“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” (LP Hartley)

I first travelled to Sub-Saharan Africa in 1996 and came back with the sense of having been exposed to something unique and ‘different’ that no one around me would understand unless they too had journeyed there. The culture shock experienced in such circumstances has been overly documented: the panic attack in the over-stocked supermarket, the revulsion at the constant stream of niche-product calendar related advertising (it’s Easter!  We must buy chocolate and lawn mowers!) etc etc.  To my surprise, the people that understood my experience best (aside from my immigrant Asian neighbours, who smiled with recognition at my stories), were people who had been on the planet for a very long time.  It was conversations with some of these people that took me out of my self-important bubble.  Food security was a huge issue in Europe post-war.  Cut off from its international suppliers, during WW2 the UK was just three weeks’ food supply away from starvation. Rationing continued into the 1950s.  Clothes were worn until they wore out and then were patched and sewn.  My older family members lived without the surfeit of plenty we mostly have now.  And it took me until these conversations on my return from Africa to understand that this is how the world is, that we in the corpulent west inhabit the weird, unique, privileged blip in the way things usually are.  

My great grandmother in 1903

My great grandmother in 1903

In my work (and even outside work) I seem to get into conversations with well-meaning people who want to go and ‘help the Africans’.  The altruistic motives are fine and should be nourished.  But there is rarely an understanding that we can learn skills, perspectives and, yes, be helped by, people living in poverty and a different culture. When I look back over 13 years of working in international development I think of the huge gains in personal expectations I have made as an individual, besides hopefully contributing to long term change.   

Jane in Kenya in 2007

Jane in Kenya in 2007

Add comment May 12, 2008

A Day in the Life of a Volunteer Coordinator at YCI…

When I was first thinking of what to write about in this blog kept by office staff, I wasn’t sure where to start. And then I thought about one of the documents that alumni have written for preparing volunteers – a day in the life on project. I know for some volunteers who are applying to work overseas that long term goals sometimes include working for an NGO in Canada. I feel privileged to have a paid job with such a great organization and thought that some of you might be interested to know what it’s like on a day to day basis.

So… let me describe a typical day in the life of a Volunteer Coordinator at YCI.

It’s Wednesday morning and I’ve rolled into work at around 9:30am after a slow streetcar ride through the downtown core. None of us are early birds in this office and I’m usually the second or third person to arrive. I’m scheduled to do 4 interviews between 10:00 and 12:00 and I have half an hour to get myself ready. While my computer takes its time to boot up I make myself a cup of tea and greet whoever else is here in the office. I do a quick scan of my email to make sure there aren’t any urgent issues to deal with. After grabbing the 4 applications and some interview guides, I sit down to review who I’ll be speaking with this morning. It’s amazing to see the diversity in applicants and it’s always interesting to get to know them in that first interview. With an applicant base of 18 to 30 year olds and with a pretty wide range of programming in countries as different as Costa Rica or Ethiopia, it’s always interesting to see who’s going to be calling at 10am.

This morning I’ll be speaking with a university student studying sciences interested in a summer program in Guyana, a student pursuing their Masters in international development looking to meet an internship requirement with a project in Ethiopia in the fall, someone who has been working at a bank for the last few years after graduating university and wants to explore new career directions and volunteer in Tanzania next year, and finally a high school student graduating in June who wants to go to Costa Rica in the summer. Three out of the four applicants call in for their interviews and it’s hard to keep each of those interviews under half an hour because everyone has lots to say and to share about themselves. That extra half hour gives me some time to catch up and respond to some of the email messages that have come in from the day before. Most of the emails are from preparing volunteers or overseas staff and while some of the answers are simple (like should I pack hiking boots or sneakers?) others require a bit of digging (like addressing a particular allergy in the field or programming information) and will have to wait until later.

