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The Ancholi Cultural Dancers from Southern Sudan. Les danseurs Ancholi du Sud Soudan

Becky from Taste of Africa serves food from Ghana. Becky de Taste of Africa nous offre des spécialités de Ghana

The CNIS annual African market has become a much-anticipated event of the Vancouver summer scene. On Saturday August 27, people of all ages from all over the Lower Mainland skipped the beach to come enjoy African music, arts and crafts, food and eco activities. More than 20 African nations and a dozen African non-profits participated in the event, covered by TV crews from Radio Canada and a local Korean TV station!

After opening greetings in English, French, Swahili and Amharic, and a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony, CNIS was excited to welcome WUBIT Ethiopian Youth Dancers and twenty-one (!) Ancholi Cultural Dancers from the newly established Southern Sudan. The event also included an African fashion show modeled by youth from Nigeria, Mali, Botswana and Ghana, Ubiquitous Rhythms drum circle! We could not have wished for better people at the helm than our Tanzanian MC Anar Rajabali and our Ethiopian DJ, radio-host Worku from Shookshookta World.

Face painting by Yolande from Art of Jhoy. Yolande de « Art of Joy »

Face-painting by Yolande. Yolande maquille les enfants

As it is our intention that people walk away having learned something or tried something new, we offered lessons in Ethiopian checkers games and table foosball inspired by kids games in Nigeria – all handmade by CNIS volunteers. CNIS volunteers also sewed over 100 African fabric luggage tags and other items that were sold at the CNIS table. If you missed them, we will bring them back next year!

The market included a community activity corner, where people could learn how to make an African soccer ball out of a plastic bag, newspaper and twine, or a wallet out of an empty coffee bag! Children of all ages also helped decorate several African huts made from fridge boxes in the style of Dogon mud huts!

Volunteer Rosie welcomes all to the Community activity corner. Rosie, une de nos bénévoles, accueille les participants dans le coin des ateliers communautaires

Some of the many CNIS volunteers who made the event possible. Quelques bénévoles qui ont durement travaillé à la réalisation de notre marché africain.

The WUBIT Ethiopian youth dancers. Les jeunes danseurs éthiopiens WUBIT

One of the colourful outfits in the pan-African fashion show. Défilé de mode pan-africaine, riche en couleurs.

CNIS would like to thank the event supporters, participants, performers and our hard working volunteers for making this year’s market a lively cultural celebration.

“The event is growing bigger each year, and becoming better organized and more and more spectacular”, said one participant. We look forward to another market next year.

Le RCCI célèbre l’Afrique

Le marché annuel du Réseau Canadien pour la Chirurgie International (RCCI) est un événement attendu de la scène estivale de Vancouver.

Samedi 27 août, des gens de tous âges et de toute la région du Lower Mainland ont renoncé à une journée à la plage afin de venir découvrir l’Afrique :  musique, art et artisanat, dégustation culinaire et éco-ateliers. Plus de 20 nations africaines et une dizaine d’ONG africaines ont participé à cette fête. Les équipes de télé de Radio Canada ainsi qu’une chaîne de télévision coréenne locale ont couvert  l’évènement.

Le discours d’ouverture qui s’est tenu en anglais, français, swahili et amharic a été suivi d’une cérémonie du café selon la tradition éthiopienne.

Le RCCI a été très heureux de donner la bienvenue à la troupe de jeunes danseurs éthiopiens WUBIT ainsi qu’aux 21 danseurs de culture Ancholi  originaires du tout nouveau Sud Soudan.

Le public a également pu assister à un défilé de mode africaine de jeunes designers du Nigeria, Mali, Botswana et Ghana rythmé par le son des tambours des « ubiquitous rythms » . Nous n’aurions pu souhaiter meilleur maître de cérémonie que l’excellent tanzanien Anar Rajabali ni meilleur DJ que l’éthiopien Worku de Shookshookta World.

Souhaitant  que nos visiteurs  repartent en ayant appris quelque chose de nouveau, nous avons proposé des ateliers pour apprendre à jouer aux Echecs éthiopiens ou au football de table. Ces jeux, fait-mains par des bénévoles du RCCI, sont inspirés des jeux des enfants nigériens. Les bénévoles ont également cousu plus de cent étiquettes à bagage en tissu africain ainsi que de nombreux autres objets qui ont pu être vendus à la table du RCCI. Si vous nous avez manqué, revenez l’année prochaine, nous serons à nouveau là.

Nous avons mis en place des ateliers communautaires où le public a pu apprendre à confectionner un ballon de foot africain à partir d’un sac en plastique, de journaux et de ficelle ou encore à transformer un emballage de café en portefeuille.

Des enfants de tous âges ont également participé à la décoration de huttes africaines faites en boites de carton recyclées s’inspirant des huttes de terre des Dogons.

Le RCCI remercie chaleureusement tout ceux  qui ont collaboré à cet événement festif  : donateurs, participants, artistes et bénévoles. Leur aide et leur support ont fait de cette fête une magnifique réussite pleine de vie et de gaité. « Chaque année, ces rencontres sont  de mieux en mieux organisées et de plus en plus spectaculaires » a témoigné l’un des participants. Nous attendons donc avec impatiente le  marché de l’année prochaine.

Dr. Tarek Razek, CNIS bard chair, speaks at the May WINGS meeting

The Montreal group Women Inspiring Next GenerationS (WINGS) held a meeting on May 12, raising funds for CNIS obstetrics work in Africa.

The evening was interesting and inspiring and featured addresses on fistula, a devastating complication of pregnancy and rape – too common in developing countries. Dr. Joyce Pickering spoke about the Addis Ababa fistula hospital and showed a video about the great work being done there. Next, CNIS’ board chair, Dr. Tarek Razek, spoke about the work CNIS does overseas and the challenges women in Africa face because there is such a dearth of qualified doctors, especially in the outlying regions. Drs. Razek and Pickering answered many interesting questions. The attendees were a mix of young science and medical students, as well as women in their 40s and 50s.

WINGS had decided to organize a meeting on fistulas and I searched high and low for a Canadian charity that was trustworthy and had good financial records. When they saw our ration of donations to administration costs on our financial statement and read that CNIS is supported by CIDA, WINGS contacted us for more information.

WINGS is an organization dedicated to empowering women by providing them with protection from exploitation, and helping them access health services,

Dr. Joyce Pickering speaks about the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital during the WINGS meeting

education and financial support.  Their intention is to achieve these goals by raising funds that will be used to target sex trafficking, fistula treatment, education and micro-finance in developing countries and women’s support services locally. They also promote awareness of these issues in order to recruit as many as possible to this global movement. The United Nations Development Programme (2006) reports that empowered women finance education of younger relatives, reduce infant mortality, improve health and nutrition and raise economic productivity. This is known as “The Girl Effect” and is the inspiration for WINGS.

WINGS accomplish their mission by organizing small meetings in people’s homes. Each meeting deals with one of the above subjects and hopefully raises both money and awareness. For each event, the group tries to find a worthy charitable organization that helps women in the developing world. For more information on some of WINGS’ past meetings, please visit wingsmontreal.blogspot.com

We would like to thank WINGS and the women of WINGS – Sherry Luger, Sara Ravel, Genevieve Charette, Corrine Guttman and Sara Heppner – for their generous support.