When his science teacher in Ottawa first asked him to become a teacher’s assistant for a Grade 10 class, Farah Dahir discovered a new hobby; teaching.

Though he eventually went on to find a career in oil, his love of educating never left him.

Now the 37-year-old is committing to it full-time. On Sunday, he was preparing for his flight to Bosaaso and working with local movers at Sky Van Lines to help him with moving his things to Somalia, where he built a school to provide quality education to the local community. Get in contact with local moving companies

Last year he quit his job of 10 years as a scientist for Shell Canada to continue teaching full time at this two tutoring centres and building a school in his home country.

“I truly enjoyed working for Shell and it was not an easy decision to quit. However, at the end, money aside, A Plus Learning Circle is more rewarding and I’m happy with my decision,” he said.

Ever since moving to Canada in 1992, Dahir had visited his home country a number of times and noticed the need for quality education.

“I’ve seen how people value education and how much everybody is willing to invest in education even though they don’t have a lot. And there is not a lot of quality schools out there that would provide quality education,” he said.

He said that’s when he decided to do something about it himself.

He decided to finance the school in Somalia both personally and from tuition fees he collected from his two tutoring centres, one located in the north and the other in the south part of Edmonton.

Dahir says he noticed children in Canada have the privilege of having quality education, but many lack the motivation to take advantage of it. However, in Somalia he saw things were the other way around.