By noon, I’ve been doing lots of listening and talking and you’d be amazed how much energy that takes! I’m hungry for lunch and need the break before trying to make it through the afternoon and attack my to do list for the week. At least 4 or 5 of us in the office make an effort to sit down together at lunch. We always end up having some great conversation – from swapping sibling stories to exploring how the latest federal budget will affect international and youth development. We’ve even had a tournament with one of the world geography games circulating on Facebook and so far Mike still holds the record with more than 625,000 points!

Back to work after lunch and as I review my to do list (it’s the only way to stay on top of everything!) I have a few choices. I start with communicating with each volunteer preparing for the next Tanzania project about what’s missing from their submitted files. That takes about 45 minutes and then I start crafting a group message about the next deadline and an update on programming including the latest immigration issues we’re facing in the field that affect things like visas and post project travel. Programming is constantly evolving and conditions in the field are ever changing. We’re always kept on our toes so by around 4pm, I’ve visited Jane about 3 times. Jane is YCI’s International Programs Director responsible for programming and overseas staff in Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia. Today I’m chatting with her about the situation in Kenya and the variables that affect sending a new staff member to Kenya. We’re also trying to figure out how to adjust to changes with Tanzania immigration. Impromptu meetings like this are always happening and allow for great team work whether it’s between Steve and me dealing with similar issues with volunteer preparation or with International Programs staff about particular issues in the field.

It’s 4 pm and I still have a few emails to write to make sure I can send my questions to field staff and hopefully have an answer soon. We’re working on some joint projects to make sure that information and research guidance I’m providing to volunteers is as accurate as possible. I’m also starting to plan for the next pre-departure session which means I need to get in touch with a couple of guest speakers to check on their availability. There’s also a new session we’ve been developing as a team so I have to work out a few case scenarios that will be explored for a discussion planned on responsible volunteering. While I’ve been plugging away, there’s still lots on my to do list… I have a reference letter to write for a past participant and I’m also acting as a referee for another alumnus who’s applying to law school. I also received a really interesting email from another alumnus who’s working on a fundraising project to partner with a connection she made while in Tanzania. I’ll need to meet with colleagues to discuss how we might be able to support her initiative.

Wow… all this to do and here I am at 5:30pm writing this blog entry!! There’s only so much you can do in a day and I always find it’s around now that I’m on a roll and I often can’t seem to stop. It might be 6 or 6:30pm before I can tear myself away and I know I’ll be leaving when a few of my colleagues are still working away! I really wish I’d brought more food to snack on because I’m definitely hungry again.

The day is over and it’s been filled with correspondence, some logistics and administrative tasks and some discussion. I feel very lucky to work with volunteers preparing for overseas projects in Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia. In turn, that means I also have the pleasure of corresponding with overseas field staff and learning all about the variety of activities volunteers are involved with during their projects. And finally, I  have the great privilege of working with an awesome team here at the office. They’re always willing to offer their support and it’s definitely a fun-filled and hard-working environment here at YCI.

2 comments March 5, 2008

It was a very, very Fun Day

The sun was just rising when I hopped on my bike to head to out.  Only -15ºC this morning, roads were almost clear, and there would be hot coffee and breakfast just moments away.  Coming from north of Bloor Street, every road is downhill in Toronto which makes life easy when zipping down the back streets to make it to meet the YCI staff on time.  Clipping my bike to the iron fence outside, a minute later I was overheating with all my layers, toque, gloves, and long-johns.  

Fun Day commences.  

“Fun Day?” you might ask.  ”What could a group of young office workers need with a Fun Day?”  Ah, dear reader, the Fun Day is a time honoured tradition in the world of spreadsheets, powerpoint presentations, papers and photocopiers: to leave the office for one day to let loose and, as they say, “break it down.”  

Now, I’m sure you’ve gotten the wrong idea already.  We don’t work in a typical office.  No, no, no.  The office that houses Youth Challenge International, tropical heat blasting from ancient heaters, half-cut walls that allow quirky conversations and beckoning calls to check out wild snaps from the field, not to mention the constant unleashing of jokes, quips, cracks, and rib-ticklers.  

