Bunya nuts dandelion kombu radish eggplant sorrel black-eyed pea swiss chard. Turnip melon turnip garbanzo sierra leone bologi radicchio beet greens silver beet chicory okra fennel fava bean dulse onion mustard. Fava bean spring onion gram tomato sierra leone bologi lotus root dulse bell pepper garlic maize. Garlic wattle seed garbanzo caulie pea sprouts fava bean collard greens plantain azuki bean kale welsh onion water chestnut lettuce garlic garlic. Potato turnip radicchio tigernut mustard courgette silver beet cress celery bunya nuts sierra leone bologi zucchini amaranth earthnut pea.

Garlic black-eyed pea caulie daikon bitterleaf gourd melon lettuce soybean chicory ricebean coriander burdock yarrow cauliflower. Asparagus bunya nuts courgette parsley wakame arugula garlic desert raisin fennel napa cabbage groundnut. Bell pepper bok choy water chestnut groundnut grape tomato turnip greens seakale chicory artichoke desert raisin mung bean courgette.

Grape peanut gram pea lotus root beet greens horseradish eggplant. Kakadu plum broccoli salad radish swiss chard cress black-eyed pea brussels sprout collard greens cabbage pumpkin. Bunya nuts beetroot wattle seed okra amaranth parsnip plantain caulie bitterleaf asparagus fava bean cauliflower bok choy.

Quandong broccoli lettuce celery zucchini radish squash mustard asparagus pumpkin. Turnip groundnut cress cucumber melon azuki bean grape horseradish lotus root. Fava bean zucchini silver beet pumpkin water chestnut caulie eggplant prairie turnip garlic. Water chestnut broccoli summer purslane maize sorrel mustard potato amaranth brussels sprout fava bean garbanzo lentil endive. Sorrel eggplant bush tomato chickpea artichoke rutabaga nori jícama daikon welsh onion sierra leone bologi sweet pepper onion potato dandelion.

Summer purslane sierra leone bologi carrot shallot radish garlic squash. Black-eyed pea squash quandong chickpea cress celery lentil tomato kale. Winter purslane horseradish yarrow kale daikon bell pepper parsnip radicchio chickpea turnip sea lettuce pumpkin tomatillo spinach cress winter purslane.

Groundnut salad soko chicory yarrow wakame mustard potato. Taro fennel silver beet fava bean kakadu plum aubergine celery sea lettuce shallot caulie bush tomato arugula earthnut pea parsnip melon artichoke. Quandong artichoke sweet pepper squash gram sorrel celery bush tomato gourd leek bunya nuts cress courgette. Caulie coriander kale chard arugula kohlrabi spring onion pea sprouts kakadu plum epazote jícama lettuce courgette maize silver beet turnip greens eggplant green bean. Winter purslane water spinach asparagus sweet pepper garlic chard.

Messaoud Amer Yahia
Messaoud did an internship with our Middle East and North Africa (MENA) program in the fall of 2011 as part of his Bachelor’s in International Studies at the Université de Montréal. He assisted the MENA team in research and development of our toolkit on citizenship education. His knowledge of Arab and his understanding of the region were an asset to our research.

When Equitas was asked to prepare a proposal in early 2012 for further work in the MENA region, we asked Messaoud for his help. Despite having completed his studies and his internship, he readily agreed to come in for a few weeks as a volunteer to give us a hand.

Nikol Drouin
Trained as an artist and a teacher, Nikol has produced several videos and presentations highlighting Equitas’ programs and work. Armed with her camera and her artistic flair, she introduced us to the world of video, producing presentations which we have used during fundraising and other special events. Nikol was also instrumental in connecting us with Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf, where she used to teach. Now, every year, two students from Brébeuf volunteer as interns at our International Human Rights Training Program.

Inspired by her work with Equitas, Nikol has produced a toolkit based on artistic expression and art projects which she will use in work with vulnerable youth in Latin America.

Dan Shapiro
When Equitas was looking for help in producing a video about our International Human Rights Training Program, Dan came highly recommended by his professor at McGill University. Dan volunteered the whole month of June 2011, coming out to the site of the IHRTP (in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, a good 40 kilometres from Montreal), meeting participants, setting up interviews and attending sessions of the program.

