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TRANSFORMATIONS

Stories of Partnership, Resilience and Positive Change

By Transformations

February 1^st, 2019

Transformations: Stories of Partnership, Resilience and Positive Change is an award-winning collaborative photojournalism initiative intended to increase dialogue and further understanding of international partnerships that address complex global challenges. Through individual and organizational stories we invite you to actively engage in a new narrative on international cooperation and solidarity.

This initiative is rooted in the Istanbul Principles for CSO Development Effectiveness, a set of mutually shared values guiding the development work of civil society organizations (CSOs) worldwide. These include to: respect and promote human rights and social justice; embody gender equality and equity while promoting women and girls’ rights; focus on people’s empowerment, democratic ownership and participation; promote environmental sustainability; practice transparency and accountability; pursue equitable partnerships and solidarity; create and share knowledge and commit to mutual learning; and commit to realizing positive sustainable change.

Introduction

Since 2015, OCIC’s Transformations photojournalism initiative has profiled remarkable stories of individuals and organizations working in Peru, Nepal, Tanzania, Eel Ground First Nation, Chippewas of Nawash First Nation (Neyaashiinigmiing), and Garden Hill First Nation, in partnership and solidarity with members of our Council in Ontario, Canada. Transformations is presented on a virtual platform and as exhibits in community spaces as opportunities to make visible and to learn from the hundreds of thousands of meaningful efforts underway for people and the planet, globally.

Seen together, Transformations stories speak to the power of authentic partnerships -- partnerships that work across geographies, cultures and diverse identities and realities to provide comprehensive cleft and palate care for children, to empower working children and youth to understand their rights, and to accompany women’s rights organizations in their work to transform their communities through long-term socio-economic development programs. Transformations stories also shine light on human capacity for resilience and positive change, sharing approaches and innovations in conservation agriculture, climate change mitigation and gender equality, and Indigenous communities efforts to advance community health, and to support increased food security and food sovereignty.

OCIC’s Transformations 2019 exhibit comes closer to home, profiling over 60 individuals that work intentionally to build bridges between communities like Sarnia and Hawkesbury, Ontario, with those in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and Dakar, Senegal. These everyday actors of social, economic and environmental change are connected to diverse civil society organizations and institutions across our province that are contributing to universal sustainable development. Their lived experiences and reflections on feminist and transformative change, community-led action, decolonization and the importance of localizing global issues are a part of collective efforts to “leave no one behind,” articulated since 2015 through the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2030.

THE CASE FOR GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP

Now, more than ever, people and the communities, organizations, movements and issues we are a part of are deeply and globally connected. Gender inequality, climate change, conflict and poverty defy geopolitical borders. Likewise, grassroots and community calls-to-action, solidarity movements, and innovative efforts to shift to localized, fair and green economies are the universal currency of “global citizens.” According to the United Nations, “global citizenship” is the notion that “individuals are members of multiple, diverse, local and non-local networks, rather than single actors affecting isolated societies.”

In this exhibit, global citizens are Rohingya youth in Kitchener-Waterloo using theatre to articulate and share their story. They are Maya K’iche midwives visiting Ontario to exchange knowledge, ideas and challenges with Indigenous communities. And they are residents of Sarnia that volunteer their time and find creative means of fundraising to support community-led initiatives in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. These and many others like them understand their efforts are reciprocal, and remind us that “nothing is separate,” and we are all connected.

Siblings and cast members of “I Am Rohingya: A Genocide in Four Acts,” in playful conversation at their kitchen table in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario.

“If we show our stories then the government and the Prime Minister will know who we are and what we’ve been through, and hopefully they will let more Rohingya in, so that they can have a better life.” -Ruma, “I Am Rohingya” cast member

Faisal Mohammed, Ahmed Ullah, Ruma and some of her siblings grew up in a refugee camp. As members of the persecuted Rohingya minority group, their families fled from violence in Burma to Bangladesh, where they lived in a camp for 10 years before finding their way to Canada. Ahmed, now 25, recounts the day he boarded the plane bound for Ontario with his family. “That was the moment where something in me woke up; where I knew that I needed to do something for my people,” he says.

After the resurgence of the conflict in Burma in 2012, the Rohingya youth in Kitchener-Waterloo became active campaigners, often participating in demonstrations and protests intended to raise awareness of the ongoing conflict ongoing.

In the summer of 2015, as an intern for Muslim Social Services, Yusuf Zine was asked to run a series of typical refugee settlement workshops for youth he’d never met. Before proceeding he convened a meeting to ask the youth what they wanted. He was surprised that rather than proposing something like a trip to an amusement park, the youth unanimously agreed that they wanted to tell the story of the Rohingya people. After brainstorming together they decided to create a play inspired by their own stories and the stories of their parents. The result was “I Am Rohingya: A Genocide in Four Acts,” written and performed by the youth, and directed by Yusuf. Yusuf also decided to document the process of developing the play, which became the film of the same title.

Ahmed is proud of his fellow cast members. “We are fighting to stop this genocide. Fourteen kids that came from a refugee camp are making the whole government listen,” he says of the creative initiative.

The production of “I Am Rohingya” was a highly collaborative process where cast members frequently gave their input and allowed the play to change and take shape along the way. “Typically in the theatre, the director and the script is God. But they challenged me. If a scene wasn’t working we would rewrite it,” says Yusuf.

The process of writing and performing the play was deep and intimate for the youth and their families, bringing them closer together and fostering a common understanding across generations scarred by persecution, violence and trauma. And while many of their parents may have been reluctant to share dark memories of their past with their children, previously, they were fully supportive of the play. “We never knew what they had been through until we started this play,” says Faisal. “That’s when our parents were more comfortable to tell us their stories, and to share what they had been through.” “They told us to tell the stories of our cousins, aunts and uncles who are still in Burma,” says Ruma, “so that the whole world will know and do something about it.”

Samjida Begum, Ruma, Isa, Amina, Yeasmin, Nasima, Abdul Karim, [bottom row] Ayesha, Jannatul in their family home in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario.

While most of the cast members had little or no experience acting, they ‘felt’ their stories deeply. “We didn’t have to ‘act’ to tell our story, as it comes from our muscle memory,” explains Faisal. Seventeen year old Ruma reflects on impact that the creative process had on her and other young women and girls involved. “Some of the girls didn’t know how to speak up for themselves before,” she says. “I know how to speak up for myself now.” Her younger sister agrees. “I feel like I have faith in me now,” she says.

As the play developed it started to make a buzz among the Rohingya community in Kitchener-Waterloo, and beyond. The groups’ debut performance at the University of Waterloo Theatre of the Arts, and all subsequent performances, sold out. “Rohingya people didn’t know this existed until we had our first show, and then half the community came and helped us,” says Yasmeen. The play was a national sensation, attracting Canadian and international attention and a whirlwind of calls and bookings for performances, interviews, lectures and workshops. But with limited funding and the film in post-production, they were struggling to complete it until “Inter Pares saved the film,” says Yusuf.

Inter Pares, an Ottawa-based social justice organization that has been actively involved in Bangladesh and Burma, partnering with activists and local women’s organizations to promote reproductive rights, food sovereignty, refugee rights and self-determination for the most marginalized, heard about the play and reached out to offer their support. “They didn’t ask for anything in return,” recalls Yusuf, who was shocked by the approach of the organization, at the time. “They taught me a lot about allyship,” he says.

The film, which premiered in May 2018, was a resounding success. But for Yusuf, the Rohingya youth and their families in Kitchener-Waterloo, this project was never about rising to stardom. It was about raising awareness for the Rohingya humanitarian crisis. For these changemakers, the most exciting aspect of the play and film have been the increasing awareness within Canada of who the Rohingya are, and the humanitarian crisis they face.

Samjida Begum and Isa, at their home in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. “I was so happy because everyone knows we are Rohingya now,” says Samjida.

For the Rohingya youth, their families, and Director Yusuf Zine, the call to raise awareness of the crisis continues.

Mother of three cast members, Samjida Begum has seen the impact of the play and film directly. “I was so happy because everyone knows we are Rohingya now. My country’s government says we have no Rohingya. They have hidden our history. Now, the children are showing everything, that my country is Burma.” Ruma hopes to one day be reunited with other members of her family, still trapped in the midst of violence. She believes in the power of sharing the story of her people to get people in power to listen, and to acknowledge their struggle. “Hopefully they will let more Rohingya in, so they can have a better life,” she says.

Shaelyn Wabegijig prays for the water and places tobacco in the Otonabee River, in Peterborough. “By healing yourself, you heal all those who came before you, and those who will come after,” she says.

Shaelyn Wabegijig outside the Wigwam (traditional Anishinaabek shelter) within Trent University’s Traditional Area.

Shaelyn Wabegijig is an Algonquin woman from Timiskaming First Nation, and a recent Trent University graduate. She is currently a Project Manager with Plenty Canada, and a Project Assistant for the Niagara Escarpment Biosphere Reserve Indigenous Mapping Project. Shaelyn also volunteers with the Kawartha World Issues Centre (KWIC) in Peterborough, supporting KWIC’s Seeds for Justice program and serving on their Board of Governors and other committees.

Plenty Canada developed a working relationship with the Canadian Commission for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2017, to explore how best to engage and include Indigenous peoples in the organization and activation of Biosphere Reserves in Canada. Together, they are producing an Indigenous Cultural Map of the Niagara Escarpment Biosphere Reserve that will raise awareness of culturally significant sites to this UNESCO designated area.