Yes, we work.  Of course we work.  We work so hard, in fact, that we have been planning this Fun Day for nearly a year!  

We start at Cora’s Restaurant, close to the SkyDome where I was boiling in my thermal underwear after riding my bike in.  Dragon was there already, talking with Erin (sporting a very fashionable, yet affordable apres ski sweater, complete with neck-de-turtle and kaleidoscope Charlie Brown zig-zag around the shoulders) and sipping back a bottomless cup of coffee.  Ryan and Ben amble in a bit later (our resident semi-amateur hockey player staff members who regularly refuse after work pints for games of shinny at the park) followed by Rebecca.  We felt awful that Laura was at home sick, and that Jane was working from home in Hamilton that day.

Breakfast was our strategy against the winds and snow squalls that raged outside.  The coffee our imperative fuel, the jovial chatter a necessary insulation from the bitter elements that awaited us.  (I had the brie, mushroom omelette, which was exquisite).
 
  
On we go, into the snowstorm.  Most cars drove at painful trolls, not a snowplow to be seen.  But further we travailed through in the winter wonderland (wondering what we were doing outside, that is) to our final destination: Harbour Front Centre…

Skating.  Yes, skating.  Like the back of a Canadian $5, or those last three kids who still want to one day play for the Leafs, we were going to lace up specially made boots with slabs of steel embedded into them.  Skating.  A study from Oxford University suggests that the earliest ice skating happened in Southern Finland about 4000 years ago (so says Wikipedia).  This was our Fun Day.  I haven’t been on skates since a traumatic experience in grade three, nearly 21 years ago.  It’s been a while for this lanky, unbalanced man to have been on thin pieces of metal on very slick, very hard ice.
 
But we went.  The snow stopped, the rambunctious teeny-boppers from the school group left, and the EZ rock thundered out of the mounted speakers like some demented Hair Bands on Ice.  I’m talking Scorpions, Vanilla Ice (I’m not even joking), and Toto.
dsc01628.jpg
 
Ben and Ryan helped Dragon around on the rink, 
 
Amanda and Erin glided around like a pair of Cindy Klassens.  
 
 
With ankles buckling under the stress, arms flailing and grasping for balance, I brought my 6′5″ frame across the rubberized walkway and hesitated like a kid about to jump into the lake in early spring.  Calculating quickly in my head how many feet my ass would fall at 32 feet per second squared, I wondered more about the bruise that would form on said buttocks and the following days at my desk, sitting uncomfortably, and suspended fear for that brief second to step out on the ice.  

If you’ve ever watched a hockey game, winter Olympics, or even been out on a frozen pond or arena yourself, you know that there’s a very specific sound that is made by skates on ice.  A slicing sound, higher pitched, but with a scraping.  I was so pleased to have heard this sound rather than the large crack of bones that I expected.
 
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We skated around that rink for hours, giggling, sliding through the accumulated powdery snow, sliding into the light drifts, and thanking the gods of winter that we weren’t that Japanese tourist who spent more time flat on his back that up on those blades.  With “Rock Me Like a Hurricane” blaring out, air guitar in hand, I felt like a modern day Kurt Browning (he’s still around, right?) I teetered my way across the rink with my excitable co-workers and broadly smiled that it was Fun Day.  For us, those who work in an overly heated office, working with partners in Tanzania or Vanuatu, or Guyana, tropical sun and palm trees typically enter into the mind.  This Fun Day it was clear that we had embraced every minute of a perfect Canadian afternoon overlooking Lake Ontario with our apres patinage waiting for us at the pub down the street.
 
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It was a very fun day.

