Youth Leadership in Human Rights Project

The 2010 MARL Youth Leadership in Human Rights Project had a very successful launch on November 4 at the Collège Universitaire de Saint-Boniface. There are nine schools participating in this year’s program. They are : Collège Jeanne Sauvé, Kildonan East Collegiate, Munroe Junior High, Pinawa Secondary School, Collège Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau, Gimli High School, Garden City Collegiate, St.Norbert Collegiate and Argyle Alternative School.

Our first session which was a full day workshop, offered the students numerous activities and guests. We had the privilege to listen to Ali Saeed speak of his time in Somali prisons and the hardships he had to endure. His compassion and his strength inspired everyone. We also had the pleasure of Paul Viera’s concert and motivational speech. Students from the participating schools presented various articles from the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights and their various approaches were creative and insightful to say the least. And this was just the morning!

In the afternoon, Wanda Yamamoto, from Welcome Place, spoke to us about her organization and the important work it does for refugees in Winnipeg. The remainder of the session dealt with leadership qualities and community issues. The jigsaw discussion groups were very productive.

Our second workshop, a half day session was held on December 2nd. Each school presented a Canadian who has shown leadership in the field of human rights and once again the presentations were creative and informative. We had two guests present, Jim Agapito from Live from 95 who talked about a hip hop project he did with refugee kids and Bruce Mechelski from Winnipeg Harvest who briefly described the role WH plays in feeding those in need in Winnipeg.

The schools are now in the planning stages of their projects and we will meet again on March 11 to share what everyone is doing.

MARL wishes to thank the Collège universitaire de Saint-Boniface for allowing us to use their facilities and technical equipment for our sessions. It is much appreciated.