Founded by actress Tonya Lee Williams in 2001,  ReelWorld continues to provide a platform for films featuring racially and culturally diverse casts telling positive stories, which are often underrepresented in mainstream cinema. In addition to the festival is ReelWorld Foundation, an incorporated charitable organization committed to training emerging talent, telling diverse stories, and educating young people on the ins and outs of the entertainment industry.

The 12^th Annual ReelWorld Film Festival will take place April 11 – 15, 2012 in Toronto.

Visit www.reelworld.ca for more information on ReelWorld Film Festival. Click here to submit your film.

Former MPP candidate Dionne Coley

By Samuel Getachew

Dionne Coley is an impressive young Ontarian. At only 29 years old, she has achieved more than many would in a lifetime. She holds a BA from the University of Windsor, LLB from Thomas M Cooley Law School and she is a candidate for an MA in Divinity from a bible college. In law school, she finished on the Dean’s List.

She is a mentor for both the old and new, especially in the pursuit of a career that is as exclusive as law. In many ways, Coley is a dream candidate for any elected office in Canada.  In the last year alone, she was a candidate for office twice – one for school board trustee and one for an MPP (Member of Provincial Parliament).

Yet, at both attempts for an elected office, she failed and was soundly defeated. Her experience is not just a personal loss, but society loses when good, qualified people are not given opportunities to contribute to the political fabric of our city, province and country.  A recent study seems to underline the facts with practical ideas as to how to improve the electoral successes according to society’s make up and composition.

DiversityCity – The Greater Toronto Leadership project – a partnership of Maytree Foundation and the Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance looked at the experience of Coley and the attempts of all the Toronto and surrounding regions visible minority candidates and found troubling results. According to the lead author of the study, Professor Myer Siemiatycki of Ryerson University, “the research found that visible minorities continue to be underrepresented as political candidates and elected officials at all three levels of government relative to their share of the population.”

It is estimated that 40% of Torontonians are visible minorities and only 26 % of MPP’s are visible minorities, while 17 % for MP’s and a mere 7% for city council members. The study notes a significant movement with South Asians and Chinese, but reflects a worrisome result when it comes to blacks along with Arabs, Filipinos, non-white South Americans and Southeast Asians.

For example, in Ontario, a province where blacks make up 3.94% of the population, only two black members of provincial parliament were elected. These are Margarett Best, a Jamaican Canadian from Scarborough and Michael Coteau, who is, part black, from Don Valley East.  In Toronto, it’s even worse, where Michael Thompson is the lone black out of 44 city councillors. There are two NDP black MP’s from Quebec in Ottawa.

The report was released at the Gardiner Museum in the company of Canada’s imminent political players such as Robin Sears and John Matheson, who discussed its finding with host – CBC’s Steven D’Souza.

According to the author of the report, radical change should happen to get an answer that is reflective of society. These include, “election reform such as addressing the under-representation of the GTA in federal parliament; increased institutional commitment by government and other formal institutions and interventions by political parties such as targets for nomination and mentoring visible minority aspiring politicians and increased community commitment to the importance of this issue”.

For more information on the study – please visit www.diversecitytoronto.ca

Maytree Foundation – www.maytree.com

Zorica ‘Queen’ Alleyne/ KILO P

By Stephanie Pollard

Gathered in an intimately lit Cayo Coco on Richmond Street, spoken word artists, poets and musicians shared their take on love and social awareness, for Love Jones Sundays (LJS). On the first Sunday of every month established, emerging and new artists get to share their thoughts through various talents in an environment that Zorica ‘Queen’ Alleyne, founder of Love Jones Sundays, ensures is nurturing and supportive.

“I think that all artists are the same [in terms of importance]. There are so many new talents who don’t get the time or opportunities to perform at any venues because they’re not established. There’s so much unseen talent out there and I just want to be a part of helping them get out there,” she said.

Throughout the night the crowd’s mood swung between the comedic highs that came from erotic readings (and personality/host ‘s Jemeni’s hilarious emceeing), to somber lows from readings that touched on racism, abuse and child prostitution. Luckily DJ Soul Child was there with the Neo-soul and R&B needed to keep the emotions balanced. With the quality of talent LJS produces combined with the overall mood the event has to offer, why have it only on Sundays?

