They cross oceans armed with skills and talents that are often in short supply in Ireland.
We met three such remarkable graduates, who are not just building their careers and lives here, but a more compassionate, innovative and dynamic Ireland.
Cidi Dubay
The 32-year-old from Trinidad graduated from medical school with a distinction – among the top in her year. After six years of postgrad training, Dr Cidi Dubay moved to Ireland to complete her paediatric surgery training at Dublin’s Temple Street Children’s Hospital (CHI). Ireland’s shortage of paediatric consultants has led to prolonged waiting lists for adults and children, with the Irish Hospital Consultants’ Association (IHCA) flagging the situation as a crisis.
The recent death of nine-year-old Harvey Morrison Sherratt – who waited almost three years for a spinal operation, only receiving one last November when the curve in his spine had reached 130 degrees – has put the scandal of children’s spinal surgery waiting lists into sharp focus once again. In July, 242 children were awaiting spinal surgery, according to CHI.
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Just 28.8 per cent of newly registered doctors in the State trained here, with more than 70 per cent from the UK, other EU member states, and non-EU countries, and more than half of those from outside the EU. Dubay is part of the multidisciplinary team that treats the spina bifida patients at CHI, many of whom have scoliosis.
“I was actually a bit surprised there was such a need for us when I was applying,” she says. “I think when I started, they were a bit short on registrars for paediatric surgery. We cover emergencies, anybody who’s under 16 that needs surgery, so anything from appendicitis to babies who are born with congenital abnormalities that if you don’t fix it, they won’t make it.
“We also see kids who need elective surgery, who may have abdominal problems, babies with inflammation of their bowel, or some babies born with their bowel outside their body. It’s a very wide range of pathology. We are working as well as training.”
She explains why she chose paediatrics: “I love it because I love kids. I love dealing with adults, but dealing with kids is just so much more fulfilling. If you have a baby, a newborn, who won’t make it unless you treat them, and then you get to see them go home and coming back to you in clinic, you see them growing and running about, and you know that that child has a whole life ahead of them. I think, 89 years into the future, they are still going to be reaping that benefit. It’s so fulfilling. Also, because kids are so innocent. You don’t want to see them suffering.”
Dubay averages between 60 and 70 hours a week, but even on her “downtime”, she “tries my best to improve things”.
“I like getting involved in a lot of research and clinical audits, so examine why things aren’t as good as they can be and ask is there a way for us to make it better. I’m trying to take a bigger role in training, both medical students and our junior registrars, and I’m also trying to help edit some book chapters for a postgrad textbook.
“We get medical students rotating so we are participating in teaching and training medical students and trying to convince them to go into careers in paediatrics in Ireland.”
Would she encourage people back home in Trinidad to come to Ireland? “I would, and I do – I tell them to do their training here and maybe stay here.
“This may be a weird thing to say in light of recent headlines and events, but I do feel a lot safer here. If I go out for a pint with my friends, I can walk home at midnight, and I am not looking over my shoulder, which is not the experience I would have at home.
“I feel a lot safer. One big difference for me in coming here was that I feel a lot more well balanced. I know the hours are long, but I think they do put a lot more emphasis here on your overall balance, wellbeing and health, so you have a lot of support.
“My initial plan was to get trained and go back home, but I feel like I have grown very attached here to the hospital, both to my colleagues and the friends I’ve made. I also do genuinely enjoy living here. There is a good chance I may stay. I’m actually very torn about it, which I did not expect coming here, really.”
Natasha Maimba
At just 23, law graduate Natasha Maimba’s diplomacy credentials already put the current crop of possible presidential candidates in the shade. A shot at the Áras is out, as candidates must be 35, but Maimba is too busy anyway, representing the youth of Ireland at the UN as one of two Irish UN youth delegates, where she focuses on sustainable development goals, climate, education, gender equality, peace and security. She is from Athlone, Co Westmeath, and recently completed her BCL in Law and Society at Dublin City University. She works for Paul W Keogh LLP Solicitors, in Dublin’s Baggot Street.
Since the age of 13 she has worked as a Unicef Ireland youth ambassador, advocating for children’s rights, from refugee rights to climate change, and also sits on Unicef’s International Youth Council. She is a delegate of the National Youth Advisory Group and has focused her efforts on lobbying for environmental justice and ending Ireland’s direct-provision system. She won Athlone Young Person of the Year in 2016.
Maimba’s activism stems from her time as a migrant in Ireland and her life in the direct-provision system. In 2015, a radio documentary broadcast on RTÉ documented her day-to-day life as a young migrant; this was followed by an RTÉ television documentary, Leaving Limbo, in 2020.
She says: “I moved to Ireland from Zimbabwe at nine and lived in a direct-provision centre in Athlone for four years. My mum has always been an activist, advocating for women’s rights and the LGBTQ community. In Zimbabwe, a child should be seen and not heard but I grew up in a family where I was encouraged to debate with the men in my family on topics like politics from when I was really young. It always felt natural to speak up for what is right. The first person anyone should advocate for is themselves.”
