Posts from — September 2009

In Malawi, water sources are scarce and often women and girls must walk across long distances to fetch water. Water, which usually comes from pumps dug into the ground, is used to irrigate farmlands (in the dry season) for washing, cooking and drinking. This means it is especially important for both urban and rural communities to have access to clean, safe, and sanitary water.

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-Right to be protected from economic exploitation

In Malawi, many children have no choice but to terminate their education in order to seek out income generating activities in towns, or to work on their families farms. Forcing children to work instead of getting their education is a form of economic exploitation. Children should have the right to pursue an education without being forced into income generating activities in order to make money for their families.

- Advancement of technological development creates new problems in ensuring working conditions

In Malawi, a large scale communications technology project is currently being implemented. This project will install fibre optics throughout the country. For less than a dollar a day, young male labourers have been working from dusk till dawn, digging a large ditch from the North all the way to the South of Malawi. These men, living in extreme poverty, will never have the money to make use of the communications technology that they are helping to install.

-Omnipresence of HIV/AIDS

Throughout most of sub-Saharan Africa, rates HIV/AIDS are extremely high, in some countries affecting one out of every three adults. This disease affects all aspects of life and has severely detrimental effects on community and national development. HIV/AIDS affects youth and the working adult population by hindering peoples’ abilities to earn a living receive an education and care for their families.  Many of the children we encountered in Malawi were “AIDS Orphans”, meaning they’ve had at least one parent die from the disease. Some of these children live with their grandmothers or are cared for by village elders. Others are not so lucky.

-Deforestation

In Malawi, lack of income generating opportunities have forced many people to encroach deeper and deeper into wooded areas and forests in order to collect fire wood to sell. Malawi, once a lush and green country, is slowly seeing its forests disappear as poverty becomes more prevalent among the population.

This trip was important to me because it was a wake-up call. Experiencing and studying a different culture is imperative to understanding the underlying causes of numerous economic and social problems that affect among others education, women’s rights, health, and poverty. By seeing firsthand these issues it was much better for me to understand and evaluate them than being in a classroom and learning about these same issues. Now, in Montreal, I am looking forward to share my experience with fellow classmates, family members, and friends and raise awareness about global issues.

Regarding the educational system I encountered, I think much works needs to be done, and many other factors not necessarily revolving around education directly have a major impact on the system. For example, many of the villages are situated very far away from schools and many kids have to walk many miles in order to get to school. This becomes more and more difficult when the children’s household chores increase they put school on the back burner. Many families also have some trouble paying school fees, especially if they have numerous kids. Most obviously, there is a lack of resources, one teacher for a large amount of students, many classrooms have no desks, chairs, or blackboards, and classes of 60 or more students have to share 6-10 textbooks among themselves. What impressed me the most was the students’ willingness to learn despite all these setbacks. Children would wake up at 5 o’clock in the morning and do their chores and then walk to school. Students who lived very far from the schools would even stay in crammed hostels.

I think this trip will definitely affect the decisions I make or the actions I take for the rest of my life. After witnessing such strength and determination from these children and individuals I have absolutely no excuse than to give my best at whatever I do because I am fortunate enough to have many opportunities present themselves at me contrary to these students. In the immediate future I definitely see myself traveling some more to gain more knowledge and insight on different cultures and how it affects their way of life.  In the long run I’d like to use the knowledge I have gained to help bring aid in some way to countries like Malawi that are still developing!

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Cate is an Accounting and Management Technology student who originates from Haiti. She loves sports and is interested in biking and playing basketball. She is also interested in learning new languages and loves to discover new cultures. She likes to understand how other people perceive the world and how they might view things from a completely different perspective than hers. Furthermore, her personality is best described as calm and peaceful as she is a very kind and respectful person. Cate’sgreatest quality is keeping cool, calm and collected when facing challenges. She finds ways to overcome obstacles without stressing and is able to maintain her calm.

Additionally, when she found out about this project Cate knew it was a great opportunity to give back to the world, since sheknows how hard it is to be in a helpless situation: “When I was younger our house got burned and we lost everything in the fire, people helped us a lot to get through this situation…so, this is the chance I have to help others and give something back”.Cate hopes this experience will lead her to develop new skills such as improving her leadership and her capability to understandother people’s views. She believes that she is ready for what is to come due to the difficult situations she lived while living in Haiti.

