers for my daughter. And I remember me and my wife and my kid being in a shelter meeting a family that I referred to the same shelter. I was so humble at that moment. Now just a few weeks ago a friend of mine called me and he said, "Patrick what kind of prayer did you pray at the beginning of this year?

Because it looks like every single dream of yours is coming to pass." And it's true. Just Saturday I put together the biggest event in the French-speaking community for Black History Month. The biggest in the city. Today I'm sitting in I'm I'm standing in front of you but I was not supposed to be here. I was supposed to be at Scotia Bank Arena covering the Raptors on the radio. So, that struggle being here and there, that was my struggle. I'm working in the media.

I would like to go back to see my homeless friend and say, "Who's laughing now?" I'm about to launch my first book sharing my stories, how I overcome every challenge that I faced. You don't have 24 hours to listen to me. Now, if I could just go back in time and speak to the Patrick that was struggling many years ago, I would say to him, "My friend Patrick, if you have to overcome every struggle when it comes to pursuing your dreams and goal, you have to do three things.

You have to think big. You have to be bold. And you have to act now." And today, that is my wish to all of you. Thank you.

Transcript generated from the recording and lightly cleaned. Some names and wording may differ from the spoken speech.