“On most maps, you will notice that Indigenous lands and reserves are blank,” says Shaelyn. For her, renaming space from an Indigenous perspective goes beyond using Indigenous names. In her culture, she explains, language is verb-based and locations are very descriptive of the land. To this end, the mapping project involves an online component where geographic locations are paired with media-based performances, including dance, song, poetry, storytelling and visual art performed by Indigenous artists, actively asserting their peoples’ everlasting presence in the territory.

For Shaelyn, the process of decolonization and of incorporating Indigenous perspectives in discussions surrounding environmental challenges are crucial factors in building an environmentally sustainable future. In her view this work begins by acknowledging the Indigenous teaching that “nothing is separate.” From an Indigenous perspective, “the distinction between local and global is artificial, built on the artificial colonial borders of Canada,” she says. These borders can be deconstructed by developing pre-colonial, Indigenous understandings of land and space, which initiatives like the mapping project aim to move towards. Shaelyn sees decolonization, Indigenous struggle and sustainability as intrinsically global, requiring the partnership and solidarity of Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples alike. “If things are going to change, we all have to be a part of the change,” she says.

Alain Ménard, Co-founder & President of Green Beaver Company, hosts a tour of the factory and the production process of their lines of natural beauty products.

Appalled by the widespread use of harmful chemicals in corporate cosmetic products, in 2002 Alain Ménard and Karen Clark left their jobs in the pharmaceutical and pesticide industries to start their own organic cosmetics company in Hawkesbury, Ontario. “We didn’t have a company name, but we wanted something that was Canadian, and natural, so the Green Beaver was born,” explains Alain. From the start, the couple have been firmly committed to the mission of environmental sustainability and raising consumer awareness. They say that whether or not people are buying Green Beaver products, they want them to choose sustainable options.

When Crossroads International, a women’s rights international development organization approached Green Beaver in 2016 about a possible knowledge exchange with organic soap producers from the Union Nationale des Femmes Coopératrices du Sénégal (UNFCS), the team at Green Beaver was immediately intrigued. Crossroads' local partner UNFCS is at the core of a network of 15,000 women cooperators who produce a range of soaps in ten regional unions across Senegal. Through these cooperatives, women get a foothold in the local economy that puts them on the road to economic independence.

Facilitated by Crossroads International, two members of the UNFCS visited the Green Beaver plant for their first exchange for two weeks in 2016. The team at Green Beaver shared their knowledge of marketing, stock management and raw materials management, in order to increase the Unions’ production capacity in Senegal. The women of UNFCS shared their knowledge of sustainable production processes and methods of incorporating local ingredients into cosmetic products.

Reflecting back on that first exchange Alain notes that it inspired Green Beaver in their cold process for making bars of soap, which they used to develop a new process for making liquid soap. The Senegalese practice of using local plants in their soaps also inspired them to add Labrador Tea, which grows in Northern Quebec, to some of their products. The experience helped the Senegalese organization to introduce new products, ultimately increasing sales by 28%.

In 2018, Green Beaver launched a co-branded unscented Castille soap with Crossroads International to honour their 60th Anniversary and their partnership, with proceeds from the sales going to support Crossroads programs. The knowledge exchange provides a unique example of a private sector and civil society partnership that is more interested in sharing than in extraction. It also represents a joint commitment to creating sustainable products using local materials and ingredients.

Ultimately, Green Beaver hopes to transform the cosmetic products market so that natural products become the norm, as opposed to the exception. They believe consumers have an important part to play in that shift. “Maybe I’m dreaming too much,” says Alain, “but we’ll start with Hawkesbury.”

Indigenous midwives serving rural communities in Totonicapan, Guatemala, are equipped with medical equipment necessary to ensure safe births.

They also maintain the practices and teachings of the Maya K’iche people surrounding birth, which helps to build trust with local residents and patients alike.

Margarita Aguilar, Mirna Pretzantzin and Maria del Rosario Orozco, maternal and child health workers from Totonicapán, Guatemala, visited Canada in November 2018 to raise awareness of the maternal health challenges Maya K’iche women face in their communities in Guatemala through workshops with Indigenous groups and other communities in Canada. “International cooperation plays a key role in improving maternal and child health in Totonicapan, particularly in the western highlands of Guatemala, where there are alarming rates of malnutrition and a high rate of maternal deaths,” says Maria del Rosario, Head Nurse with the Totonicapan Health Directorate.

The Maternal, Newborn and Child Health project funded by the Government of Canada involves a partnership between Horizons of Friendship, an international solidarity organization based in Cobourg, Ontario, PIES de Occidente – the Association for Health Promotion, Research & Education, in Totonicapan, with the close collaboration of the Guatemalan Ministry of Health. It demonstrates ways in which modern medical practices and traditional Indigenous health practices can coexist and support each other, ensuring the health and well-being of community members.

In 2018, a delegation of Maya K'iche midwives supported by Horizons travelled to Ontario for a unique learning exchange. The delegation met with Indigenous Elders and the public at the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto, and were part of the second biennial Indigenous Conference organized by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, in conjunction with Elders and community members of the Wikwemikong Unceded First Nation. While together they engaged on best practices and discussed similar challenges faced within their communities.

Horizons also accompanied Margarita and Maria del Rosario to Rankin Inlet, Nunavut – a vibrant and predominantly Inuit community in Northern Canada. Reflecting on her visit to Rankin Inlet, Maria del Rosario shares that what she learned are some of the unique challenges remote communities in Canada face, such as limited access to birthing health care. This means patients with pregnancy complications are often required to be airlifted by helicopter to larger towns nearby. “There is an effort to rescue Indigenous traditions and practices surrounding birth. This allows them to have safe births in their own communities,” Maria del Rosario explains. “It is very similar to what is going on in Guatemala with Indigenous women who want to have their births in their communities.”

Through this knowledge exchange Margarita, Mirna and Maria del Rosario are not only transforming their communities in Totonicapan, they are building transnational bridges of solidarity with Indigenous communities in Canada, and educating settler Canadians on the work that still has to be done to ensure Indigenous communities everywhere have access to safe and culturally relevant health care.

Rayjon co-founder, John Barnfield, and Rayjon supporters show their curling skills at the Sarnia Golf & Curling Club during their annual fundraising event.

John and Maggy Barnfield at the annual Rayjon fundraiser event.

Heather Smith, Executive Director of Rayjon, addresses the community at the annual Rayjon fundraiser event in Sarnia, Ontario.

John Barnfield recalls being struck by TV images of starving children in Ethiopia in the early 1980’s, and deciding he could not just look away. In 1985, lawyer Ray Wyrzykowski, John, his wife Maggy Barnfield and high school student Kathleen Panela travelled to Haiti together for a 10 day “Poverty Awareness Trip,” which John describes as a “life changing experience” that became the catalyst for much more. This first meeting of people and cultures resulted in Ray and John leading a group of 26 high school students and adults on another trip to Haiti in January 1986, and in incorporating Rayjon Share Care of Sarnia Inc. as a registered charity, shortly thereafter.

Since then, John has led annual trips to Haiti and the Dominican Republic as a means to raise awareness of the conditions of poverty in these countries, but also so that Canadians can experience their richness, as well. The Rayjon team is careful to ensure that their trips are not “poverty tourism” ventures by consciously partnering with local organizations to make sure the Canadian visitors can be helpful to their host communities in some way. John maintains that development projects like this cannot simply involve external visitors coming in and providing a service that they think local populations need or want. “The communities themselves should be the ones leading the process,” he says.

This emphasis on collaboration and consultation is reflected in the ways Rayjon partners with local organizations and hires local staff to implement long term and transformative projects. And their awareness trips for Canadians inspire many to advocate for social justice and systemic change.

Susan Vodarek-DeCaen, a registered nurse and part-time faculty at Georgian College of Health, Wellness & Sciences, has been a Rayjon volunteer for over 12 years.

Susan Vodarek has been a leader with the Rayjon/Georgian College Dominican nursing experience for over 12 years, and brings over 30 years of nursing knowledge and practice to this program. She is a Registered Nurse and part-time faculty in both the Bachelor of Science in Nursing and the Practical Nursing programs at Georgian College of Health, Wellness & Sciences in Barrie, Ontario. Since 2002 Georgian College has partnered with Rayjon to facilitate annual nursing and inter-professional trips to the Dominican Republic, providing opportunities for Ontario students to gain hands-on experience internationally while expanding their own understanding and awareness of some of the social justice issues affecting international development. The Rayjon-Georgian teams bring hundreds of students and teachers representing multiple faculties to the Dominican Republic each year.

Reflecting on her experiences with Rayjon, Susan says, “Where do I start? Every time I turn on my shower or hear a tap running I think of the people in Cambalachie. Every time I see an exorbitant buffet of food and drink I think of the starvation in Batey Canada de Negro. Transformative change definitely happened to me, and I am passionate about spreading this awareness.”

Susan says she keeps partnering with Rayjon in the Dominican Republic because she is inspired by their commitment to sustainability and long-term partnership. “You can’t just set up a project and then forget about it,” Susan explains. “You need to keep that sustainability going. That’s part of Rayjon’s philosophy, to empower, assist and keep it sustained. That rings true to me,” she says.

Mirlande M. Dickinson is a Rayjon volunteer based in Toronto, Ontario.

Mirlande Dickinson completed an internship with Rayjon through the Humber College International Development program in December 2018, and also believes in Rayjon’s approach. Mirlande first discovered Rayjon by happenstance, she says, when she applied for a position she found advertised online. As it turned out, the ad was recruiting for a position within Haiti, where Mirlande was born. As a Women’s Studies and Feminist Research scholar Mirlande discovered a synergy between her commitments to a grassroots, feminist approach to international development, and Rayjon’s belief in partnership and community consultation.