“Sundays work for and against me! Some people don’t want to go to a club [on a Sunday]. They’d rather go someplace nice, sit down, have a drink, maybe dance a little; kind of like a last release for the weekend,” Queen explained.  For the record, LJS ends at midnight; decent enough to count as a night on the town while letting the patron get enough sleep for the Monday ahead. The share-the-love-through-poetry event works in other ways too.

Love Jones Sundays also serves as networking grounds for established and emerging artists to find paying opportunities and for black-focused groups, a platform to gain much needed support. One example of initiatives supported by LJS is the Blackstone Foundation Library Mission, an organization dedicated to creating multiple black-focused libraries across Toronto to make Afrocentric literature more accessible. LJS asks that patrons donate black-focused books (written for, by or about the African Diaspora) or money at each session.

Sharing the love through poetry is one thing, but to Queen and the LJS family, it’s providing a solid foundation for the arts and greater community that matters. After all, “In order to build (a) community it takes the support of the community,” she sums up.

The next Love Jones Sundays session is December 4^th inside Cayo Coco, doors open at 7:00 p.m

By Darling Nicky

Blame it on the clock roll!

“Crazy week (& it’s only Tuesday). Joe Frazier, Andy Rooney & Heavy D pass away. Toronto radio gets exciting again & Kim’s still an idiot.” via @darlingnicky999 on Twitter

The week ending Nov. 12, 2011 is surely one we will not forget easily.  I was so overwhelmed by the amount of headlining events that took place in just the first couple days of the week that I had to nurse my shattered nerves before I could even place my fingers on my keyboard.  (Well that, and the fact that I was recovering from an epic birthday weekend, but I digress).

First of all, Dr. Conrad Murray, [insert unfair ethnic description of “Trinidadian-born” so that in true mainstream media style the general public can feel comforted by the knowledge that it wasn’t a white doctor that killed the World’s most celebrated music icon] was found GUILTY for involuntary manslaughter in the death of The King of Pop Michael Jackson by administering a lethal dose of propofol and leaving him unattended, as he died.  While this verdict may offer the closure that the Jackson family and MJ fans around the world needed, many would argue that Michael did indeed have a serious addiction to prescription medications and that his self-proclaimed invincibility may have contributed to his death.  Either way, a legend is dead, a physician’s career is over, and I still love my MJ discography as much as I ever did.  My thoughts – go listen to Man in the Mirror and make that change.

We also lost Undisputed World Heavyweight boxing champion Smokin’ Joe Frazier to cancer on November 7, 2011.  Heralded in the 60’s and 70’s for his bobbing and weaving fighting style, he is immortalized in boxing history for defeating Muhammad Ali in 1971’s “Fight of the Century”.  I’ve watched old footage of several of his fights, and all that grunting and grizzly face-making would have made me toss my hands up in defeat also.  RIP Joe Frazier.

Another biting of the dust was 60 Minute’s Andy Rooney, writer/broadcaster most known for his weekly segment on the show called “A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney”.  He was an insightful gentleman who doled out satiric examinations of regular, relatable stuff like consumerism, sports and politics.  He was outspoken and although more often than not challenged us to think and grow positively, he was very opinionated and at times ruffled feathers of the usual target groups: gays, minorities and Kurt Cobain fans (LOL!).  Andy retired from 60 Minutes on October 2, 2011 when his last broadcast aired, and he died just 4 weeks later.  RIP Andy Rooney.

The most recent and personally shocking death of the week was that of Hip-Hop legend Dwight “Heavy D” Myers of Heavy D and The Boyz.    Heavy D, originally of Mandeville, Jamaica, had significant impact on the Urban music scene in the late 80’s and 90’s with albums such as Big Tyme, Peaceful Journey and Nuttin’ But Love.  His “overweight” stature helped make famous lyrics from his music; “The girls, the girls they love me ‘cuz I’m the overweight lover Heavy D!”  BET viewers (like myself) were overjoyed when he appeared on The 2011 Hip-Hop Awards and performed for the first time LIVE in 15 years.  He danced the way we remembered and was about to go on tour.  Heavy D collapsed outside his home In Beverly Hills and died of respiratory failure.  He was only 44 years old.  RIP Heavy D – the girls really did love you!

