Campus Newsletter. News from your Campus Team!

Transcription

1 Campus Newsletter December 2017 What has our network been up to? Ride for Refuge A Halloween Fair-y-tale Sustainable Tourism & Economic Development: 71st Uniterra International Seminar in Bolivia Local to global : The Impact of Local Committees News from your Campus Team! And Much More...

2 And another semester has gone... Congratulations for making it to the end of another successful year! The work that members of our network have done from raising awareness to fundraising has been phenomenal over the past semester, and we are happy to share with you some highlights of the past four months. Take the time to read while relaxing and recharging your batteries over the holidays. We wish you a joyful and restful holiday season and look forward to working with our network on bigger and better endeavours next year! Happy Holidays! WUSC IN NUMBERS 88 Local Committees 66 Sponsoring LC 3 New sponsoring institutions 28 Institutions with increased sponsorship in SRP students arrived in LCs visited since September Ride for Refuge Teams From Your Campus Engagement Team What has our network been up to? Ontario- On October 2nd, the Ryerson University LC launched The Global Refugee Crisis: WUSC Lunch & Learn Series. The first installment of the series focused on the Rohingya Crisis and was featured in Ryerson Today. Khin Yadanar Phyu, who is a Biomedical Science and former SRP student at Ryerson,spoke about the crisis from her perspective as a Rohingya Muslim. West and Prairies - On November 7th, the UBC Local Committee hosted a public discussion about the recent terrorist attack in Somalia that claimed the lives of approximately 600 people. The discussion was facilitated by UBC professors Dr. Ali Abdi and Dr. Jenny Peterson who covered various topics including peacemaking, conflict resolution, terrorism, and media coverage. Moreover, students also held a silent auction to raise funds for the victims of the terrorist attack. Over 75 people attended the event and it was aired on CiTR Radio 101.9FM followed by a live discussion with two Somali students from UBC. With events like this, the UBC Local Committee is hoping to raise awareness in the local community and to foster increasing media coverage of global issues. Quebec and Atlantic - On November 12th, the Lévis-Lauzon Local Committee members presented the Student Refugee Program and their Local Committee experience to the 15 Student Associations that were present at the FECQ (Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec) Regular Congress in November They discussed the process that led to their LC sponsoring a student, including how they approached their CEGEP about starting a WUSC Local Committee and the SRP on their campus.

3 Meeting the Network! Halifax ited LCs in Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver to hold Regional Meetings and create opportunities for members in these regions to spend a day together and improve their knowledge about WUSC, global issues, the Student Refugee Program, and Local Committee management. The beginning of the school year is always very motivating and inspiring for the Campus team because we get to meet many Local committee members from across the country! In August, 90 WUSC leaders met in Ottawa for a three day training where they deepened their WUSC knowledge and shared with the network their experiences, best practices, and challenges. Participants learned from informative sessions and from each other, and brought back these lessons to their campuses. Altogether, 180 Local Committee members attended in-person meetings and trainings, and 65 people participated in online trainings about planning a referendum, the intent to sponsor form, public engagement, and ethical consumption! Later on in the fall, the Campus team vistoronto Montreal Vancouver Arrival Stories! Last August, 66 Local Committees were glad to welcome to Canada 117 SRP students who were living in Kenya, Malawi, Jordan and Lebanon. These Local Committees spent a year or more planning and working hard for the arrival of the students. From raising funds to finding accommodation, LCs did a great job at having everything ready to welcome the SRP students. We couldn t be happier to finally have this year s SRP students here in Canada! University of Regina University of Saskatchewan Brandon University

4 Ride for Refuge 2017 For the 6th year in a row, WUSCies participated in the Ride for Refuge! On September 30th, 102 members of the WUSC network walked and biked in cities across the country to raise awareness about refugee issues as well as funds for the SRP national campaign. In total, 20 teams in 7 provinces raised over $13,000 funds for the Student Refugee Program. A special shoutout goes to the The Blue Lobster Team (Nova Scotia Community College and Dalhousie University Agricultural Campus) that raised over $2,000 and the University of Winnipeg that was only a few dollars away from reaching that amount! The York University - Glendon College team and the University of Regina each raised over $1000. Additionally, the LCs in Montreal, the University of Calgary, and the University of Manitoba each raised over $500. Way to go! We would like to congratulate all WUSCies who participated in Ride for Refuge. We can t wait for next year! THANK YOU!!! Sustainable Tourism and Economic Development: 71st Uniterra International Seminar in Bolivia Reflecting on issues identified by workers in the Bolivian tourism sector might not be representative of everybody's dream vacation, but last summer, 11 Canadian students decided to make this their objective by participating in the 71st Uniterra International Seminar in Bolivia. Together with 10 Bolivian students, the seminarists were able to identify and better understand the role of sustainable tourism in Bolivia's community development. Sustainable tourism and economic development can be observed from various perspectives, and this is exactly how students decided to approach their research. They observed already established models of sustainable tourism, analysed the untapped potential that could be developed, and studied the potential role youth could play in the development of sustainable local tourism. This research identified several gaps in the sector, but also shed light on many possible opportunities for the sector, which were submitted to local partners. Together, communities and Uniterra local partners will work towards improving environment protection, communications, youth inclusion, infrastructures, capacity building, and partnerships, according to the recommendations mentioned in the research report. Since 1948, the Seminar has offered a space for youth to build bridges towards a more equitable, inclusive, sustainable, and creative world. Youth can strengthen their leadership skills and become advocates for development in their fields of study and in their communities.