“Sustainability is huge when you have connections with people on the ground who know the communities, and know which directions to take,” Mirlande says. And as a small non-profit organization Rayjon is able to form long-lasting and reciprocal relationships with local partners. “Big organizations might not have those connections,” Mirlande says. “Rayjon is small, but mighty!”

Many of the participants in Rayjon’s annual fundraiser events have been on their awareness, eyeglass, professional or project monitoring trip, and frequently go back to Haiti and the Dominican Republic to support local partners in their work. They are proof that when people better understand global inequality, many make long lasting commitments to social justice efforts.

A Paradigm Shift: Universality Matters

Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs), adopted by world leaders in September 2015 as the global agenda for people and the planet, are built on the principle of universality. The United Nations defines this as “recognising the interconnectedness of national and global development challenges, and therefore universal commitments to address them," noting that, “this requires a paradigm shift in thinking about ‘development’ and international cooperation that goes beyond the traditional donor-recipient formula. It entails mobilizing a broader, deeper and more innovative range of solutions for implementation of the SDGs.”

In plain language this is a recognition that “all countries are ‘developing’ countries,” and that each person, organization, institution, business and level of government has a role to play within a “whole of society approach” to universal sustainable development.

Rose Bendix, Minute School Director of Content, and Tushar Singh, Minute School Founder & CEO, sharing their mobile app, Minute School.

Tushar Singh and Rose Bendix are disrupting how business and education are done through Minute School, an innovative tech company founded on a radical idea: that students can co-create University-level courses for their peers. Their app harnesses the “raw, under-appreciated knowledge and capabilities of students” to produce an intuitive mobile platform, built on artificial intelligence. It utilizes a peer-to-peer model to allow students to collectively develop unique and intentionally tailored courses and study materials to help each other succeed in their academic careers.

While Minute School is committed to blazing new trails in the world of business and innovative tech, at its core, it is fundamentally on a mission to expand access to education worldwide. “We are ambitious in our goals to connect the world through education.” They are developing partnerships with student groups, educational institutions and organizations in order to increase people’s understandings, and to find ways to complement each other’s strengths which can ultimately increase access and availability of education to students around the world.

One of the partnerships Minute School has cultivated is with Students Offering Support, a non-profit organization that delivers transformational educational programming in Canada and around the world through a student-led approach. SOS does this by organizing and supporting exam aid sessions and tutoring programs, funding local partners to increase their educational capacities, facilitating international student trips to assist local partners in hands-on projects, and organizing campus-based textbook drives. “The partnership with SOS has been amazing,” Rose says.

Conversations with SOS started two years ago when they found an alignment between their approaches and focus on students. Minute School was inspired by the global scope of SOS’s work, and their involvement in marginalized communities with limited access to educational resources. “When we heard about how they connect students in Canada to communities in Latin America, we knew we needed to be a part of that,” Tushar says.

Currently Minute School is partnering with SOS to translate their materials into Spanish, and to make their resources available offline so that students in remote communities in Latin America can collaborate to support each other, and help each other grow. Reflecting on their partnership Rose notes, “part of our responsibility living here is understanding you can’t just be focused on what’s going on here. It’s about recognizing that you are part of a bigger picture -- a global community. We can focus on education here, but that’s only a small piece of the bigger picture.”

Rose says Minute School works with SOS due to their strong relationships with their global partners. This partnership presents an opportunity to share resources in a way that is respectful and that creates mutual understanding.

Minute School is mindful of the legacies of colonialism and Canada’s colonial past. “As settlers, we are all implicated in the process of decolonization,” Tushar says. Because Minute School gives students the power to author their own educational experience, Tushar and Rose are excited about the opportunities the app presents for students and Indigenous communities to design courses incorporating culturally relevant knowledge and traditional Indigenous teachings in their learning experience. Ultimately, they say, Minute School is not a product. It is a tool to build your own product, radically placing communities and their learning priorities at the center of their own journey towards a community-led transformation.

Dr. Amy Bilton, Robert Scott and John Shoust [left to right] showcase a windmill model built in Nicaragua, at the University of Toronto’s Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship. “There are so many things you can do that aren’t just t

In 2014, Robert Scott and John Shoust were on an SOS Outreach Trip to Nicaragua. While they were visiting a rural community they noticed that the majority of crops in the village were dried up and not producing much food, save one farm that had access to irrigation channels. As a business consultant and engineer, respectively, the two immediately started to imagine how they might provide irrigation to the other farms in the community and finally concluded, “well, why don’t we?”

Rob and John co-founded Winds of Change and partnered with University of Toronto engineering professor Dr. Amy Bilton to get engineering students involved with designing community-centered infrastructure projects. “We wanted to avoid the voluntourism model from the beginning,” says Rob, noting how similar infrastructure construction projects in the past have operated without much local consultation, and usually serve to benefit the visitors more than the communities. In order to counteract this model, Winds of Change is community-centric, partnering with local non-government organizations and relying on buy-in from local communities. For example, in one of their projects, a team of volunteers were tasked with building a new school building in a rural community in Nicaragua. The unique aspect of this project is that the proposal for the building had been written by the graduating high school class, who wanted to gift their younger peers with a new building.

Winds of Change is also careful to incorporate local residents in construction workshops and training sessions in order to empower them to maintain the upkeep and repair work on completed projects. These workshops have had transformative impacts, especially for local women that have benefited from training in welding and carpentry, for example, supporting them in achieving greater economic independence and agency in the long term.

Winds of Change programs also offer engineering students at the University of Toronto an opportunity to apply the skills they learn in class, providing them with a stimulating design challenge to creatively utilize and incorporate the local materials to generate sustainable designs. The unique partnership they have cultivated with the engineering department at the University of Toronto has also begun to transform the academic community, encouraging the engineering department to further consider and critically examine the social and political consequences of infrastructure interventions.

Alejandra Guzman, Students Offering Support volunteer and Executive Director of Isthmus Canada, an organization that helps to alleviate child hunger in Canadian communities. Before she came to Canada to study International Development, Peruvian-born Alejandra observed gross inequalities in her home country, and felt compelled to advocate for social justice and equality. “Since I was a child, I was sensitive to the lives of other people, things that I could witness myself. I could see kids who could not go to school because they had to work,” she says.

Alejandra found her opportunity to make an impact with SOS, where she has partnered with local NGOs in Latin America to facilitate the building of educational infrastructure and other community projects in remote and underserved communities. “I have seen the kids faces when they know there will be a classroom built for them. They are happy because they know they are going to learn. These kids have dreams, just like Canadian kids do.”

Alejandra’s work cannot be contained to a single local context or region on the map. In Toronto, she works in the food security sector, organizing meals for Canadian children to bridge the meal plan gap over the weekends. “I was surprised to discover in such a rich country like Canada, we have this issue. People don’t like to accept it, but hunger is an issue here,” Alejandra notes. Her work serves as a reminder that there are always opportunities to contribute to transformative social change in each community we call home.

Jennifer Fieldhouse displays her photos from her travels to Mozambique and Tanzania with Aga Khan Foundation Canada Awareness Trip.

As an educator and community volunteer, Jennifer Fieldhouse believes in the power of listening. When Jennifer was invited to visit development projects in Mozambique and Tanzania with Aga Khan Foundation Canada, she wanted to make it more than a personal trip; she wanted her trip to have an impact on her own community. As an Development Champion with AKFC’s Speaker Bureau, Jennifer asked youth and other community members in Ontario to join in a global conversation. From “What is your favourite color?” to “What was the happiest day of your life?” to “What does your community need?” Jennifer filled her travel notebook with 100 questions. The people she met on her trip were happy to share their stories and answer her questions, and even asked some questions of their own for her to bring back to her Canadian community.

Jennifer feels privileged to have been able to share these interesting, thoughtful and often funny stories from people in Africa with local groups in rural Ontario. “Through this experience, I have learned how the act of sharing stories can break down walls and build understanding and community.”

Jennifer believes Canadians can be active global citizens by the simple yet profound experience of being open to hearing each others’ stories. As a Teacher of English as a Second Language, Jennifer takes advantage of the opportunity to broaden her global conversations, sharing and learning from her students who have come from around the world to live in Canada. She wishes all Canadians had the opportunity to meet and interact with her ESL students, finding in these conversations that, as global citizens, “in many ways, we are all the same; we all have hopes and dreams for ourselves, our families and our communities.” As Jennifer continues to listen and to ask questions she is inspired by how “ordinary conversations have the power to build global communities.”

Sarah Gauthier beside a photo of Apendiwe Momade, a weaver from Palma, Northern Mozambique, at the Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat in Ottawa, Ontario.

Sarah Gauthier has been involved in local and overseas social justice work for a number of years, and currently works with Cuso International as a Training and Development Advisor. Throughout her many experiences she has developed friendships that extend beyond geopolitical borders. She describes her efforts as “creating bridges between people,” and believes in the power of exchanges to create more engaged citizens, in their communities and abroad.

Early on, Sarah recalls a curiosity to learn from other cultures. This sparked a passion for travel, working for non-governmental organizations, and led to becoming a Fellow through Aga Khan Foundation Canada’s International Fellowship Program, in 2009. Sarah was placed in Northern Mozambique where she worked in the entrepreneurship sector, supporting artisans and entrepreneurs to grow their own business in the region. “I learned resilience and relationship building in Mozambique,” she says. This is also where she thought to combine her passion for sustainability work and her interest in adult education to pursue a Master of Education in Adult Learning and Global Change at the University of British Columbia.