Maimba always loved school and was very academic. But it was a series of synchronicities that set her off on her own advocacy path. “When I was nine or 10, there were issues at the direct-provision centre and my mum and a small group organised a protest,” she recalls. “My mum was invited to do a documentary for The Irish Times and at the last minute, a girl couldn’t go so she begged me to go with a really close friend of mine. A producer asked us to sit in front of the camera. That led to the RTÉ radio documentary where I was showing our day-to-day lives, and that led to the TV documentary.
“We started working for Unicef as youth ambassadors at 12/13, being a voice for displaced children. We made the trip to the UN General Assembly and later joined Unicef’s International Youth Council. Now, as a UN youth delegate, there is more diplomacy, encompassing different areas. We broadly represent the young people of Ireland at the UN and share their voice.’
Maimba loved the “small, tight-knit, family-only” accommodation centre where she grew up, and where she met friends she considers “family” to this day. But the experience also shaped her life’s purpose.
“I think when you’re forced at a young age, and represented with circumstances that aren’t typical for a young person, it does force you into advocacy.
“It makes you aware of some of the unfairness in the world. What gives me the will to get up in the morning is there is nothing more fun than being surrounded by incredible people and trying to come up with solutions to our problems. Nothing excites me more.”
Although she started out with Unicef giving a voice to displaced children, her UN brief is much broader. “As a youth delegate at the UN, I’m understanding the diplomacy side, working with the Department of Foreign Affairs and seeing how slow diplomacy is. I’m seeing all the bureaucracy; how difficult it is to get countries to agree on something.
“I don’t know if I have the patience, so diplomacy maybe isn’t the space for me. I think I need something where I feel like I can enact change and immediately impact people who need it, and if that’s grassroots community work, so be it. I feel there needs to be less chat and more action.
“When I was chosen as head girl – the first head girl of colour at my school – I had young girls come up to me saying they never knew girls who looked like us could be head girl. When you see the light in their eyes and realise your story could be the driving force for someone else’s ... What drives me is seeing young kids, especially young girls who look up to me, feel inspired to make a change in their lives.”
Naturally, the conversation turns to politics – and the presidency.
Maimba laughs: “People always ask have I considered going into politics. Mum always says the best politicians don’t want to be politicians, but, instead, they see a need for change, and they fulfil it. So, if I ever go into politics, it will be for that reason.”
Alina Buga
The 23-year-old moved to Ireland to study international commerce with Spanish at University College Cork (UCC) from Moldova. She is now in her second year working with Deloitte as an analyst on its Technology and Transformation graduate programme.
As a 15-year-old schoolgirl, she got her big break in media, landing a job on a large TV station, Studio L, presenting horoscopes, weather forecasts, and covering news.
“I got the job by accident,” she reveals. “I grew up in very small village in a country that has always faced political struggles. I did a presentation when a Romanian delegation came to our high school. I love history and was chosen to give a speech about the unification of Moldova and Romania and 10 TV channels broadcast the event and stations came to me afterwards, giving me their numbers, and I was offered a job in Studio L, the biggest TV station in the south of the country.
“I was 15 and worked there for two years. It demanded a lot of confidence, adaptability and to think quickly on my feet. People thought I would stay in journalism, but I wanted a change.”
Out of her final high-school class of around 25 students, Buga says around 80 per cent left to study abroad. “I wanted change and to pursue the kind of education my parents never had the chance to experience.”
She considered the UK, but Brexit put her off, so she applied to UCC – and has never looked back. “As an immigrant, I always want to take advantage of every opportunity that comes my way so I was always involved in a lot of extracurriculars at college and one was the Economics Society sponsored by Deloitte.
“I was on the committee, and in fourth year I was invited on to the Dean’s Scholars List, one of 13 students with the highest course grades, and through that I took part in a leadership excellence programme, sponsored by Deloitte.”
Buga loves how she has been able to effect real change so early on in her career. “I spent the first nine months in healthcare working on service optimisation and digital transformation projects, developing an AI-implementing framework, drafting strategic assessment reviews, mapping current and future processes to identify areas for improvement in Ireland’s health and social care.
“I genuinely loved it as I’m very passionate about this sector. My work spanned every stage of a project life cycle and I loved its purpose-driven nature, made all the more special knowing something I worked on might improve public services and maybe even shorten hospital waiting lists, which is so rewarding. I worked on strategic assessment reviews so getting approval from the Government to, for example, renovate a hospital.
“I was so proud being able to see things change in Ireland, especially now with waiting lists longer than ever. Building new hospitals and renovating them helped shorten the waiting lists in Ireland. I also have a strong interest in automation so recently transitioned into the tech space. Right now, I see my career as a taster menu. I get to try different types of work and see what excites me most.”
She says her employer is the perfect fit for her as its values really resonate with her own sense of purpose. “Deloitte has given me the opportunities to get involved in social-impact initiatives and volunteering, which has been so close to my heart from high school right through college.
“I supported the Junior Achievement Ireland’s Ready for Success programme, where we went into a school in Cork to teach workplace skills. I also contributed to the TY Work Experience Programme, where we led a presentation skills workshop.
“As part of the Analyst Challenge, we co-hosted a party at Good Shepherd Cork, and made €20,000 for three charities tackling homelessness in Ireland. It’s been really amazing.”