For Toronto music lovers, things got very exciting this week when G 98.7 FM, the new Urban radio station that was in test mode until now and faced many challenges in obtaining approval announced its official launch date of November 14, 2011 and announced its on-air personalities.  Among them, a number of familiar faces formerly of the city’s current and previously only Urban-ish radio station Flow 93.5 will be returning to the airwaves at their new home: Mark Strong and Jemini as The Morning Show hosts, Jester as The Drive Time Host, Dr. Jay as the host of a weekly Soca show, and Spex (Hallamanashundae!) as the host of the Reggae show.  Many more notables on the team including  DJ Riyad as the host of a Chutney segment, Wayne Williams (formerly of Flow 93.5) as Program Director, Roger Dey (well-known announcer) as Music Director and Jai Ojah Maharaj (CHIN Radio) as Director of News.  Many people took to social media following the announcements and painted an innuendo-riddled picture that G 98.7 FM just took in all the “old” Flow personnel.  My thoughts…

“I don’t look at it as “old Flow” ppl. I look at it as professionals with a new platform. #G987FM” via @darlingnicky999 on Twitter

Lastly, Kim Kardashian is still an idiot.  (and I really don’t feel like wasting one more pixel on my screen writing about her so I won’t).

I did however read that there is a huge spike in pedestrian deaths killed by cars, trucks and vans following the Fall return to Eastern Standard Time.   Even though we technically gain an hour by rolling our clocks back that single hour disengaging Daylight Savings Time, people tend to become more discombobulated with the change in time.

“I don’t know what happened this year, but I’m blaming all of the chilling events of this week on the Clock-Roll Jet Lag.” via @darlingnicky999 on Twitter

#thatswhatSHEsaid

Darling Nicky is an entertainment writer, blogger and publicist.  Check out her out at www.darlingnicky.ca

VINCE TALOTTA/TORONTO STAR

By Greg Quill
Entertainment Reporter

Esi Edugyan, 33, was awarded the $50,000 Giller Prize — Canada’s richest literary award — at a gala ceremony in Toronto Tuesday night for her second novel, Half-Blood Blues.

Edugyan, the Calgary-born daughter of Ghanaian immigrants (she’s based now in Victoria), wrote the winning novel — about an African-German jazz musician in the Rhineland who disappears during the first months of World War II — after an academic residency in the German city of Stuttgart in 2007.

“I didn’t expect this, and I’ve only scrawled a few things on a piece of paper,” she said breathlessly after fighting her way to the podium through a crowd of about 400 of the country’s top literary figures, publishers, politicians and business leaders, standing in her honour.

Edugyan thanked Giller Prize founder Jack Rabinovitch, husband of the late literary editor and journalist Doris Giller, after whom the annual award is named, “for keeping me in diapers for a while.” (She and her husband, poet and novelist Steven Price, are first-time parents of a daughter, born in August.)

After the ceremony Edugyan told the Star she felt no additional pressure about winning such an important award, after triumphing over fellow nominees Patrick deWitt (The Sisters Brothers), Zsuzsi Gartner (Better Living Through Plastic Explosives), Michael Ondaatje (The Cat’s Table), David Bezmozgis (The Free World) and Lynn Coady (The Antagonist).

“No pressure,” she said. “I feel a bit removed from everything out on the West Coast, and I’ll continue to do what I do, and at my own pace.”

Along with Vancouver-born novelist deWitt, Edugyan was shortlisted this season for the Man Booker Prize, the Writers’ Trust Award, the Giller and the Governor General’s Award, which is to be announced Nov. 15.

DeWitt, based in Portland, Ore., won the Writer’s Trust Award on Nov. 1.

Edugyan’s win Tuesday evens the field in what has been described as this year’s big stakes literary horse race.

Edugyan is a graduate of the creative writing program at the University of Victoria. Her work has appeared in several major anthologies, including Best New American.

“Any jazz musician would be happy to play the way Edugyan writes,” says the Giller jury citation. “Her style is deceptively conversational and easy, but with the simultaneous exuberance and discipline of a true prodigy.”

The awards ceremony was staged at the Four Seasons Hotel in Yorkville and broadcast live on CBC’s digital TV service, bold.

The event, which was hosted by CBC radio and TV presenter Jian Ghomeshi, opened with a performance by renowned Chinese classical pianist Lang Lang.

In an attempt to upgrade what has been viewed in the past as a solemn event, the public broadcaster brought in pop and rock stars Robbie Robertson (who has started writing his own memoir, due in 2014), Jacob Hoggard from the band Hedley, Nelly Furtado, actors Lisa Ray and Zaib Shaik (Little Mosque on the Prairie) and CBC hockey commentator Ron MacLean to introduce pre-produced monologues with Giller contenders.