As a Franco-Ontarian, Sarah knows what it is like to be part of a linguistic minority and has gained some insights into the experience of more marginalized groups in this country and abroad. In 2018, a number of protests in Canada were organized by Franco-Ontarian groups in response to government cuts that would affect services to this particular group. During this time, local and international displays of solidarity with her own community inspired her to reflect on the impact of showing support for local and global causes. “You can have a positive impact from wherever you are,” she says.

In her community in Ottawa, Sarah continues to volunteer with AKFC’s Development Champion Speaker Bureau, visiting schools and community centres, sharing her experiences, and hoping to inspire youth to take action and become involved both locally and globally, to make change. “Whether it’s a local initiative or global work, just do it. As small or big as it would be, find your passion and follow it,” she says.

[left to right] Mary Pearson, Margaret Kohr and Richard Kirsh in the World Accord office, reflecting on their time in Nepal.

Richard Kirsh and Margaret Kohr’s involvement with World Accord began at a deeply personal level. They wanted to further understand the context, culture and home country of their adopted son, from Guatemala. Reflecting on the startling disparities between the living conditions of the poor in Latin America and the future their son would have in Canada, Richard and Margaret became committed to working towards positive change “not as a band-aid, but as a way of providing some concrete change in a community he might have grown up in,” Richard says.

For Richard and Margaret, their experiences seeing tangible, transformative change on the ground in communities in Guatemala, Honduras and Nepal have sustained them in their work with World Accord, especially in terms of the empowerment of women that they personally witnessed. “There has been a gentle transformation led by Women for Peace and Democracy that is opening up the world of Nepal to the women of Nepal, and that’s an important transformation to make. It begins with seeing these women as dignified and strong,” Richard says.

Margaret was also inspired by women in Nepal and feels a sense of solidarity with them. “For me it was seeing the strength and determination and courage these women had, and how much love they had for their communities. It’s like the love I have for my community and my family, but they were challenged in ways I can’t imagine. They have such strength and courage, and they want the best for their children.”

Mary Pearson, World Accord’s Treasurer, says she draws the most meaning from small, one-on-one interactions with women she met in Nepal that demonstrated to her the transformative impact of Women for Peace and Democracy’s grassroots programs.

While Mary was on a hike in a rural community in Nepal, a woman on the road called out to her, and beckoned her to come over. There was a language barrier between the two but Mary could tell that the woman wanted to show her something, so she followed. “I saw her home and animals, and the smile on her face was worth the next hour. She was so proud, so thankful to be able to show what she had been able to accomplish with support from Women for Peace and Democracy. And I was the one who got to see that.” Those moments of shared joy and of solidarity across continents are what inspire people like Richard, Margaret and Mary.

Johannes Valdes is a Cuso International volunteer from Toronto, Ontario.

Johannes Valdes has participated in three international placements with Cuso International. He says he keeps coming back because he identifies strongly with their approach, which is “not going in with an intention to ‘fix’, but to understand.” Whether it’s in his role as a research assistant, child and youth care practitioner, or counsellor, Johannes is committed to listening and responding to the needs and priorities of the community he is working with, first and foremost.

Johannes sees his role as facilitating and holding space for young people to see that their voice matters. For example, during his time with Cuso in Bolivia, he hosted a workshop with a group of Afro-Bolivian youth in which he encouraged them to design their own community organizations for any purpose they wanted. He was surprised that the youth designed an organization specifically geared towards celebrating and preserving Afro-Bolivian traditions and cultural practices, and notes how the workshop highlighted the youth’s sense of pride for their culture, validating their unique experience as Afro-Bolivians. “Some people aren’t given the space to feel that,” Johannes points out.

Johannes’ commitment to uplifting community priorities does not only apply to his international work. He brings the same to his efforts designing culturally relevant and engaging programs for youth in northern Indigenous communities, with Right to Play. Johannes’ time spent working with Indigenous communities in Canada has taught him the extent to which there is much work to be done right here. “I had a lot of culture shock, more so than abroad… and realized there are plenty underserved communities closer to home.”

Whether it’s in Bolivia or Northern Ontario, Johannes has one simple philosophy to guide his interactions with communities in which he may be perceived as an outsider: “Before intervening or providing support, know how that person takes their coffee.”

Della Fellows is the Rayjon Eyeglass Coordinator in Sarnia, Ontario.

Working from a dimly lit basement flat on the outskirts of suburban Sarnia, Della Fellows and Joanne Atkinson are proving that transformative change can begin from something as modest as a pair of eyeglasses.

Della is a long-time volunteer that first became connected with Rayjon Share Care through her mother, who was part of a small group of ladies in the rural village of Wyoming, Ontario, that got together regularly to wash and dry donated prescription eyeglasses in the very early days of Rayjon’s eyeglass program, in 1990s.

“They used to do it at a retirement home, using toothbrushes to clean the glasses,” Della recalls. The ladies would clean, sort and check for scratches. Their group moved around from facility to facility, all spaces donated by the community, including the YMCA in Sarnia, community churches and shared spaces with other community organizations. Joanne has been instrumental to the eyeglass program from the very beginning, managing, guiding and shaping it into what it is today.

Della coordinates all of the volunteer teams, ensuring that each pair of glasses gets properly labelled, stored and entered into a database for easy retrieval. The group sorts, washes, repairs, reads Rx's, packs and labels glasses for Rayjon’s annual eyeglass clinics. This work is not only an opportunity to make a meaningful impact in the lives of thousands of people overseas, they are also life giving and transformative experiences for the community of volunteers themselves. “My volunteers are such lovely people,” Della says. “I’m usually in the other room, but I hear them laughing and having such a good time. They talk about their trips and their kids. If someone is dealing with sickness they are there to help one another.”

Rayjon volunteers have the opportunity to go on annual eyeglass clinic trips to Haiti, the Dominican Republic and other destinations in the Caribbean and Latin America. Seeing the impact of something as simple as a pair of eyeglasses is what keeps many of them committed to the program over many years. Joanne recalls a time working at the eyeglass clinic in Nicaragua when “this man came in for a fitting and after I found him a pair of glasses he just sat there, staring out the window for a long time, in silence. I asked what was wrong. He told me, “I just never realized the world looked like that.”

Volunteers like Joanne and Della are at the heart of the Rayjon eyeglass program, processing 6,000 to 8,000 pairs of glasses every year. But what truly sustains the program are the partnerships between communities of retired volunteers, young people tagging along with their mom for the day, local organizations willing to donate their space, and teams of volunteers and doctors travelling overseas to help grandmother’s see their grandkids for the first time. “It’s a network, and it all starts here,” Della says.

A Deliberate Reckoning - Towards a Feminist Future

Feminist are not just concerned with how many women are at the table, but as Charlotte Kiddell puts it, with “what happens when we get to the table?” It is not just about the product, but the process, including the stories we tell, and who tells them.

UN Women notes that “Women’s equality and empowerment is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, but also integral to all dimensions of inclusive and sustainable development. In short, all the SDGs depend on the achievement of Goal 5.” As we see it, feminism is not just about the rights of women and girls. It is about challenging power and hierarchies and empowering those that are too often silenced, in order to build more equitable, sustainable and just societies.

Kemi Akapo, Peterborough City Councilor.

Kemi Akapo is a City Councillor representing Town Ward in Peterborough since December 2018, and the Coordinator of Settlement Services at the New Canadians Centre. She has lived in Peterborough for the last 13 last years.

Born in Nigeria, Kemi came to Canada in 2005 as an international student and became involved with the Kawartha World Issues Centre (KWIC), where she volunteered as a Board Member. KWIC’s focus on localizing global issues supports the wider community in understanding and in mobilizing action towards social change, especially around the environment and climate issues. Through her engagement she learned that KWIC is a great incubator, not just for events, but also for people. Important local environmental and global education initiatives and organizations such as Peterborough GreenUP and the ReFrame Film Festival have emerged with KWIC’s support.

For some time she was highly engaged with Trent University student groups and campus activist circles, mobilizing against rising student fees. After graduation she says she began exploring the larger community of activists in Peterborough. “Once I left Trent I saw myself as a part of a much wider community. It no longer was about academics… I saw that there are things affecting the city beyond levy fees… since then my focus has been expanding more and more.”

As a feminist committed to empowering marginalized women and girls, Kemi says that when she came to Canada she felt she had to do her part in helping to end violence against women and gender-based violence. As a volunteer on the YWCA Board of Directors she had the opportunity to attend the United Nations Commission for the Status of Women as a Canadian delegate representing Peterborough. It was there that she met other YWCA Canada and global agencies and could see how connected they are, and that the struggles they faced in Peterborough are very similar to the struggles had elsewhere.

Kemi’s immigrant experience also inspired her to work with the New Canadians Centre as a Settlement Services Coordinator, where she welcomes newcomers and helps to facilitate their integration into the Peterborough community. “The work that I do is very related to my own experience as an immigrant. It’s part of who I am,” she says. Kemi began to get involved in politics when City Council was looking to cut costs to public transit. She and many others showed up to express their concerns. “It tends to be women and children who rely most on public transit in Peterborough and around the world,” she says.

She sees her work at City Council as an extension of her work as an activist, and believes municipal level work has the closest impact on our everyday lives. She has an acute understanding of the ways that seemingly minor details can affect people at the community level. Whether it’s a matter of changing the color of street light bulb fixtures to help residents sleep more soundly, or ensuring that bus routes are accessible to women and a range of Peterborough residents, Kemi says she sees the global in the local. Kemi hopes to utilize her role as a City Councillor to bring an underrepresented perspective to the table at City Hall. “I bring a different perspective as a recent immigrant,” says Kemi, and I now have multiple roles in this city and in this community that are important.”

Sumu Sathi is a social services worker, a leader, a student, a coach, an entrepreneur and a gifted storyteller. Frustrated by the underrepresentation of South Asian women in Canadian media, Sumu started the BluntTRUTH podcast to challenge stereotypes and uplift women in her community.