Steve Sloot

 

Add comment February 20, 2008

Remembering When…

In the summer of 2002, I was 23 and had been working at very odd jobs for the past 5 years - cook at the Hard Rock Cafe and as an author’s representative for a publisher of plays and musicals. I had dabbled in post-secondary education: cooking school and courses on computer skills, editing and fundraising. I guess you could say I had not yet decided what to do with my life. I was unemployed when I saw the posting for an Office Manager on Charity Village. The mission and vision of YCI appealed to me and after being interviewed by the then-Executive Director, Mark Ely, and then-Youth Program Manager, Shauna Houlton, I was offered the job.

At the time YCI was working in just three countries: Vanuatu, Guyana and Costa Rica. Since that time, we have also worked in Benin and Nicaragua and in 2008 we have projects in Kenya, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Guyana, Vanuatu, Tanzania and Ethiopia. Not only is that a mouthful, but those countries represent many more languages! Besides English, Bislama and Spanish, we are regularly advising on how a preparing Volunteer can go about learning Kiswahili or Twi or Amharic. All the mail we receive from our partners means that we have a colorful collection of stamps to set aside for Oxfam and mementos from staff visits to these countries has resulted in a very eclectic office decor.

Preparation materials were packaged and sent by mail to selected applicants as recently as 2006. This meant that, as Office Manager, I was the one responsible for photocopying the materials, stapling or binding them and putting the several booklets that made up the Preparation Package into a folder and then into an envelope to be sent out at the end of the week, along with the dozen or so other Preparation Packages. These days we are working with Taking IT Global (TIG) and have Project Pages for each host country. Not only can Volunteers (then referred to as ‘Challengers’) access all the resources they need for preparation, but they can also access a Discussion Board, or connect with other Volunteers heading to the same country. In fact, most recently we have been using TIG technology to allow Volunteers to fundraise via their own personalized fundraising page. Having been responsible for our bookkeeping, I have plenty of horror stories of trying to decipher hand-written cheque submission forms, or needing to send cheques back to donors because they had written the date in the signature field and vice versa!

When Volunteers called for assistance in hosting an information session, I would select some slides that were appropriate for the country they were heading to, slip them into an envelope and stick them in the mail. When we had the occasion to obtain a scanner, we started to scan the photos that were tucked away in filing cabinets and desk drawers and pinned up on the walls. Before long we started to have more and more Volunteers simply e-mail digital images to us, or simply a CD full of their project photos. In some cases, Volunteers are transferring their images to photo hosting sites while still on project, allowing YCI staff to get a personal look into what is happening in the field. I have fond memories of the purchase and arrival of our first LCD projector, meaning that we could finally use Powerpoint, rather than overhead transparencies, during staff meetings and pre-departure training sessions. Out went the slides! In came the ability to deliver multi-media presentations and, very occasionally, watch a movie (educational and related to our work, of course), projected onto our white board, during our lunch hour. Both our slide viewer and overhead projector were donated to Sketch, where they are put to good use.

Back in 2002, our storage closet was stacked with computers that had been recently retired: monitors, keyboard and even CPUs that only had a drive for a floppy disk. Not a 3.5 inch floppy, but an actual old-school floppy. Now the YCI desks have Apple desktops or laptops sitting on them and we are gradually being won over by these nifty machines - iChat, PhotoBooth…oh the possibilities! Our very patient IT consultant does what he can with our older PCs and we donate the rest to Reboot. We have flash drives that allow us to send field staff overseas loaded with resources for the partner organization. Our international program staff now have the ability to take their work with them on visits to our partners overseas, instead of working from an internet cafe or relying on the already-stretched resources of the partner organization.

Perhaps you are a subscriber to our e-news, which is put together by our incredible Volunteer Program Administrator, Laura Gourley. This wonderful example of html coding is a far cry from the Word template that was a nightmare to work with. It took much swearing to coax it into accepting changes and once it was complete, a handful of copies would be printed out using our lone inkjet printer, but also e-mailed as a pdf to anyone in our database that we happened to have a current e-mail address for.

