Monday, March 26, 2007

JUBULANI

http://afrosummerfest.com/home.htm

Please check out this phenomenal website, to see all the hard work WUSC sponsored students and friends are putting into Vancouver's newest upbeat summer festival.

Jabulani Afrosummer Fest (JAF) is an initiative of UBC Students and friends who intend to raise funds to support the near-collapsing Student Refugee Program (SRP). As many of you know, The SRP, a program of the World University Service of Canada (WUSC), has helped sponsor hundreds of disadvantaged students throughout the world since 1970s. For over 25 years, SRP has heavily relied on the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) for funding. However, "CIDA's financial support ended in September 2004 because of a shift in the government of Canada's priorities."

Students of WUSC have started up their own creative initiative to help address this problem, and they have already had some great success at the afrobeats fundraiser at Harambe

Keep checking this site for more updates!

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Global Student Speakers Bureau

For those of you who were inspired by the Refugee Reality Night, and who like to share your stories with the University and Greater Vancouver community, please consider joining the Global Student Speakers Bureau (GSSB) an awesome organization here on campus, created by non other than the fabulous Winnie Cheung!

Friday, March 02, 2007

Oxfam-WUSC movie series


Oxfam and WUSC are joining forces to create the first ever "only awesome inspiring movies allowed" film series! We will be showing films every second thrusday at 5:00 in the resource group center of the SUB. more details to come

Refugee Reality Night

The Fairview social space was transformed on the evening of March 1st, in a way that extended beyond aesthetics. Sure, the countless WUSC posters, display boards, colorful rugs, African throws and paper lanterns did create a comfortable ambiance. But it was the connection between seven student speakers and an audience of over forty, that created a true sense of community.

The night began with a short video from LINK, a community-based NGO that partners with high school refugee students in the greater Vancouver area to try and offer social and academic support. One of UBC’s residence advisors shared her experiences of growing up in the former soviet union and living in various refugee camps due to the political leanings of her parents. She was followed by Garang Abuk who offered insight into refugee life at Kakumba camp, emphasizing the social problems that arise from a lack of educational opportunities. Wondim spoke next about the determinism and social activism of refugees who have nothing to loose accept their will. Abdual, a refugee from Somalia, then gave an impromptu account of how he left a refugee camp in Botswana and made his way to UBC. Last, but not least, was Ahmed Khan, a UBC graduate from Sierra Leone, who took a more intellectual and academic approach to these issues.

Overall the night stimulated a lot of engaging discussion – lasting over three hours (don’t worry, there was lots of Thai food and Pizza to keep everyone full of energy). In the end, our night achieved its goals: it brought a much deeper awareness and understanding to a lot of fundamental issues surrounding the refugee experience, and inspired many people to come ask us about WUSC and how they can get involved. Thanks to everyone for their enthusiasm, time and effort!.

CPI Annual Gathering



The CPI gathering is an annual event at UBC, and this year it was held in Pres. Stephen Toope’s personal home. Selected students from organizations on campus that focus on international issues were invited to attend, along with community business leaders and consulates from around the world. Laura-Ashley Wright and Robyn Plasterer represented WUSC, and even participated in the evening’s welcome (in French and Japanese respectively). The night proved very beneficial, as it offered us a chance to network with like-minded organizations, and brag about all the wonderful things the local committee has been involved with this year.