Republished with permission from toronto.com

By Anya Wassenberg

word!sound!powah!
written and performed by d’bi.young anitafrika in repertory with blood.claat, and benu
Trilogy Premiere continues to December 4, 2011 at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre

Fifty years done pass and nothing change. Jamaica get independence and we poor de same way

d’bi.young anitafrika is a mesmerizing performer, a controlled tornado of energy on stage as she fleshes out a dizzying range of roles from naive schoolgirl to strutting revolutionary and sinister cop in word!sound!powah! It’s the final piece in her sankofa trilogy, currently playing at the Tarragon Theatre.

As it begins, young Benu is being detained and interrogated by a raging police constable about her role in an election day rally in Jamaica that ends in a hail of bullets and an assassination.  The fictional – but not so fictional – story is set against contentious elections taking place in 2012. It’s an ingenious idea that wraps the Jamaican story in the context of the actual uprisings and Occupy movements that are grabbing the headlines today, giving it a much broader context; watching the rich get richer and the politicians spout meaningless promises is certainly not exclusive to the people of Jamaica.

d’bi shifts seamlessly between anguished Benu and her savage captor, and the interrogation scene punctuates the piece at various points. Along the way, we see her joining with fellow students at the Cultural Centre and the Poets in Solidarity movement five months before. She illuminates a host of characters and segments from smiling politicians giving speeches to the swaggering leader of the revolutionaries, (the self-styled ‘Robin Hood of Poetry’). It unfolds as storytelling, dub poetry, movement and music, ranging from humourous to intensely dramatic moments and everything in between.

Stage design is both simple and effective, and largely in black and white. A Jamaican flag adorns the front of a desk, and behind it a lyrically twisted white rope structure fans out along the ceiling. The rope structure is elegant and adds a rhythmic element to the stark black, cleverly expanding the stage to include the entire back space of the Tarragon theatre and by extension us in the audience too. At various times in the piece, we were part of the play as fellow members of Poets in Solidarity. d’bi, her lithe form all in white, fully inhabits all the characters she plays down to subtle inflections in voice and accent and physicality. It’s a tour de force performance.

Three musicians are on stage to provide a combination of sounds, cues and musical accompaniment under the leadership of talented multi-instrumentalist Waleed Abdulhamid. They play an intriguing combination of percussion, guitar and bassoon; their presence is both instrumental to and part of the story as it unfolds.

“It’s time to break these chains,” she chants in one of the poems, and d’bi challenges the audience’s perceptions at times, pushing buttons about Gaddafi, Africa, single mothers and poverty, among others. Those political points are swept up in her captivating performance but remain in the air, no doubt as intended.

It’s thought provoking theatre that never loses sight of its twin goal – to entertain and captivate the audience.

word!sound!powah! is alternating with the sankofa trilogy’s earlier pieces, blood.claat and benu – check the Tarragon Theatre’s schedule for  specific dates.

d’bi.young antiafrika is an afrikan-jamaican-canadian dubpoet, monodramatist and educator. She is the founder and artistic director of yemoya international artist residency, and is the curator of badilisha poetry x-change in Cape Town, South Africa.

She is currently on a 15-month global tour of her new album, 333, which launches December 5th at the Lula Lounge in Toronto, and of the sankofa trilogy which is due to be published this winter by Playwrights Canada Press.

Written and performed by d’bi.young anitafrika
Set and costume design by Camellia Koo
Lighting design by Michelle Ramsay
Musical direction by Waleed Abdulhamid
Musicians: Jeff Burke, Kurt Huggins and Laurence Stevenson

www.tarragontheatre.com/season/1112/the-sankofa-trilogy/

Shereen Ashman

By Samuel Getachew

Shereen Ashman discovered activism by coincidence. Introduced to it by a beloved late guidance counselor, she still finds the work “equally rewarding, enriching, educational and fun” over a decade later. The York University graduate in Political Science is the founder and project manager of a grassroots organization, A.S.A.P.

Sway talks to the very personable vivid activist of many local and international initiatives.

Your previous mentee, Danielle Webley, describes you as someone who “changed my life and who can take a great idea and turns it into a reality”. Those are powerful words coming from a young person. Tell us about your activist journey so far?