Speaking of e-mail, can you believe that we do not have e-mail addresses for the majority of our alumni? In 1989, when YCI started operations and collecting contact information of applicants and participants, few people had e-mail addresses. As a result, our contact with alumni is fairly limited to those people who volunteered with YCI in the past 5 years. (If you are reading this and suspect we don’t have your current e-mail address, now would be a great time to e-mail Laura with your updated contact information!) Now it’s not uncommon for us to keep in touch with our alumni and preparing Volunteers via e-mail and Facebook and this blog. We can see their photos on Facebook or Flickr and see their videos on YouTube!

I appreciate the chance to share this walk down memory lane with the YCI blog readers. It is truly amazing the changes I have seen YCI go through is just 5 1/2 years!

Rebecca Lee is YCI’s Volunteer Program Manager and also coordinates Volunteers heading to Ghana, Guatemala and Grenada. In the spring of 2005 she had the opportunity to visit two project groups in Costa Rica. However, for the most part, she has been living vicariously through the 967 Volunteers that have come through YCI’s doors (metaphorically, of course) during her time with YCI. She is looking forward to seeing her own daughter, Madalyn, participate in a YCI program sometime after 2023.

1 comment February 5, 2008

How 10 weeks has turned into almost 10 years…

I could have never guessed on that October day in 1998 when I read a small ad looking for volunteers to go to Costa Rica that almost 10 years later I would be writing this blog post.

Over the years I have watched YCI go through numerous changes and have experienced profound personal changes through my involvement as a volunteer, member of the Toronto office staff, Group Leader and currently as a Board Member and Chair of the Volunteer Advisory Council. YCI now works in more countries, has focused its development work and has deepened its expertise.

However, the changes that I am most excited by are the new opportunities available to volunteers when they return from project to remain involved with YCI and engage in meaningful development work on a personal and a professional level. In 2006 YCI hired Erin Nesbitt to spearhead a new Public Engagement program which has resulted new opportunities for returned volunteers to maintain their involvement with YCI, either by mentoring preparing volunteers, raising money to support a “know your status” campaign in Tanzania or by joining the Volunteer Advisory Council (VAC) as a member or by participating in a council project.

As I have been numerous times over the years I am completely overwhelmed by what the VAC has been able to accomplish in its inaugural year. We initiated 5 projects, which involved 75 youth. We hosted an event for International Youth Day in collaboration with other organizations such as War Child, Engineers Without Borders and Dignitas. And we have also been able to provide opportunities for several members to attend AIDS 2006, the World Bank Youth Open House in Washington, another World Bank conference in Cairo and currently developing a submission to have members attend AIDS 2008 in Mexico City….and that was just getting things started!

Our council members come from all walks of life – they are both students and professionals and everyone commits what they are able to…everything from writing campaign letters to organizing a national art competition for youth to express the quote “be the change you want to see”.  To everyone who has either returned from project or is in the process of preparing to go I encourage you to contact the office to see how you can get involved….even if all you have are a few hours to spare. I look forward to reading about your experiences years from now!

Shauna is a Project Manager for DECODE, a strategic consulting & market research firm with an expertise in youth, young adults and young families. Shauna was also a participant in Costa Rica, Group Leader in Guyana and worked at YCI as the Youth Program Manager. Shauna currently sits as the Chair on the Volunteer Advisory Council and on the Board of Directors.

 

1 comment January 16, 2008

apathy and youth engagement

Back in the fall I participated in a panel discussion on apathy and youth engagement hosted by Rethos (www.rethos.com/whatwillyouhavestoodfor).  The organizers send list of questions to prepare with – I shared them with my colleagues at YCI and our Volunteer Advisory Council and with everyone’s input I put together the following notes on my favourite three…

How would you respond to these questions?

Are young people apathetic?

