Get to know your neighbour first, candidate second.
Every part of this story, the loss, the rebuilding, the decade of service, leads to the same place: people are only as well as the systems they live inside. So let's build better systems.
Where I come from is why I run.
I was born in India and raised in Lagos, Nigeria, where I started my first little business at age 7 with my brothers. Canada has been home for over 17 years, and this city gave me everything: my education, my career, my purpose.
It also tested me. I lost my older brother to malaria. On July 12, 2016, I lost my twin brother, Tushar, to suicide. At 24, I became his estate trustee, without a will, navigating the Superior Court process while fighting my own immigration battle. For a period, I was unhoused.
I know exactly what it feels like to wait on a system while your life falls apart.
So I made a decision: I quit my corporate career and devoted my life to making sure fewer people had to go through what I did alone. That decision became Reach Out Together, and nearly a decade of sitting with people in their hardest moments, in parking lots, on park benches, in community centres, and on midnight phone calls.
We have to support each other and build connection. That is the whole philosophy. Everything else is implementation.
A decade of showing up for this ward.
Reach Out Together is a volunteer-run Canadian nonprofit delivering mental health training, peer support, and direct outreach for underserved and unhoused communities. Aanchal founded it in 2017 with 14 volunteers; it now unites advocates, survivors, and educators across four countries.
Closest to home: our Street Outreach Drives for unhoused neighbours right here in Ward 10, bringing supplies, resource navigation, conversation, and human connection to people the system has left behind.
Also: World Reach Out Together Day (six continents, 10th year) · peer support groups · workplace mental health training · resource navigation · the Top 25 Canadian Mental Health Leaders awards.
Builder. Author. Advocate.
- Founder, Reach Out Together: mental health nonprofit in four countries
- Founder, Eko Equities: housing newcomer families screened out by the rental market
- 5,000+ professionals trained in leadership and resilience
- Five-time bestselling author
- Certified Mental Health First Aid instructor
- University of Toronto & Sheridan College graduate