My journey began at 14 years old and was initiated by Mrs. Sleigthome (R.I.P), the guidance counselor at Dr. Marion Hilliard Senior Public School at that time. One day, she asked me to host a new girl to our school who had recently emigrated from Jamaica (where I am from). I enjoyed everything about hosting my new friend, Nickesha and we are still friends today.

That experience sparked my interest to serve. It has remained bright for the past 16 years that I have been active in local and international communities whether leading or contributing to community initiatives to support disadvantaged communities, the residents therein, young entrepreneurs, youths, and capacity building projects in Toronto, St. Maarten, Jamaica and now Haiti.

I have had the pleasure of working with great team members and organizations including the Kiwanis Key Club of St. Maarten (where I completed high school); Woodgreen Community Services, Jamaica Canada Diaspora Foundation, Future Leaders, Jamaica Canadian Association, Artreach Toronto, and others too numerous to list here. It’s been challenging work, but equally rewarding, enriching, educational and for me fun.

Today, I enjoy working at AYCE Employment Services, a division of Tropicana Community Services and initiating projects under my own social enterprise, A.S.A.P.

Tell us about your group, A.S.A.P (a Shereen Ashman project). By its own self-definition, A.S.A.P. aims to “make a difference and have fun doing it”. Please explain?

A.S.A.P. is a social enterprise that is focused on community development projects to support social, educational, career and entrepreneurship causes. I launched A.S.A.P. in April 2011 with our first project, Jam 4 Jamaica, which is a party for a purpose aimed at raising funds to support the education of children in need in Jamaica. Since then, we have launched AT THE TABLE, a mentorship brunch and the team has grown to include an assistant project manager, Gregory Henderson, our photographer David Morgan of Morgan Photography and three new writers for our blog Maia Thomas, Johanna Niles and Jemila Laws.

My goal was to create A.S.A.P. as a platform to do three things – to initiate fun projects that would engage people to make a difference in Canada and the Caribbean; to also profile people who were doing the same work and their projects; and finally to inspire people to make a difference and have fun doing it.

Tell us about M.A.D.E. workshop and why you think it’s important to “bring about positive change in the community”.

M.A.D.E is an [acronym] for Make a Difference Events. I created this workshop series with the objective of teaching youths how to make a difference in their communities by way of organizing and hosting issue/cause-based events.

Recently, I facilitated MADE workshops in the Chester Le community, working in partnership with two amazing grass roots organizations: Rize Above and CLIC (Creating leaders in Chester Le). The same organizations were already operating a girls group in Chester Le and I was asked to facilitate Saturday sessions. The girl from that session organized the Rize Above Violence basketball event to promote gang prevention among youths while raising funds to purchase a basketball net so that youths had a positive alternative activity to engage in.

For me, creating positive change in the community is necessary to ensure a healthy community. One that thrives, offers a better quality of life, and is self sufficient in the terms of encouraging, empowering and supporting its members to solve issues whether working exclusively or in partnership with outside sources. Positive change = healthy communities = less social cleavages and the benefits go on and on.

In your much read website – www.iloveasap.com – you have profiled many role models with many impressive personal stories. Tell us about it?

My team and I write two main profile articles. The first is our community champion profile. Maia Thomas is now the new writer for that articles series, dedicated to profiling persons, community workers or social workers who are leading community projects, a causes, or organizations. Our second article series is called “Behind the Cause.” Here we spotlight vital volunteers who are working to ensure the success of community initiatives.

I initiated these profile articles because I thought not enough spotlight was on the people who are working hard to make our communities better, their projects and stories. Equally, I was hoping that others would be inspired by their stories and would perhaps take action to make a difference in their own way.

Where would you want A.S.A.P. to be in the next five years?

I have big dreams for ASAP. In the coming months we will be launching two new article series, one focused on counseling and the other on education. Second, we will be hosting our 2nd annual Jam 4 Jamaica Party for a Purpose in April 2012.

Over the next five years we encourage you to join us expand the AT THE TABLE mentorship brunch events and our roster or articles and projects. I am personally looking forward to launching our Tour and Volunteer Project. Throughout it all, we plan on having a lot of fun.

Interested in joining the ASAP team? Please contact Shereen Ashman via email: [email protected]

Facebook: www.facebook.com/shereenashman.
Facebook Fan page: I Love A.S.A.P. (community champion circle).

NevaHurd

By Shanichia Henry

With the exception of a few artists who are discussing issues relevant to the common person’s life, the majority of rappers are still using the same formula of money, women and clothes to sell records.