Sumu partnered with comdu.it as a diaspora changemaker in 2017, and was placed in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka. comdu.it works to shift diaspora engagement from charity to sustainability by supporting sustainable development projects in the North and East of Sri Lanka. As part of her placement, Sumu designed and delivered workshops in the Tamil language to local youth workers, hostel wardens, field coordinators and government officials on topics such as basic case management, relationship building, conflict resolution and non-judgemental counseling.

As a feminist story teller working to highlight the voices and agency of women, Sumu also used her placement in Sri Lanka as an opportunity to produce a short film entitled Daughters of Eelam, tracing the stories of three women across three generations, navigating post-war North and East Sri Lanka. “The film is about the resilience of three women, they continue to fight for justice, and they believe there is hope. These women who face similar barriers, living in terrible conditions, have no choice but to take on a leadership role in their communities.” In this sense, the stories of the women depicted in Daughters of Eelam echo the story of the filmmaker as well.

After returning from Sri Lanka Sumu decided to fundraise for underprivileged Tamil youth in the communities she had visited, to help cover the costs of post-secondary education. She set an initial goal of $5000 and hosted a community lunch in her backyard to kick off the fundraiser. With contributions from people around the world, the fund generated over $6,000. Sumu continues to fundraise to create awareness and support youth’s education in Sri Lanka

As a young woman of colour practicing law in a white, male-dominated field, Akosua Matthews notes, “the work I do is revolutionary, because I exist.” When Akosua was studying as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University she noticed a trend amongst some of her male counterparts: they would host regular meetings amongst each other and discuss how they might implement what they were learning in their home countries, and which leadership positions they might take on in future.

“Why aren’t we doing this as women?” Akosua remembers asking herself. This led her to mobilize other female Rhodes Scholars and they began their own knowledge-sharing workshops, where they discussed common challenges they faced, and developed shared priorities and approaches.

As a mobilizer who leads by uplifting those that are marginalized, it’s no surprise that Akosua devotes her expertise to cases that address critical social justice issues for Indigenous people in Canada. She is co-counsel for Nishnawbe Aski Nation on the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada v. Attorney General of Canada case currently before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, and worked with the Nishnawbe Aski Nation to help craft community-focused solutions that address the unique challenges facing remote and Northern First Nations communities. As a Canadian woman of colour her approach to working with Indigenous communities emphasizes the importance of consultation with community members, including Elders, and advancing the priorities established by communities themselves.

Inter Pares is a self-described and unapologetically feminist organization. Not only do they work tirelessly to empower women and girls around the world, but their organizational structure and operations demonstrate a fundamental commitment to ideals of reciprocity, equality and horizontal leadership. Inter Pares employs a flat governance structure where full-time employees receive the same base income, and important organizational decisions are consensus-based. While this radical approach to governance may go against the conventional wisdom, it is making waves in Ottawa and beyond, with organizations like the Canadian Health Coalition recently adopting a flat governance structure inspired by their model.

As a result, Inter Pares attracts a vibrant community of activists committed to social justice, such as Charlotte Kiddell, Donor Relations Manager. “I fell in love with the internal process of Inter Pares, and was excited to work for a feminist organization that was operationalizing a lot of social justice principles through co-management, its horizontal structure and consensus-based decision making.”

“We all come to this as activists,” says co-Executive Director, Rita Morbia. “When we are looking for folks to join our team, being someone who wants to change the world is important to us.” In fact, one of the main strengths of the Inter Pares model is that it fosters a committed team that supports, encourages and sustains each other. “I think that investment in staff as holistic people, not just who we are 9:00 to 5:00, but who we are in and outside of this organization, is a real reflection of our feminist principles,” Charlotte says.

As committed activists with experience engaging in a variety of different grassroots community causes, employees also bring an astute critical eye to their work. “We can’t be afraid of self reflection and critiquing one another,” Rita notes.

Inter Pares consensus-based governance approach is mirrored in their of interactions with local partners around the world. In the Philippines, for example, Inter Pares partners with a local women's groups to advocate for better birthing services, and well as legal and policy changes surrounding women’s healthcare. “They are the advocates of their own healthcare,” Rita points out.

Inter Pares acknowledges that in a way, their work is never done. “I think it’s a great ideal to strive for, but you need to recognize that while you will never get there, it’s the struggle that is important,” Rita says. The key to continual progress is to embrace critique and discomfort. “It takes a deliberate attempt, a deliberate reckoning with that idea that there needs to be a little discomfort, and that’s how you ensure you are continually changing and growing,” she says.

Moiz Lakhani is a Colonel By Secondary School student, a three-time NAGA World Jiu-Jitsu Champion, and an Aga Khan Foundation Canada volunteer.

Moiz Lakhani is no ordinary high school student. Moiz began volunteering with Aga Khan Foundation Canada as a tour guide at the Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat in Ottawa, at the age of 14. Three years later he is now a Visitor Program Lead, responsible for training 100 tour guides and providing thousand of visitors, including High Commissioners and Ambassadors, detailed information on the Delegation and AKFC’s global development programs.

In 2017 Moiz competed in the United Nations Impact Challenge, an opportunity for youth to pitch a product or service that will have a positive social impact on millions. After several rounds of competition Moiz was announced as the youngest of three winners. Moiz’s big idea was “Ninja Girls”, a program designed to teach young women and girls practical self defense strategies to combat sexual harassment and violence, to learn what constitutes harassment, and to understand the legal resources available to them. Moiz was inspired to develop this program because of his passion for martial arts, and his concern for the well-being of women in his community. “I’m originally from Pakistan, where sexual harassment is a big issue,” says Moiz, “and all of my cousins are women. I didn’t want them to have to face harassment.”

Moiz believes young men must be included in conversations surrounding gender equality, and that “men too need to learn what kinds of behaviors are inappropriate and dangerous.” He believes in the integral role that youth and young men have to play in supporting mothers, sisters, cousins and friends, and working towards a future where gender equality is the norm.

The Work of Undoing: Decolonizing our World

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada states that “reconciliation requires that a new vision, based on a commitment to mutual respect, be developed. Virtually all aspects of Canadian society may need to be reconsidered.” Many are working to actively re-consider understandings of our shared colonial histories, the geographies that we inhabit, the kinds of knowledge that we privilege over others, and our relationship to the natural environment.

Emily Fortney-Blunt prepares a learning circle in her classroom. “We have to help our own, but everybody is our own.” -Emily Fortney-Blunt, activist and teacher.

Activist and teacher Emily Fortney-Blunt is actively working to decolonize education and to expose young people to Indigenous ways of knowing and being, while developing global citizenship in her students and the community at large.

Emily founded “Circle Up” a restorative learning circle inspired by Indigenous learning practices, where students in Grades 6, 7 and 8 meet with guests and set an intentional commitment to listen and understand one another, to take turns sharing their stories, to show respect for the dignity of others, and to speak their truths. Rayjon has been a partner of this program, as guest presenters and as part of the many methods Emily uses to bring social justice and awareness teaching into the classroom. Emily also frequently invites Indigenous leaders, refugees, and newcomers in Sarnia to share their stories and knowledge with her students. She says there can sometimes be push-back to her teaching methods, and that it’s not easy being the one bringing in methods outside the norm. Nevertheless, she believes that exposing her students to non-conventional curriculum and ways of knowing can have transformative impacts.

One way Emily encourages her students to approach “learning as listening” is by examining our understanding of land in Canada by studying waterway systems. She hopes this approach will encourage students to see the land as interconnected, interacting and flowing across the lines of provincial and state borders. By creating opportunities to rethink geography and have frank discussions on Canada’s colonial history, Emily hopes Canadian youth will see the global in the local, and work towards an inclusive and decolonized future.

Faith Mwesigye came to Peterborough from Uganda to study at Trent University. While her father wanted her to pursue environmental law, she says she found herself gravitating towards courses in Indigenous studies, critical development studies and feminist research, where she learned about Canada’s colonial past and the extent to which Canadian society remains impacted by colonization.

In her learning as a volunteer and now staff with the Kawartha World Issues Centre, and through community members, Indigenous teachers, leaders and activists in Peterborough, she was inspired to take a critical and decolonized research approach in her graduate studies. In her research she examined the perceptions of communities in Uganda of international frameworks dominated by Western discourses, and the applicability of these frameworks in non-Western countries. The insights she gathered from her exposure to Indigenous perspectives and concepts of decolonization further inspired her to take a critical look at the ways in which Uganda remains colonized, and to explore what decolonizing education might look like, particularly in Uganda.

“I’m learning so much to take back home,” says Faith. An extraordinarily versatile scholar, Faith is always open to new ideas and perspectives and believes the work informs her identity, more than her identity informs her work.

Dr. Leslie Chan, Associate Director of the Centre for Critical Development Studies at the University of Toronto Scarborough, in Ontario.

Decolonization is not only relevant within the Canadian context, but is a global project that requires confronting global inequalities in power and knowledge production. At the Centre for Critical Development Studies (CCDS), University of Toronto Scarborough, Dr. Leslie Chan and Dr. Bettina von Lieres are working alongside students like Amber Xu and Claire Tincombe to decolonize education and to unravel hierarchies of knowledge, in their own unique ways.

Dr. Chan says he was first struck by the stark inequalities in academic knowledge production when he was writing his PhD thesis on primates, as a young anthropologist. He was surprised how difficult it was to find literature from South Asian and African authors, where the primates actually lived. This prompted his to reflect on issues like whose ideas get circulated, and why are some ideas given more privilege and prestige than others. Since that time he has devoted much of his research to highlighting inequalities in knowledge production in academia, and advocating for the wider incorporation of non-Western and Indigenous knowledge and practices in development research and practice.