No – big generalization – we believe youth are certainly engaged but more often than not in areas, communities, issues etc. where they feel they can effect change. By casting youth as apathetic in the media - we allow decision makers to continue to ignore youth as a constituency - resulting in missing the real issue - that the opinions youth are often dismissed AND that they are taking action in their communities, schools etc.

What is the role of nonprofit organizations as a gateway for engagement?

We believe nonprofits play a very important role to play in providing youth a platform from which to become active and engaged citizens. However it is crucial for organizations to work with youth in meaningful projects where they can make a real difference and move beyond tokenism.

Best practices for nonprofits to engage youth include:

-       Youth led decision-making structures and leadership within organizations serving youth population.

-       Youth need to play a central role in program development, implementation and evaluation.

YCI’s Volunteer Action Network sees youth leading their own projects with leadership from the Volunteer Advisory Council - a youth driven body with representation on the Board of Directors.

What is the role of the internet and media for engagement?

The internet and other media are excellent tools to disseminate information –awareness campaigns, tools, resources, contact information etc. Engagement should: enable the sharing of visions and values, discussion of the common good, the definition of collective goals and the development of skills and strategies required to reach them. Question is - how to move from online communication to offline action?

Interested in getting involved?  Get in touch!  erin@yci.org

1 comment January 11, 2008

Stories from the Field: Some thoughts on “sustainability”

The first week was pretty brutal for us. Not  everyone was thrilled to have young, foreign, University students come in and act  as though they’re going to “fix things around here”- especially the elderly members of the project groups we’re working with (ex: Batik and CBCP).  This is primarily because a lot of  Western NGO’s come in, throw money around,  start big, shiny, unsustainable projects, then leave. What’s worse is  sometimes the community  gets used to Westerners spoiling them (giving kids  money or treats, giving out school supplies, donating extravagant gifts)  and they come to expect similar “donations” everytime they see a foreigner.  It’s not uncommon for people to stop you on the street and ask you for money or the juice that you’re drinking. It’s also not uncommon for some project groups to expect volunteers to automatically hand them money for  their projects. (This is actually a problem that we’re facing with the Batik  group. The members decided that they want to purchase a sewing machine  so that they can make clothes out of their Batik. Instead of planning  ways to fundraise, they just asked us for the money.)

In light of this dilemma, YCI is trying to send  volunteers and interns over to develop and maintain “sustainable projects”.  Instead of organizing and funding projects for groups, we try to include them  in project management and fundraising activities. For example, what we’re  trying to do with our Drama club is organize a training session for the  leaders of the group so that they can teach the rest of the group performance skills and peer education techniques. This way, we don’t have to  keep paying an expert to run workshops and the group doesn’t have to rely on other people to build their skills and organize everything for them.  Also, we want to include them in fundraising activities so that they learn  how to raise their own money instead of relying on other people. Our ultimate goal is for each group to be as self-sufficient as possible so that  they can stop relying on external support to make things happen. Julie Daniëlse, currently volunteering in Morogoro, Tanzania.

1 comment August 21, 2007

YCI in Edmonton >> Global Youth Assembly 2007

Woo hoo!! Hello from Western Canada! This is Laura writing - Rebecca and I are here in Edmonton with Butterfly 208 winner Lisa. We are participating in the 1st annual Global Youth Assembly. What a great city! We are having an excellent time. The GYA has been four days packed (I mean it – packed) full of speakers, workshops, music, culture and lots of energy.

We were able to deliver a workshop on Wednesday afternoon called “Kick-starting your Career in International Development: International Volunteer Work, Opportunities and Challenges.” We had an awesome turnout at our workshop and had a really fun time talking to people from all over Canada about the benefits of international volunteering. It seems that there is so much interest form people across Canada to travel abroad, make a difference, and contribute to a global community.