Christian artist NevaHurd has a completely different approach to life. When asked about his idea of success, the rapper replied, “Following Christ and lending a helping hand to those in need is my idea of success. You can have million of dollars and still feel completely worthless at the end of the day, but I know I have a purpose and that means more than money to me.”

The artist whose real name is Ryan Daley, was born in Scarborough, Ontario, to a single mother. His father moved to New York shortly after his birth and was physically absent for most of his life. NevaHurd admitted that his father’s absence did have an impact on him growing up.

“My father was never really there to teach me the simple things that people with fathers take for granted. I taught myself how to fix my tie and I couldn’t just wake my dad up on a Sunday morning to go to the park and play ball. I mean, it seems very simple but those bonding moments can really shape the way you think about family and life on a whole. I got over it and I love my dad, but I think his presence would have made a difference. ”

NevaHurd’s first official album Unseen Proof is a musical testimonial of his transition to a place he describes as peaceful and secure. After hearing his album, it is impossible for the listener to deny his talent and dedication to encouraging a younger generation to live a life in which compassion and responsibility hold great importance.

According to NevaHurd, his album title borrows its inspiration from the book of Hebrews in the Bible. NevaHurd says his faith is “the foundation on which [he] built his music.” Admittedly, some of the tracks on his album are raw and gritty, sometimes challenging one to ponder complex issues such as spirituality and one’s life purpose. Although NevaHurd makes no apologies for his Christian beliefs, he describes himself as “an open-minded dude, who has a diverse group of friends and family.”

Perhaps NevaHurd’s authenticity can be attributed to the fact that he has lived the lifestyle that he now warns people against. Around the age of 13, NevaHurd fell in love with hip-hop. His clothes, attitude, and commitment to having freestyle battles in the schoolyard was a precursor to a life that would circulate around promiscuity, drug use, and would almost cost him his life. NevaHurd describes an incident that occurred during a night of hard partying.

“I was at a club when gunshots started going off. Everyone ran for cover but for some reason I couldn’t find a place to hide and one of the gunmen came after me. He backed me into a corner, pressed the gun against my temple and pulled the trigger. The gun jammed and after looking at me in disbelief, he fled the scene. It took me a few minutes to compose myself. I was this close to losing my life. I just felt that it wasn’t a coincidence. Life is a gift from God and we should use it to do positive things”

Apparently, NevaHurd’s perspective on life is also reflected in his commitment to the youth of his community. His experience in working with young people is especially inspirational because he has not only participated in youth focused initiatives, but has been the founder of such programs as well.

The uniqueness of NevaHurd’s music is that it is very personal and he gives reason for this when he says: “Real recognizes real. I didn’t want to tell kids they shouldn’t do something because it’s bad. Sometimes that’s not enough. You need people who can be honest with you about the mistakes they’ve made, and the consequences it had on your life. That’s why I’m not scared to talk about my struggles with promiscuity, weed smoking, and alcohol abuse. If I convince a few teens that they’re capable of greater things, that’s enough for me.”

And his message seems to be working as his audience ranges from pre-teens to 30-somethings who are seeking an alternative to mainstream hip-hop’s shallow and often destructive paradigm of life.

With a vested interest in his community and a life void of drug use, and materialism— Nevahurd proves that money, women and clothes is not all a brother knows.

If you want to learn more about NevaHurd’s music, visit www.nevahurd.com

By Samuel Getachew

The Somali Canadian population is “undergoing the growing pains of integration in to the larger Canadian mainstream” according to the head of the influential Canadian Somali Congress Ahmed Hussen.  Sway catches up with the noted activist and soon-to-be lawyer as he reflects on mentorship, influence and integration here at home and in Somalia.

You have been the head of the Canadian Somali Congress for a number of years. What are some of the immediate challenges the community faces?

Well, the community is going through the growing pains of integrating into the Canadian mainstream. This is a process that all new Canadians have gone through in the past. The main issues that we face are youth crime, poverty and access to jobs and professions.

Tell us about the Canadian Somali Congress.

The Canadian Somali Congress is the national advocacy body for Canadians of Somali heritage. The Canadian Somali Congress works to foster a Canada where Canadian Somalis, as part of the multicultural fabric of this country, live in and contribute fully into Canadian Society with the eventual goal of full integration.

Some of the more practical things that the congress is involved in is mentorship among the youth. Tell us about it.

