Nearly eight years after the Dawson College shooting rampage, one of its victims is travelling to Ghana where he will be help build an all-girls school.

Montrealer Hayder Kadhim -- who is graduating with a university degree in industrial engineering -- was one of 20 people who were injured on Sept. 13, 2006 when gunman Kimveer Gill went on a shooting spree with a semi-automatic weapon.

Student Anastasia De Sousa was killed during the deadly incident and the troubled gunman eventually took his own life after police shot him.

Kadhim was hit three times during the shooting. One of the bullets became lodged in his head, but the former college student ultimately survived. He says his near brush with death has since motivated him to help others.

"I want to feel like I'm making a difference," Kadhim told CTV News. "I feel like a machine that just always wants to do something."

On Monday, Kadhim and his friend, Francis Amankrah, will travel to Ghana where they will help build an all-girls school.

"I wanted to use my engineering degree to something good in Ghana," Amankrah told CTV News.

To help pay for the month-long trip, the pair had started a started a fundraising campaign, and on Friday, they also held a fundraising event that doubled as a goodbye party.

With a report from CTV News' Genevieve Beauchemin