“Most of the dialogues about international development are ideas coming from the Global North, from the prestigious institutions like Harvard and the University of Toronto. Their ideas about development become the global ideas for everybody. At the same time we are ignoring the big swatches of important local knowledge, community knowledge, indigenous knowledge, women’s knowledge. They are completely invisible in our textbooks, in our journals, and the ways students learn about development. It became a passion of mine to change that picture through decolonized forms of teaching and research practices,” he says.

Claire Tincombe also wants to change the way interactions are framed in international development discourse. “This idea and narrative that development is where we go from the Global North to the Global South is problematic to me,” she says. Claire is decolonizing her understanding of development by looking not only at the ways in which hunger, poverty and other issues are experienced in “distant lands”, but are also right in front of us. “There are power imbalances everywhere,” she explains. In order to combat the dominant and historical discourse, Claire was intentional in choosing a fieldwork placement as a teacher in Canada’s Northwest Territories.

Similarly, Amber Xu recalls being encouraged to think critically about international development, and to study the ways in which well-meaning interventions can inadvertently uphold hierarchies of knowledge, power and resources. While recognizing these issues, she also warns against letting cynicism justify inaction in the face of injustice. “It’s so easy to simply give up and not engage in this complicated world. But… after seeing the harsh reality we must become more brave to proactively address injustices,” she says.

Dr. Bettina von Lieres holds up a poster of the book “Domains of Freedom: Justice, Citizenship and Social Change in South Africa” edited by Thembela Kepe, Melissa Levin & Bettina von Lieres.

Dr. Bettina von Lieres shares a similar commitment to decolonizing development discourse, noting, “there’s a tendency to externalize development work into the Global South. Students can learn a lot about development in their own context before applying those skills in other contexts,” she says. Her approach to this work is rooted in critical feminist practice committed to participatory action research, a model that centers the priorities and needs of communities, and works collaboratively to promote positive social change. As a South African anti-apartheid activist, she focuses her research on capacity building and empowering communities to take social action. and to build political awareness of “the right to claim rights,” as she puts it.

Whether it’s through theory or practice, the intergenerational team of scholars at UTSC are leading the way on challenging hierarchies of knowledge and decolonizing development discourse and practice.

Isabelle Kim and her team, and a cohort of committed student leaders at the University of Toronto, Centre for Community Partnerships (CCP), are working to connect students, staff and faculty with communities and community partner organizations to learn, research and respond to social justice issues in the city of Toronto and beyond, together.

“Tackling the wicked global problems like climate change and social inequality will require not only greater political democracy, but also knowledge democracy. Bringing diverse perspectives and knowledges to bear on these problems will deepen our collective understanding and capacity to make social change,” says Isabelle Kim, Director of the CPP. The Centre uses a Community-Engaged Learning and Research approach that starts with asking, “What are the community-identified needs and priorities?”

The CPP also facilitates partnerships between the university, nonprofits and the public sector to catalyze and sustain socially-responsive educational and research initiatives. These initiatives are helping to expand the boundaries of university education and inspire new ways of understanding and addressing social problems. For example, their Community Kitchen program is a collaboration between various university and community partners and Chefs across the City, to discuss food justice and other social issues while preparing a healthy meal together in kitchens on campus and in community organizations.

Another more recent initiative that the CCP is supporting connects the local and global. Map the System is a global competition hosted by the University of Oxford, which challenges students to analyze issues of social or environmental change. In the competition, individuals or groups research a social or environmental topic that is important to them, and present their findings to the world. The CCP will be supporting students in conducting community-engaged research by connecting with local social change agents who are actively working on the students’ topics. “This competition takes a slightly different approach from other types of competitions out there because students are encouraged to try to understand a social problem first, rather than proposing a solution” Isabelle explains. This ‘listen-first’ approach is key.

Ziysah von Bieberstein and their children playing outside in Nogojiwanong (Peterborough).

Ziysah von Bieberstein is a parent, poet and community organizer. As an active member of the Nogojiwanong (Peterborough) community, their involvement is ever shifting, evolving and expanding.

A long-time contributor to the Kawartha World Issues Centre, Ziysah has been involved with organizing against white supremacy, offering writing and performance workshops for marginalized youth, facilitating an intergenerational queer storytelling project, and leading organizations such as the New Canadians Centre and the ReFrame Film Festival. In their many roles, Ziysah’s approach to community involvement is inspired by a particular image they were introduced to by spoken word duo Climbing Poetree: “When the flood happened in New Orleans there were all these oak trees that were still standing when everything else was wiped out. That’s because oak tree roots, instead of going down as deep as they can, branch out towards each other and build this huge network of roots and become this root system you can’t knock over... I see my role as strengthening the roots in this community and supporting the work that connects our community to other communities in terms of climate change, decolonization, all global issues really... building their strength, and staying connected so we can be in solidarity with each other, support each other, and share resources and experiences.”

For Ziysah the “Love Lives Here, End White Supremacy” protest they worked to organize in 2017 was an example of what strong communities rooted together in Nogojiwanong might look like. “We organized a solidarity weekend and 1,000 people came out to protest. We were trying to bring different communities together, and the organizers were connected to Indigenous communities, Black Lives Matter and queer communities, (each) with this understanding that white nationalism is targeting everyone else. So we tried to create that space and be led as much as possible by communities of color… and it resulted in a lot of relationship building,” Ziysah explains.

Ziysah sees their diverse roles and forms of engagement in the Nogojiwanong community as moving towards decolonization. They learned over the years that the history of colonization is the root cause for symptoms such as sexism, homophobia and environmental destruction. “They come from a similar mindset and history,” Ziysah reflects. “That culture and mindset of domination and control affects the way we think and communicate, so the work of undoing that isn’t just about going to rallies or being angry about injustices. We need to look within ourselves. I had to look within myself, and learn new ways of communicating.”

One of the ways in which Ziysah has challenged themself to unlearn colonial patterns of thinking has been in regards to their relationship with the notion of “work,” as an activist.

“Work is a funny word,” Ziysah says. “The ideas of success and productivity within activism, are ideas of what we are trying to achieve.” Ziysah has been shifting to a more process oriented understanding of the value of work and time. “What we do in terms of our job, or what our titles is, is less important than how we are in the world. My role is more about how I am in the way I bring people together and imagine new possibilities, versus ‘I’m a teacher, or I’ve built these things, done these things,’ etc.”

Ziysah’s decolonized vision of work, informed by Indigenous wisdom, has also inspired them to view their various roles as parent, artist and activist as porous and reflexive. “There’s a relationship between me and my work and my kids, and they impact each other. What they teach me affects the work that I’m doing,” Ziysah explains.

One of the ways in which their work as an activist and parent intersects is through their involvement with KidWise, a community radio show Ziysah co-hosts along with their two children, aged 5 and 9 years. Together, the trio lead discussions on innovative children’s books and their relevance to social justice issues. Ziysah is also deeply committed to the project of decolonizing education, a passion which prompted them to organize along with other community members, to push for an alternative elementary school in Nogojiwanong. But instead of opening a new school, elements of the alternative education platform ended up being incorporated into the curriculum of a local elementary school. This involved bringing elements of Anishinaabemowin language and culture into the school and incorporating the natural environment into the learning experience.

Despite these positive improvements, for Ziysah, the movement to decolonize education must reach deeper. “The content is important, but our philosophy of learning must change as well,” Ziysah says. “My future vision would have intergenerational learning and more work around helping kids understand who they are and what their skills are, and supporting them in that learning.”

Ziysah has a vision for decolonizing Nogojiwanong, Turtle Island and beyond, but that process begins with once crucial step. “My vision right now is stopping. We need to stop building things. That’s the first step. There’s a lot of work that is happening that is good, but what would we be doing instead if we thought ‘what needs to happen today?’ I guess I have more questions than answers,” Ziysah says.

Marcelino Entzin Lopez was born in Chiapas, Mexico, and currently lives in the Peterborough area with his partner, Sherry Telford, and their children, but remains closely connected to Indigenous communities back home. Chiapas was the site and center of the Zapatista movement, an Indigenous-led, leftist anti-globalization movement that created autonomous regions of self-rule aimed at reclaiming Indigenous lands from Mexican state control in Chiapas. Built on a radical consensus-based decision making model resting on close consultation with local Indigenous communities, one of the main slogans of the Zapatista movement is “a world in which many worlds fit.” Marcelino and Sherry are working to live out that slogan in their engagement with the communities in Chiapas and in Ontario.

Marcelino and Sherry are volunteers and partners with the Kawartha World Issues Centre in Peterborough, and in Chiapas support a small rural school for children in the highlands. For the past 15 years they have worked to support education efforts in an autonomous Zapatista community as well as the community of Naranjal, sharing resources, teaching and working with educational promoters to fill in program gaps. Reflecting on their engagements in Chiapas, Marcelino says that these kinds of collaborations take time to develop, and must be rooted in strong relationships first, in order to advance sustainable, transformative change. For example, it was important for Marcelino and Sherry that their involvement in Chiapas began with an invitation by Zapatista leaders to consult on issues of education in the region. The curriculum and the programs organized by Marcelino and Sherry in Chiapas also incorporate Indigenous teachings and knowledge, and prioritize art, cultural expression and storytelling as methods of learning, in order to reflect the interests of community members themselves. The curriculum also encourages students to learn about crops in the area, and farming practices, in order to promote a sustainable future of food security.