The Canadian Somali Jewish Mentorship Program’s importance is in the assisting of the development of the first cadre of young Canadian Somali professionals and leaders who will in turn reach back into other communities to help those in need. The Jewish-Somali Mentorship Project not only assists in the integration of the largest African diaspora community in Canada but also acts as a model of how diverse communities can collaborate to promote greater social cohesion between diverse communities both in Canada and in the international community.

The Jewish-Somali Mentorship Project is extraordinary in that it is the first time in Canada or anywhere else in the world that the Jewish and a large Muslim community have come together to work at a national level. The Canadian Jewish Congress assists in the provision of the mentors, the Canadian Somali Congress assists with the coordination of the mentees and the Canadian International Peace Project administers the project details.

You are currently in a very exciting journey with journalist Amanda Lindhout to help the youth in Somalia attain education. Tell us about it.

It is a very exciting program that Amanda was able to convince me to join and I am very happy to be part of it. The Somali Women’s Scholarship Program (SWSP) was created with the knowledge that every Somali woman has the potential to make substantial contributions to the development of Somalia. We aim to support and encourage the development of leadership qualities by providing full university scholarships to women who are passionate about creating positive, sustainable change in their communities.

We ask each applicant to share with us in an essay their grandest vision for the future of Somalia and how, with the education we will fund for her, she will contribute to improving her community and empower other women. With no central government to fund education the SWSP works with private universities across Somalia, all of which operate with a mandate of gender equality. Full university tuition and fees are funded by the SWSP. In addition, the women are provided with a living allowance, which allows them to focus on their studies without the burden of poverty.

Education is a tool to create sustainable change in Somalia, a means for women to transform themselves and their communities. It paves the way for a generation of female leaders to hope, dream and take their rightful role in the development of their country.

You met with the Prime Minister on ‘Canadian-Somali National Lobby Day’ a number of years ago. How was the experience like and has there been a follow up to the discussion?

The experience was pleasant and productive. The Prime Minister was well briefed on all the issues of importance for Canadians of Somali background. We have followed up with Minister Jason Kenney on all the matters that we raised in the meeting with the Prime Minister.

Tell us about yourself

I am a simple individual that strongly believes in the value of giving back to the community. If all of us donated a little bit of our time, we would create much stronger communities.

Any parting words?

I believe that the future of all ethno-cultural communities in Canada lies in integration and not assimilation. We can continue to honour our religious and cultural values while at the same time integrating into the Canadian mainstream society. This is the only way to ensure the socio-economic development of our people.

Jasmine Wilson, 19, with daughter Aaniyah

By Gloria Elayadathusseril

Jasmine Wilson has a daughter who will turn two in a few weeks. The 19-year-old mother is already cognizant of little Aaniyah’s college education related expenses. That is why she opened a Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) account in her child’s name when she was only nine-months old.

“My parents did not save for my education,” Wilson says adding that she had to work to go to school. “It’s okay for my daughter to work part-time and study, but I don’t want her to worry about how she will pay the tuition. I really want her to focus on her studies instead.”

Wilson is happy about a recent announcement that the government is sending vouchers through its Canada Learning Bond initiative, because Aaniyah could have up to $2,000 more in the RESP account in her name by the end of this week.

Wilson’s family, as well as 60,022 other low income households in the city of Toronto, will receive vouchers this week, informing them of their children’s entitlement to government funds toward their post-secondary education.

Smart SAVER, a project of the Omega Foundation, funded by the government of Canada’s Education Savings Community Outreach program, recently made the announcement at a special event hosted by Daniels Corporation.

A family becomes eligible if its maximum net income is $41,544 or under. Any child born in 2004 or later who lives within the postal area code starting with letter ‘M’ and whose family receives the National Child Benefit Supplement is eligible to receive it.

“You have to have an RESP account to take advantage of this money and to deposit it for the child’s benefit,” says Jennifer Tory, RBC Royal Bank’s regional president for Greater Toronto. She notes her bank is taking an active part in the program so that those in the low income group take advantage of it. “We are going to try, as all of our competitors will as well, to make this process as simple as possible.”

The vouchers will notify families of the amount that the government will deposit into qualifying children’s RESP accounts. Families can open an RESP account with any provider they choose.

SmartSAVER is organizing a series of special sign-up events across the city. Schools and community organizations across Toronto will promote voucher use and families will be able to access more information in 16 languages though a telephone information line, 416-479-8957 or through smartsaver.org.