New ob-gyn resident ‘dreams bigger’ with international advocacy work

Aditi Sivakumar’s advocacy for gender equity has taken her around the world. But her ambition to become an ob-gyn brought her to Toronto.

“I came here for a two-week elective during medical school and saw so much innovation, collaboration and research,” says Sivakumar, who started her five-year residency in the department of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine in July. “I loved it. I knew I could build a solid career here and grow as an advocate.”

Sivakumar’s journey in advocacy began during her undergraduate degree when she volunteered at a local domestic violence shelter in Ottawa.

“I enjoyed spending time with the women and children at the shelter and grew to really respect and appreciate the staff,” she says.

Sivakumar saw firsthand how challenging it was for those in the shelter to find the resources available to them. She was determined to change this and applied for funding from The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award. With the $750 she received, she created a comprehensive booklet with educational, employment and housing resources for women and children facing violence.

It was so popular that she ran out of copies. Social media was abuzz, and local newspapers took notice. Eventually, so did an unlikely figure: His Royal Highness, Prince William.

Representatives for the Prince reached out to Sivakumar. She had been selected as the sole Canadian recipient of The Diana Award, named in legacy of Princess Diana, which was created to honour 20 individuals worldwide who were bettering their country.

“I flew to London and we met at Kensington Palace,” says Sivakumar. “We were chatting about the shelter, the booklet, my ambitions. I remember he said, ‘You have to dream bigger.’”

Bigger came in the form of Sivakumar’s My Empowerment Platform. She merged her passions for the digital space and health advocacy into a browser-based app for Canadians who are victims of domestic violence.

Over the intervening years, she has partnered with several organizations — Canada’s Walk of Fame, L’Oréal Paris, Women Deliver, and She Decides — to expand her advocacy work to include sexual and reproductive health interventions. Along the way, she has branched out into animation and video, translated into many languages, to reach a broader audience.

“You need to partner with organizations to create large-scale change,” she says. “You’re never going to be able to do it on your own.”

In April 2022, she was appointed as the Board Vice Chair for the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH), hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO). In this role, she co-led a global campaign for adolescents, providing a platform for their voices and perspectives. It reached 1.4 million people worldwide.

As a PMNCH board member, her travel schedule is extensive. She is often on the move — from India to Africa to Geneva — and is sometimes hard-pressed to remember what time zone she’s in. She has found herself doing television interviews and meeting with dignitaries, all while balancing medical school.

Being so busy comes with its share of sacrifices and pressure, but she has a way of dealing with that.

“I screenshot the thank-you emails or Instagram DMs that I get from people,” she says. “When I have a bad day, I go back and read them.”

Sivakumar’s happy to call Toronto her new home, where she looks forward to carving her own path within the field of obstetrics and gynaecology while continuing her work combining media and medicine.

For her, it all comes back to improving the lives of underserved women and gender-diverse people.

“Although my life looks very scattered, in different silos, it’s all working towards the same end goal,” she says.