In addition to their work in Chiapas, following the release of Justice Murray Sinclair’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report in 2015, the couple became involved in a small reconciliation group in nearby Bobcaygeon, to understand the truth and actions required for reconciliation. As in Chiapas, Marcelino advocates for incorporating Indigenous teachings in the curriculum in Canada, to encourage students to learn to use the land and their natural surroundings in a creative and sustainable way. He believes that Indigenous teachings can be utilized to address issues of food insecurity, here in Canada. “Knowing the plants that grow in the area where you live is also an education,” he reminds us.

The Long Road to Sustainable and Systemic Change

In Ontario, people, communities, social movement, organizations and institutions of all kinds are working in many ways to tackle systems of oppression and exclusion. We are developing innovative ways of thinking about education, our relationship to the natural environment, and global patterns of consumption. While recognizing that transformative change may be a slow process, as Kurtis Lush points out, “...sometimes the turtle moves faster when you aren’t watching.”

As a young man interested in social justice issues, Kurtis Lush was struck by a community presentation on Haiti hosted by Rayjon, and decided he wanted to get involved. Since then he has devoted considerable time and energy to studying and understanding the Haitian context and the development challenges faced in the country. In 2018 he had the opportunity to participate in one of Rayjon’s annual awareness trips, and helped other Canadian volunteers prepare, before the trip. During his time in Haiti he drew inspiration from the slow but sure progress at work, observing local leaders paving the way for transformative change.

Kurtis sees a connection between his experiences in Haiti and his life in Sarnia, where he works at a local non-government organization to support people in the community in accessing healthy and culturally relevant food. Reflecting on his experiences Kurtis says they have all taught him the value of patience in development work.

Nathan was on the phone in his office with a recruiter from Cuso International. “So how sure are you that I will get this placement?” he asked. The recruiter replied, “It’s almost guaranteed.” Nathan hung up the phone, walked into his boss’s office, and informed him that he was quitting his job. A few months later, he was placed in the Northwest Territories as an Educational Assistant at a local school, where he was able to realize his passion for teaching and his desire to work more with people.

Reflecting on his experience volunteering with Cuso International in the Canadian North, Nathan says that the biggest impacts he had as a teacher were through one-on-one interactions with his students. He says one experience in particular has stayed with him: “A young mother was working toward her high school diploma and had been taking the grade 10 math course for a few years, but each time ended up getting too overwhelmed with life and work, and missing many classes.” Nathan was committed to helping her pass the course, and although he was technically an in-class Teaching Assistant, offered to meet the student on her own schedule, to go through the lessons she had missed and help her study. The pair met weekly to go over course materials and work through assignments together. After long hours of hard work, at the end of the semester Nathan was overjoyed to learn that the she had passed the course.

While it may seem like a lot of work to help just one student pass a grade 10 math course, Nathan remains committed as ever to transforming communities one person at a time.

Dr. Vara Mahadevan is a family doctor, a musician and a public speaker. He lives and practices in Uxbridge, Ontario, and teaches at McMaster and Queen’s Universities. Dr. Vara is also a public health educator within the Canadian Tamil community who engages Tamil families in health and wellbeing through comedy and music. A first-generation immigrant to Canada, he is an innate community builder and a self-described “global citizen”. Much of his time is spent being an ally and volunteer, working for change locally and in his motherland, Sri Lanka.

Dr. Mahadevan is President of the International Medical Health Organisation (IMHO) Canada, a charitable, humanitarian, non-political organization that aims to relieve poverty, develop public health and coordinate health care services in underserved regions of the world. IMHO Canada is founded on principles of humanitarianism and neutrality, and concretized it’s role in Sri Lanka in 2009. IMHO Canada contributed to various emergency response efforts, including the provisioning of life-saving food materials and medical care during the final stage of Sri Lanka’s armed conflict.

Comdu.it, a Toronto-based diaspora organization, is a key partner and ally in IMHO’s ongoing emergency relief work in Sri Lanka. Through comdu.it’s partners on the ground, and diaspora volunteers, the two organizations frequently exchange information, ideas and opportunities to coordinate and amplify health-related interventions in Sri Lanka. Dr. Vara says that one of the most rewarding elements of working in partnership with comdu.it is working with the young leaders driving the organization.

Dr. Vara believes getting involved and being a good leader is all about attitude. “I actually feel 17,” he says. He believes in intergenerational leadership, and encourages us all to work together with younger generations and to make space for youth to take leadership and share life experiences.

Luis Daniel Correa Lopez had a dream to one day attend university, but as the son of a working class family in Medellin, Colombia, “that dream was almost impossible to reach,” he recounts, until he learned about a competitive university preparatory program at the local YMCA. After successfully applying and completing the program, he was able to achieve his first dream. He then recalls thinking. “I am getting more knowledge and meeting new people. How can I share this with my community? This experience is changing my life!”

Partnering with the local YMCA, Daniel decided to start his own preparatory program to help youth from underprivileged backgrounds see that university was not, in fact, an impossible dream. “We thought, with this program we won’t impact just ten people, but more than 100. It will be an affordable program… so we offered it for free, and in that first run we got five people into university.” Since then, the program has helped hundreds of young people get into university, demonstrating how one intervention in Daniel’s life rippled out into his community, and beyond. Daniel is now studying English in Seneca College in Toronto, and is looking forward to bringing this experience and knowledge back home in the future, to further support young people in his community in achieving their dreams.

As President of the Students Offering Support (SOS) York University Chapter, Melissa is a natural leader in a position to share a unique philosophy of leadership: “It’s not my job to know everything,” as she puts it. Perhaps that is what attracted her to the SOS, an organization that is fundamentally about students pooling their resources to help each other succeed. Student leaders like Melissa organize tutoring sessions and workshops to support each other in their academic journey. Because the SOS model is grassroots and invests in the power of communities to empowering themselves, it’s no surprise that student leaders, tutors and students attending workshops all benefit from the experience collectively.

Melissa reflects on the the growth she has observed in the SOS community over the years, noting how many students who once attended tutoring sessions eventually become the ones leading the sessions, as their confidence builds and they become motivated to help others succeed. For Melissa, this process of empowerment has a domino effect, propelling itself forward and rippling farther out into the community.

The vast Students Offering Support (SOS) alumni network is testament to the transformative power of their partnership approach. Past volunteers often pinpoint their time with SOS as being particularly formative in their personal, social and professional development. Laura Viselli, former Laurier University SOS Chapter volunteer, program participant and current Program Director at SOS says the remarkable success of SOS programs stems from their commitment to community led-action, accountability, reciprocity and stakeholder buy-in. While SOS technically falls within the field of “voluntourism” she says they have actively resisted the traditional model, which tends to privilege outsider access to “unique” and “interesting” experiences, over the actual needs of the communities they partner with.

“People ask us, are you a voluntourism organization? I say by definition, yes, but it’s about the intricacies of how organizations work, the partners they work with, and how they work with the partners,” Laura explains.

Jason Frittaion is also part of the alumni network. A former Exam Aid Instructor and Outreach Trip participant from the Laurier SOS Chapter, he is now an SOS Board Director, and works for Jack.org addressing issues of youth mental health. While Jason’s experience clearly reflect his commitment to social justice issues, he says that wasn’t always the case. “For me, my life was changed on a SOS trip. I was in business at the time, climbing the corporate ladder, ready to make all the money in the world and donate it when I die. It was SOS that pivoted me to recognizing the power of communing with people around the world,” he says.

Reia Tariq, former co-President of the York-Glendon SOS Chapter and now involved with World University Services Canada, the Centre for Social Innovation and other social impact activities, observed a similar transformation in student volunteers after returning from outreach trips overseas. “When our outreach teams came back, to see the before and after, you can see how much they change. They spent less than a month there, but they learn more than they did in their 4 or 5 years of university.”

SOS builds partnerships by encouraging community buy-in and ownership, Laura explains. “They propose the projects to us and have confidence and a sense of accountability… and are able to expand and work with other organizations all over the world,” she says. Jason adds that “by requiring an investment from the communities the projects are more likely to be successful. When both parties are bringing something to the table it becomes a much more collaborative relationship.”

Laura says that the transformative impacts of SOS projects extend beyond the physical infrastructure they build. On the majority of SOS Outreach Trips, 60% or more of the participants are women. Their partners in Guatemala noticed this and observed that some attitudes towards female community members changed, after the trips. “It starts with seeing female volunteers contributing equally on the construction site, doing manual labour, lifting as much, doing as much. Once a group leaves, there are small construction jobs that need to happen, and the first people on the site are female volunteers, mothers and their daughters,” Laura says.

The SOS approach to partnerships internationally is mirrored in their work home. “Young people teaching other young people… it’s a brilliant model.” Jason adds. “Involving youth in the design and the evolution of programs is crucial because you don’t build a thing for them and say ‘here it is’. You are constantly iterating with youth and gaining feedback with youth at the helm. That’s how you gain buy in.” By placing young people and students at the helm of community action, the SOS model empowers those that are routinely marginalized in society, allowing for a gradual shift in structures of power.

“In most spaces the people who wield power don’t look like me, and they don’t have the same background as me,” explains Reia, the daughter of Pakistani parents who came to Canada as refugees. “That’s one of the best impacts… There are more and different kinds of youth who have a voice now, more than a generation ago.” “Also,” she says, “peer to peer learning breaks down barriers and makes it less stuffy… Otherwise you would lose that relatability of someone who has taken the course before and can crack jokes about the professor. You can relate to someone who went through it too, and not that long ago.”

SOS’s commitment to community-led action, reciprocity and accountability helps ensures that their partnerships are lasting and expanding. “There are three of us in this room, but we have 10,000 alumni, so that’s 10,000 blades of grass,” Laura says.