Moreover, she is expecting this project to have an impact and create awareness at Vanier, and get people to take action by participating in programs like this one. She truly believes that if young people get involved and take action today, tomorrow they will not commit the same mistakes as the leaders that are in power now. “I think it is everybody’s duty to do something, because if everybody says ‘Oh, it’s someone else’s duty’, we will never get anything done…My final goal is to return the help that people once gave me. If I can use myskills to make somebody’s life better, I will definitely do it, people have given to me and so, I want to do the same for others”

Click on the link below to see more pictures of Cate

http://www.vaniercollege.qc.ca/international-education/projects/vefa/malawi/cate/index.html

Jen is in her second year at Vanier and has just transferred into Social Sciences. A shy person, Jen is also a person of conscience and determination, setting goals and working hard to accomplish them. Her interests are many and varied. She is a professional cook and works to support her education working part-time in a restaurant. She is a passionate student with a penchant for volunteerism. Much of her time is spent with activities for the Social Justice groups or privately raising money for Cancer awareness and research. She is an avid reader with broad interests in fiction and non-fiction, a sports enthusiast, and a keen curiosity about the world around her—its past and present. Jen’s credo is that life has given her gifts and she should repay her fortune with her time and involvement in causes and projects.

As a mature student, Jen is extremely aware of the importance of education and the tragic circumstances that it is not an inevitability for everyone. As a volunteer with International Education and more specifically the Education for All trip to Malawi, Jen hopes to raise an awareness not just at Vanier but also among students in other CEGEPs and the many universities Montreal is privileged to have. From the experience, Jen is hoping to broaden her understanding of Africa, of education, of people, and of being involved, as John Donne says, in all mankind. She believes the team will gain strength from each other and will work together to set and achieve realistic goals with enthusiasm and an open-heart. Jen also believes that his project is vital to her future career path as she feels “that this is what I see myself doing in life. It is a big part of who I am and this opportunity cannot be missed.”

For more pictures of Jen, click on the link below:

http://www.vaniercollege.qc.ca/international-education/projects/vefa/malawi/jenn/index.html

Sarah is the social conscience of the group. An honours Social Science student majoring in Green Studies, Sarah is involved in International Education, the Social Justice Committee, and other environmental and social activities. Active in such projectssince high school, Sarah had the opportunity to travel to Brazil, Ecuador and Ukraine on exchanges and study trips. She is an “engaged global citizen.”

She is also an enthusiastic person, compassionate to the world and the people around her, working to help others with her energyand zeal. One of her strengths is her ability to connect with people at a real level; another is to contribute to a team effort withher natural leadership qualities. “I really enjoy trying to make the world a better place. And if you want the world to be better, then you have to make it that way. The youth cannot wait until they are older to contribute. They must contribute now.”

Sarah first learned about the Malawi project at the college prep-day. The flyer said “Would you like to go to Malawi this summer? This could be you.” Her response was adamantly yes, it will be me. “It had all the things I believed in: development in Africa andworking in education, so I signed up as soon as I could. I read the blogs from last year’s team and fell in love with the mission.” She is confident that this will be an amazing adventure and one that will promote personal growth. She looks forward to the opportunity to learn aboutthe culture of Malawi and deepen her knowledge on their education system. Sarah hopes that what the team brings to Malawi will bejust as rewarding as what they bring back. She also hopes to inspire other youth to get involved with projects and opportunities as challenging and as worthwhile as this one.

To see more pictures of Sarah, click on the link below:

http://www.vaniercollege.qc.ca/international-education/projects/vefa/malawi/sarah/index.html

Audrey is a Commerce student who describes herself as a hard working, determined and very loyal person. She enjoys sports andisa social person. No matter the circumstance, she feels comfortable meeting new people, which is ideal when working in a team. She also likes to incorporate her ideas with those of others and assure the smooth running of a project.

Additionally, Audrey decided to get involved in this study-trip because she’s always wanted to give back to those who have had less fortunate opportunities in life: “I’ve been blessed with everything that I could possibly want and I always wanted an opportunity to give back to other people, so when I was walking through the halls of Vanier and saw the display of the project, it just pulled me and I had to apply”. Despite the hard work, she expects it to be enjoyable and an eye-opening experience. Also, Audrey is excited about the team she is working with due to the various personalities of her teammates, which she believes will add to the experience.

Moreover, this young lady believes that we all have a certain responsibility to involve ourselves in projects that are out of our comfort zone. In this way, people will realize that we need to take action in order to better our world: “I think this is an opportunity to make students here in Canada realize what is going on outside of our country. Most people are in their bubble and they are happy within what’sinside, so it is really important to see what is happening on the other side of the planet…It is also important for me right now, to know that I’m going to be helping people and that I’m going to broaden my views of the world”. Audrey’s personal contribution to the project is to make people realize, here in Canada, how fortunate they are to have access to a most important resource; education. In the end, she hopes she will lead a good example for others and that people will work to make a difference for the future.