5 A Halloween Fair-y-tale Given the increased consumption levels at Halloween, LCs took to promoting ethical consumption through the #OneWorld campaign. 55 LCs received Fairtrade Camino chocolate to reverse trick-or-treat and many more participated in raising awareness through different activities. We sent 15,000 pieces of chocolate and even more informational comics about Fairtrade to LCs across the country! Nova Scotia Community College In Manitoba, Brandon University paired their reverse trick-ortreating with a food drive. At their event, they handed out chocolate and accepted donations for their university s food bank. Not only were they raising awareness around fairly traded chocolate, but they also raised awareness on food insecurity and ways in which you can make our #OneWorld better for everyone! University of Regina One of the best parts of Halloween is dressing up! The LC at the University of Regina came together, put on costumes, carved some pumpkins, and went around giving out chocolate and the fun ethical consumption comic and infographic on their campus. Many other LCs took the opportunity to carve pumpkins with SRP students and decorated their booths with the pumpkins as they gave out chocolate! The Algoma University LC participated at Algoma U Community Trick or Treat and set up a Halloween-themed obstacle course! They handed out chocolate and the comic to all who stopped by and went through the obstacle course. WUSCies love a good bake sale! The Local Committee at Yukon College had a fun bake sale titled Waverly Place Bakery and the LC at CEGEP Lévis Lauzon gave away their fair trade chocolates and the comic! Thank you to all the LCs that participated in raising awareness around the importance of ethically sourced chocolate and how your choices at a local level have an impact on a global level. Great job! Dalhousie Agricultural Campus 150 Stories of Belonging WUSC, in partnership with Senator Ratna Omidvar and Universities Canada, has been collecting stories from current and former SRP students about the first time they felt a sense of belonging in Canada. From airport arrivals to potlucks, Thanksgiving dinners to gaining Canadian citizenship and becoming an RCMP officer, submissions for the 150 Stories of Belonging project tell stories of what participants have felt since arriving in Canada and calling it home. You can see the stories at 150.wusc.ca, and if you would like to submit one yourself, click the Share Your Story at the top of the main page!

6 Local to global : The Impact of Local Committees We live in an interconnected world, where our actions, decisions, and choices have an impact. Whether it is about forced migration, access to education for refugee girls or ethical consumption and international development, Local Committees have been doing an amazing job at raising awareness about these issues. Some Local Committees have found a way to connect some of WUSC s campaigns when planning their events, thus showing how interconnected these issues are and what can be done to improve the situation! We wanted to share with you some events planned during the fall to give you some ideas on how to connect the various campaigns and have a greater impact! The University of Guelph Local Committee partnered with Universities Fighting World Hunger Guelph (UFWH) in their event to raise awareness about food security and forced migration! How are they linked? Climate change has affected many families and farmers: Crops are yielding less than in previous years, leaving many with insufficient food. Migration has become the only option for many families, whether it is one member leaving to find work elsewhere, or the entire family having to look for a new place to call home. The Champlain College Local Committee held an event where they discussed migration in a Canadian context. They screened Migrant Dreams, a 2016 documentary by Min Sook Lee about migrant workers experiences in Canada. Migrant workers can face many obstacles when coming to Canada under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, but their situation remains far from the ears and eyes of the Canadian population. The Champlain LC s objective was to inform the community about this reality, and discuss what can be done here to improve the situation. The Local Committee at Yukon College also hosted a great event linking ethical consumption and the Student Refugee Program. They held a Halloween Fairtrade table with baked goods, and used the chocolates and Halloween comics to initiate conversation with the campus community and link it to the SRP and what role is played by Local Committees on campuses. Congrats to all three Local Committees!

7 Marilyne in Nepal Did you try to reach Marilyne in November? You probably got an out of office saying that she was in Nepal for 3 weeks as a Leadership and Management Advisor as part of the Leave for Change program with Uniterra! Not only did she have the opportunity to organize a debrief for the Students Without Borders volunteers, but she also organized and delivered a 2-day training on leadership. This training included workshops about leadership styles, leadership skills, inclusivity, conflict resolution, and public speaking. She came back with a lot of great ideas and inspiration that will certainly benefit the campus network, as well as some nepali words and amazing memories! News from the Campus Team! Marilyne wrote a blog about her experiences! (Check it out!) To know more about Leave for Change, the corporate branch of Uniterra, click here! The Campus team would like to welcome... Lee-Anne Lavell Lee-Anne joined WUSC in October as the SRP and Campus Engagement Team Coordinator. Originally from Halifax, Lee- Anne holds a Masters in Social Work and International Development. Lee-Anne has coordinated youth engagement projects in Canada and overseas, and is looking forward to working with the team to support the implementation of SRP and Campus activities. Christine Mylks Christine joins WUSC with 15 years of program & partnership development and management experience in international community development, having worked with Canadian Crossroads International, Cuso International, Veterinarians Without Borders and Canadian Hunger Foundation. In the past 18 months, she has transitioned into refugee resettlement programming in Canada, working as the Refugee Program Administrator for a project in Kingston, Ontario welcoming Government- Assisted Refugees, mostly from Syria. She is honoured to be joining the Student Refugee Program at WUSC, and is looking forward to contributing to this great program and learning from the experienced and passionate team! And when she s not working, she can be found in her vegetable garden, out for a cross-country ski or on the lake in the kayak. Warsame J Warsame Warsame will be joining WUSC Campus team in January 2018.He has worked as a refugee resettlement officer for the UN migration agency (IOM) in the Middle East and North Africa.His decade-long service in global refugee protection began at Toronto Pearson International Airport, Canada s main refugee and migrant Port of Entry where he served as a Refugee Assistance Program (RAP) coordinator. Warsame holds a Master of Science in Capacity Development and Extension (Adult Education) from the University of Guelph, and Advanced Certificate in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies from York University. Thanks again and see you in 2018!!!