Canada, Where Are You? Shaping Our Future With Africa: A Nation-wide Citizen Consultation
Workshop: “So, you want to ‘save’ Africa?”
Recent advocacy campaigns have done a lot to bring armed conflict and human suffering, especially in Africa, to the attention of the general public, particularly youth. Often, this inspires them to try to ‘help’ or ‘make a difference.’ The importance of civic engagement cannot be underestimated, yet these campaigns often advocate for incredibly vulnerable people and keeping their interests at the forefront requires addressing the following questions:
How do these campaigns tell the stories of Africans?
What solutions are suggested and who suggests them?
Who are the campaigns intended to help and who actually benefits?
ACAC’s workshop, entitled “So you want to ’save’ Africa?”, is designed to examine these questions and build capacity in critical awareness among students involved in advocacy and fundraising. On the afternoon of November 2nd, between 1:00pm and 3:30pm, ACAC will be presenting this workshop in the Global Lounge at UBC. Please RSVP to annabel@acacdrcongo.org if you are interested in attending!
Exhibit Launch: Canada, Where Are You? Shaping our Future with Africa
Africa faces enormous challenges but the uniform tale of misery, conflict and corruption just can’t encompass the world’s second most populous continent whose young and innovative inhabitants are increasingly taking their place on the world’s stage. On November 2, at 6:30pm, ACAC will bring together academia, advocacy, art, photography, installations, media & technology, for an interactive exhibit that will explore stereotypes of Africa and their impacts at the Liu Institute for Global Issues at UBC.
On November 2, 2010 ACAC and the The Mark News are co-sponsoring an online discussion
to enable Canadians to learn about and shape Canada’s policy options in the Great Lakes Region of Africa – where our foreign policy can mean the difference between justice or impunity for suspected war criminals living in Canada, responsible or exploitative mining investment and effective or wasted aid.
Experts include:
Hon. Paul Dewar, chair of the Canadian All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Prevention of Genocide and Other Crimes Against Humanity;
Prof. Frank Chalk, co-founder of the Will to Intervene (W2I) project;
Gerald Caplan, an international authority on the Rwandan genocide;
Matt Eisenbrand,legal coordinator for the Canadian Centre for International Justice (CCIJ), the first organization
in Canada that mobilizes civil society to bring war criminals to justice and to offer compensation to survivors;
Desiree Zwanck, gender advisor to a local NGO called Heal Africa in Goma, DRC;
Ian Smillie, an internationally recognized development expert and leader of the effort to stop the trade of ‘blood diamonds’; and,
Department of Foreign Affairs & International Trade (DFAIT) representatives
To find out the times that you can participate in a live Q & A with each expert, click here.
This is a new way of forming policy: vetted by experts, shaped by citizens; raise your voice and contribute by participating in the discussion.
Click here for more information on this event.
Questions? Want to get involved? Drop us a line or visit our website: contact@AfricaCanada.org / www.AfricaCanada.org
