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Mark Saldanha
Recently completing his fourth year at Dalhousie University where he is studying neuroscience, Mark Saldanha is founder and president of a not-for-profit, youth-driven organization called Greater Love, which befriends and supports those experiencing homelessness or are otherwise marginalized.
As a teen, Saldanha observed people avoiding a homeless man on Spring Garden Road in Halifax. It reminded him how as a young boy in Bombay, India, he witnessed similar treatment of a leper begging on a street and recalled his mother telling him the man deserved to be treated with respect and love.
That message was reinforced when Saldanha attended a conference in London and listened to a talk by the late Jean Vanier, who in the 1960s founded L’Arche as a supportive community for people with developmental challenges and which now operates in nearly 40 countries.
Saldanha returned to Halifax and soon established Greater Love, whose members in their first year spent more than 1,000 hours walking streets in downtown Halifax, striking up conversations with homeless individuals and offering food, respect and friendship. The food is paid for by group members or is donated. Donations like those from Saint Benedict Parish in Clayton Park have played a pivotal role in the work of Greater Love.
Greater Love has grown to more than 100 members, primarily university or high school students in Nova Scotia, and has recently become a registered non-profit and hopes to soon open chapters in Ontario and British Columbia.
Saldanha’s passion for helping others started in junior high school as a volunteer at the IWK Health Centre. In high school, he led a campaign that encouraged youth to engage in civic duties and directed a program where students volunteered with Feed Nova Scotia and Ronald McDonald House.
He continues to lead at youth groups in his Clayton Park West neighborhood of Halifax, planning retreats, leading talks, and mentoring youth to be proactive in their communities. At Dalhousie, he’s also involved with groups including Catholic Christian Outreach, the Neuroscience Society and Medical Campus Response Team.
His work has been recognized through a statement in the Nova Scotia legislature and by Halifax Regional Municipality, and he was among My East Coast Experience’s Top 25 Immigrants in the Maritimes for 2018. Saldanha hopes to be accepted to medical school at Dalhousie and is determined to pursue a career that enables him to serve those who are struggling and bring comfort and hope to those in need.
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