Program Director Cam Douglas and students from the Youth Leadership in Sustainability program winnowing wild rice harvested in Curve Lake in September 2018, as part of an experiential education activity.

Cam Douglas is the Program Director for the Youth Leadership for Sustainability Program (YLS) connected to the Kawartha World Issues Centre. He has worked and lived in Peterborough for 18 years, teaching Geography, World Issues and Civics at a local high school. YLS grew out of a mission to get outdoors, encourage engagement on sustainability issues, and imagine and implement tangible climate solutions. Six years in the making, the pilot program began in 2018 and allows for time and reflection to complete action-oriented projects around climate action and social justice issues. The dynamic components of the program, merging in-class activities with outdoor education, have allowed a diverse range of students to thrive and engage deeply with local and global issues, and build their confidence academically and socially.

The program is centred around Trent University and partners with Fleming College School of Environment and Natural Resource Science, because of the Indigenous and Environmental Education efforts supported by both institutions. This allows the students coming through the program to tap into the resources and knowledge of these spaces, and to encourage career paths in these streams.

“Peterborough is so rich with expertise, wisdom and passion around these issues. It was a great place to build a program like this,” Cam explains. Community partners like KWIC were instrumental in conceptualizing the program and in supporting the development of the seed grant from the Trillium Foundation that allowed the program to kickstart and facilitate connections to local programs and organizations. “There’s a universal recognition in this community of the important role that young people are playing and need to be playing as we move forward,” he says.

In addition, through his advocacy work in and outside of school, Cam has developed strong community connections to support the program, including with Peterborough GreenUP, Peterborough Waste Management, Sustainable Peterborough and KWIC. Cam continues to teach for activism and for hope. He hopes that through community-centred initiatives like Youth Leadership for Sustainability, young people will understand the world around them well enough to be able to have some influence on the way it plays out.

Kristin Muskratt is the Coordinator of the Oshkwazin Indigenous Youth Leadership Program, an initiative that weaves Western and Indigenous sciences together with traditional culture and knowledge. With support from the Trent Indigenous Environmental Studies, the Kawartha World Issues Centre, and the First People’s House of Learning, the program enables First Nation communities to work in partnership with local schools to create a supported network, skills development and leadership opportunities for Indigenous youth aged 14 to 18 years.

At 24, Kristen started her advocacy work as a youth participant of Youth for Water. Her connection with water became stronger during her first Water Ceremony, which powered her passion to protect the water and Mother Earth. Through this involvement she developed confidence in herself and became part of a network of young leaders and mentors. At the same time she saw a change in her family as she deepened her connections to their culture, and by passing on the teachings that are shared with her by Elders.

Kristen now works to help Indigenous youth know and understand their culture, so as not to lose it. “Right now, we are going through a time when we don’t have many Elders and knowledge holders left. We’re grasping to the last of them and we can't have those voices lost,” Kristin shares. She reminds us to be aware of our surroundings and of the land we stand on. “What can you do in your daily life that can contribute to change?” she asks. Most importantly, she reminds us to consider how big of an impact you can have.

Eugene Ellmen’s life was changed one day because of an idea. As a business reporter covering things like the mining industry and oil and gas, he came across a news release about a new investment fund -- the Ethical Growth Fund. This was the first product he had seen that was a conventional financial product, like a mutual fund, but had a series of screens ensuring that the fund didn’t invest in child labour, apartheid and the nuclear industry. “This excited my imagination. I had been working in business, and I was covering interesting stories but I felt that I was writing for wealthy individuals or institutional investors who had no concern with the ultimate consequences of their investments,” he says. For Eugene, the idea that you could gather capital in very traditional ways and use that capital for social and environmental good was exciting.

This led Eugene to get involved with the Social Investment Organization (now known as Responsible Investment Association), Canada’s membership network for responsible investment, where he served as the Executive Director for 13 years. The RIA represents a community of investors committed to incorporating assessments of social and environmental impacts into their investment decisions. After his time with the RIA, Eugene joined Oikocredit, a global cooperative of members and investors raising capital for partner organizations in developing countries, in 2013. Oikocredit goes beyond avoiding socially and environmentally problematic investments, to actively supporting local partners and organizations around the world working to transform their communities, often from the bottom up. Oikocredit pools investments from tens of thousands of investors in developed countries to provide capital for partner organizations in the developing world in inclusive finance, sustainable agriculture and renewable energy..

While impact investment organizations like Oikocredit are growing in popularity in the financial sector, Eugene notes that this radical approach to investment is still far from being the norm. “Not a lot of people are thinking about whether they are fundamentally making a change,” says Eugene. After six years at Oikocredit, Eugene retired in early 2019, and hopes to continue his writing and activism in impact investment. His work reminds us that we cannot escape the global impacts of our individual financial decisions, however localized they may be. He challenges us all to see the global in the local, even in a sector that has traditionally prized individual profit over all else.

Linda and Alan Slavin are life-long community activists and members of the Kawartha World Issues Centre. The couple reflect on ideas for climate action at Sadlier House, in Peterborough, Ontario.

Linda and Alan Slavin have a truly global vision for transformative change. “For a long time we’ve been concerned with issues that face humanity as a whole,” explains Alan. The two partners in activism and marriage have been passionate advocates of international peace and social justice all their lives. They were active organizers and opponents of the proliferation of nuclear weapons at its peak in the 1980’s, and now see their work culminating in the struggle against environmental degradation and climate change.

Reflecting on her career, Linda notes, “I’ve worked with women's groups, environmental groups and human rights groups, and I’ve done international management and project development. But it all kept coming back to climate change. It’s a huge issue.” Co-founder of the Kawartha World Issues Centre in Peterborough, Ontario, Linda served as its Program Coordinator for several years. Through KWIC she sat on a provincial committee of global education centres, and later became the President of the Ontario Council for International Cooperation Board of Directors. She also volunteers and is associated with a host of community and nationwide organizations, including For Our Grandchildren, Sustainable Peterborough, Sustainable Peterborough Food & Farming Working Group, Peterborough-Kawarthas Regional Centre for Sustainability Education, Kawartha Commons Cohousing, Peterborough Alliance for Climate Action, Peterborough/Nogojiwanong Reconciliation Gathering, LEAP, and Vote for a Sustainable Peterborough.

Alan is also an active member of KWIC and the greater Peterborough community, involved in a number of community organizations including the Peterborough groups For Our Grandchildren, the Peterborough Alliance for Climate Action, and the Peterborough and Kawarthas Climate Hub, a chapter of the Climate Reality Project. He was on the Steering Committee for the Sustainable Peterborough Climate Change Action Plan, and a member of the Community Working Group monitoring the implementation of this plan.

Linda and Alan are committed to organizing and mobilizing for climate action because they view climate change as lying at the core of a host of contemporary global issues. “We are looking at mass migration and wars resulting from it, people who are seriously dispossessed, major famines, fires, droughts and floods. So it’s an enormous problem,” Alan explains. Alan also sees global inequality and the unequal distribution of the outcomes of climate change as inherently linked. “It’s part of this global picture where there are people around the world who will experience climate change far, far worse than we will, who are already experiencing the effects of climate change. We already have mass migrations underway, like the caravan from Central America, which is partially driven by drought,” Alan says.

Linda sees her work addressing climate change as intimately related to the project of decolonization. Her understanding of our relationship with the environment is fundamentally informed by the Indigenous wisdom of elders and activists in the Nogojiwanong community. “It’s a question of equity and reciprocity. We don’t just take care of the earth but the earth takes care of us. So that’s reciprocity, respect and reconciliation, this understanding of the earth as integrated.”

Linda and Alan recognize the diverse challenges posed by climate change and have developed various strategies to raise awareness, organize dissent and mobilize community members for climate action. The organizations they partner with represent a dense network of community partners with diverse mandates aiming to tackle climate issues from unique angles. For Our Grandchildren works to educate and motivate the public to action, PACA organizes public demonstrations to bring media attention to the issue, the Climate Hub links local actions into a Canadian network to share best practices, and LEAP advocates for system-level change in order to address climate issues. The actions of these groups are closely coordinated and their membership often overlaps, reflecting a vibrant community of activists who thrive on close partnerships and collaboration. “In Peterborough we learn how to co-sponsor each other. You drift from what needs to be done with different groups, you help them and they help you, and you make it work,” Linda explains.

Whether it’s organizing community marches, hosting public seminars on sustainability practices, or organizing a “dance for the climate,” this dynamic duo are firmly committed to environmental advocacy despite the challenges they face in our current political, economic and social climate. “We’ve been modifying what we do, trying to reach different groups. We had one workshop on how climate change affects your insurance rates, another on climate change and public health. We are looking at how to invest wisely under climate change, and asking how will climate change affect hunting and angling? So we are trying to find ways to contact new audiences.” Alan explains.

Despite the obstacles, the ticking clock, and what often feels like an uphill battle, the pair are not planning on giving in any time soon. “Politically we are in a mess and we need to change that. But I am hopeful at the municipal level. We have a very diverse and progressive Council, and it’s exciting,” Linda says. Thanks to prompting from For Our Grandchildren, the Council has just passed a motion embedding climate-change analysis across all departments, and implemented a fund for tax-deductible donations to assist climate change action.

“Pessimism is something that we can’t afford,” Alan notes, reflecting on the recent policy reports that indicate we have about 10 years before the effects of climate change are irreversible.

“What keeps us motivated is that we know we are not alone… We know that around the world there are millions and millions of people working on the same issues that we are working on, and the only way to change things is to continue to work in our own area, knowing we are connected to that larger group of people who all have the same basic goals for the kind of world we believe in.”