If you’ve ever been to a conference like the GYA, you’ll know that there is a certain type of energy and excitement when a group of people like this spend time together finding inspiration. We heard speakers like Kim Phuc (“the girl in the picture”) who was badly burned with napalm in Vietnam, and Rubin “Hurricane” Carter (Its Dr. Rubin now) who was falsely sentenced to life in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. These speakers were inspiring, funny and uplifting as they shared their life stories with us. We found, however, that the most inspiring speakers were youth – just like us – who were actively changing their world.

I’d never heard of Sol Guy before, but apparently I should have. Sol used to work in the music industry and was supposed to be the next best producer… until he took a life-changing trip with War Child to Sierra Leone. Sol was impacted by this trip and decided to take off with a friend and travel the world in search of stories of youth who were leading real change in their communities. You wouldn’t believe the examples of youth he was able to find. From the mountain city of Macchu Picchu to the Kibera slum in Nairobi, to the City of God in Rio de Janeiro, or to the Amazon rainforest – Sol found young people making a difference. Turns out CTV and MTV were impressed with the footage he took, and signed up to make 8 episodes of the show titled “4Real” starting this fall. Sol was a great speaker and really rocked the house with his experiences – I can’t wait to hear more from him in the fall. Check out the website for more info (www.4real.com).

A big take-home message for me from this assembly has got to be about the power of hip-hop. I learned that Hip-Hop isn’t just a type of music, it isn’t even a movement, hip-hop is an existence. It is a way of looking at the world and a powerful method for responding to it. This is not the hip-hop of bling, drugs and cheap women. It is a real grassroots battle for change that’s happening worldwide right now.

We watched a (very cool) documentary called “Favela Rising” one night which showed a group of guys from a slum outside Rio de Jenerio. These guys saw that all their friends, brother and neighbours were turning to the drug trade as their only outlet and only way to make a living. They created a program called Afro Reggae which brought music, dance and drumming into the community. Afro Reggae sparked some serious change in behaviour from youth in the slum. It was inspiring.

We also heard from a guy named Stephen LeaFloor (aka. Buddha… he sorta looked like a Buddha – a really tough thugged out Buddha if you can imagine) Buddha has a group of youth who have started this program to bring hip-hop to the artic. Yeah – the artic. They go up to these fly-in communities and lead week long workshops on b-boying and MCing. They’ve found that after the youth from these communities tap into the message of hip-hop to persevere, battle and use your voice, there’s been a dramatic drop in suicide rates and drug abuse. Honestly I’ve never seen anything quite like it – a bunch of Inuit youth using traditional drums to breakdance to! Very powerful stuff.

The Assembly is coming to a close now, back to Toronto we go. It was a well spent 4 days in Edmonton. Really there were so many cool experiences I just don’t have time to tell you about. If you are interested to see more of what we did check out the assembly website at: www.youthassembly.ca.

Laura Gourley, Volunteer Program Administrator.

1 comment August 9, 2007

International Youth Day 2007

Celebrate International Youth Day 2007 - Make a world of difference.

The theme of this year’s International Youth Day is “Be seen, be heard: Youth Participation for Development.” Please join Youth Challenge International’s Volunteer Action Network in celebrating International Youth Day, on August 19th, 2007, from 12 pm - 4:30 pm at The Brunswick Theatre.

Highlights of the day include:  an Art Exhibit, NGO Fair, Photos for Sale, and two Movie Screenings. We will be showing “Rocked: Sum 41 in Congo” (by War Child Canada) at 1:30 pm, and “Go Further” at 2:15 pm.

Address:  296 Brunswick Avenue, Second Floor (Bloor/Bathurst), Toronto ON

For more information, please contact Erin Nesbitt:  erin@yci.org.

2 comments July 30, 2007

Volunteer Blogs

Interested in what a day in the life of a YCI volunteer looks like? Then check out some of our volunteer’s blogs:

http://habarinzuri.wordpress.com

http://heatherhale.livejournal.com

http://www.myspace.com/laceyintanzania

Add comment July 30, 2007

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