To see more pictures, click on the link below:

http://www.vaniercollege.qc.ca/international-education/projects/vefa/malawi/audrey/index.html

James is a Commerce student who is passionate about everything that is related to economy and its controversial aspects. He describes himself as a kind, generous, social guy who likes to be outgoing and finds to always be the leader when working in a team; Except that this time he is the only guy participating in the project, which makes him to be the “minority” of the group, however he says it will make the experience even more fun and challenging for him. James also likes diversity, he believes that having only one opinion is not enough if people want to evolve and create new ideas. He discovered the project in a brochure on his first day of school,and thought that it was a great opportunity to try a new experience: “I was never an environmentalist or a humanitarian before, and then I met all the people in the team, and they have changed my perception of things. The one person that is really going to change me,I think is Sarah, because she is so „green‟ and has all these „green ideas‟, and since the very first day we met I changed some aspects of my behaviour towards the environment”.

He affirms that this project is going to change many aspects of his personality, but it will also make him a more aware person of the reality and conditions of Africa: “I‟m going to have to mentally prepare myself, because the only poverty that I‟ve ever seenisin the media, so I have to be ready and get adapted to that situation”. He also thinks that it is everybody‟s duty to give back to society their qualities and skills, specially the youth, because: “young people are the ones who start the generations, they are more energetic and have more time to experience new things, to create awareness amongst themselves and others of what is happening around us”. James is very enthusiastic about the fact that our college is going to be an example for other institutions to get involved in study programs like this one; he also thinks that Canada is going to be looked at, as a nation who loves giving a helping hand to other countries in need, but mostly that when coming back he is going to spread this idea and be „contagious‟ to other people aboutgetting involved in life changing experiences like this one.

To see more pictures of James please click on the link below

http://www.vaniercollege.qc.ca/international-education/projects/vefa/malawi/james/index.html

Victoria is a Vanier Social Science honours student majoring in International Studies. Coming from a Ukrainian-Armenian background, Victoria excels in languages, of which she currently speaks five. Her passion is languages and culture and this makes her especially suited for the International Education program as well as other social causes, including the Social Justice Committee.

Vanier was Victoria’s first choice because of the opportunity to volunteer for this project. Last year when visiting the school,she was encouraged by the 2007 student project to Malawi and determined that she would be a part of the next project. Determination and optimism are Victoria’s strongest traits and with them comes an affinity to learn, to build, and to be part of something larger. Her ability to easily work with people and connect with them deeply will ensure that she is an asset to the team. She has said of this opportunity: “You read about Africa, you know about it in a vague manner, but to actually experience it will be a learning and life-altering event.”

Victoria is aware that there will be a culture shock but she hopes that her interests in language and culture, as well as herwork as a dancer, an art form which can often communicate better than words, will create for an easier transition. Her goal is to not onlywork hard on this project but also to bring an awareness of contribution to the developing world to her peers at Vanier and in Canada. She hopes to inspire others to participate in activities that bring awareness to universal primary education for all. “We arethe next generation. Everybody says that past generations have robbed the earth of its resources and they are turning to us, the youth, to act. Canada is known for being a caring nation and has the privilege to serve as part of the world’s peace keeping forces.”

To see more pictures of Victoria, click on the link below:

http://www.vaniercollege.qc.ca/international-education/projects/vefa/malawi/victoria/index.html

Katherine is a student in the International Baccalaureate program for Sciences. She loves to dance and currently takes lessons in Ballet-Jazz and Hip-Hop. She also likes to travel, and she is passionate about helping people in need. She is an ambitious, loyal and open-minded person who has a great teamwork ethic and loves diversity around her: “People bring different things to the table and you have to adapt to how everyone works, you have to incorporate everyone’s thoughts in order to come out with something good”.

Furthermore, Katherine loves that this study trip combines raising awareness about the importance of education as well as travelling, which is one of the reasons she decided to get involved. She feels privileged to be able to go to Malawi and help the people in that country therefore, she is completely ready for the challenges that lie ahead and prepared to experience the Malawian way of living: “I think people are more open-minded when they see different cultures, they get to understand others better, they get to appreciate more of what they have, and it opens up people’s eyes, it helps them to become better persons”.

In addition, she hopes this experience will help broaden her horizons and change her outlook on life. Katherine also hopes it will have an impact in the College to make students more aware of what is going on in the world perhaps then, some will be inspired to get more involved. Lastly, her personal contribution to this experience lies in the unique way she wishes to connect with the people of Malawi; through dance. “To me, dance is a way of communication…just to go there and dance, it has no boundaries, everyone can just dance and have a good time; it would be the language we would communicate in”.

To see more pictures of Katherine, click on the link below:

http://www.vaniercollege.qc.ca/international-education/projects/vefa/malawi/katherine/index.html