We wanted to capture the dynamism of the program as well as how participation in the program influences the human rights work of participants.  Although the IHRTP was a new experience for him, he quickly got to know the program and what moments to capture.

Over the course of the summer of 2011, Dan undertook the editing process, meeting with Equitas staff and Board members and integrating suggestions and comments into the final product. We are thrilled with the results. For the first time, we are truly able to communicate the magic of the program to people who have not experienced the program personally.

Émilie Dutil-Bruneau

Thank you as well to Émilie has been helping Equitas with its communications strategies and tools since 2008. Émilie has been working with Equitas as part of an agreement with NATIONAL Public Relations who have been offering us pro-bono media relations advice since 2008. During this time, she brought her experience to help us craft our communications plans, strategies and messages. She has helped us make contact and follow-up with key media people. Both Émilie’s and NATIONAL’s contributions are greatly appreciated and have helped Equitas develop a professional approach to communications.

Thank you Messaoud, Nikol, Dan and Émilie and to all the volunteers who always bring us fresh energy and ideas!

Thank you to all the volunteers who so generously donated their time in 2011 -2012
Alan E. Suaze • Alexandre McAdams • Anjeza Bregaj • Anges Agnero • Bahar Mohafer-Shajaei • Ben Musampa • Brian Fung • Catherine St-Amand • Cecilia Gonzalez Galve • Chloé Beaudet-Centomo • Danny Shapiro • Émilie Dumas • Eudoxie Bakumba • Francis Assonfac-Zangue • Ian Roy • Jasmine Rémy • Jess Messer • Joel Kaushansky • Julie Beausoleil • Katherine Begg • Kimberley Melo-Serpa • Kirsten Marsh • Lara Cousins • Laurent Nahmias Leonard • Margaret Fraser • Mariam Kalifa • Marianna Ryan • Melissa Yonganrioglu • Michael Cooper • Michaël Houle • Miju Martin • Milan Hareau • Molly Hamilton • Nadia Sanagata • Pacita Candelario • Prya Morley • Rachel Lau • Sam McAdams • Salami Obatoki Folonso • Stéphane Bilodeau • Ti-Anna Wang • Viet Anh-Vo • Vital Bintu Kanywabahizi • Yasser El-Hamamsy • Zahra Jalili

Raising awareness of the rights of women exercising non-traditional professions

Joséphine Yameogo has been fighting for her rights her entire life. At the age of one month, she was promised in marriage to a man over 40 years her senior. At the age of 17, she was taken to meet her 60 year-old future husband. She refused to marry him and was forced to flee, banished by her family. With extremely limited resources, support and opportunities, she fought to make her way in life. With the help of her brother – and the opposition of her family and of society – Joséphine defied the odds and all the rules, and not only trained as a mechanic, but began working to change attitudes about women in non-traditional professions and to promote their access to these professions.

One of Equitas’ partners saw the potential in Joséphine and recommended her for Equitas’ regional training session for community trainers. While Joséphine was very keen to attend, it was not an obvious match.  A mechanic at a human rights training program?   Our partner insisted…and we took a chance. 

During the training session, Joséphine increased her knowledge of human rights theories and models.   But more importantly, by interacting with and learning from other human rights workers from West Africa working on similar issues, she further developed her already existing ability to come up with creative and practical solutions to the issues she and other women in her community were facing.   

Inspired by the training, Joséphine founded the Association of Lady Mechanics of Faso (A.M.F.) where she works with women from very poor areas of Ouagadougou, often with limited schooling, to promote their access to non-traditional professions.  She began organising training sessions to raise women’s awareness of their rights, including the right to gender equality and to non-discrimination, so that they could better claim their right to be a learn a trade. These women have in turn created other associations of women in industrial painting and electricity. As Joséphine says: “If these women know their rights, they will fight to succeed.”

In December 2011, Josephine opened a collective garage to train young women to become mechanics. She has been joined by other women trained in industrial painting and metalwork. The training activities on human rights initiated by AMF enabled women to increase their self-esteem and apply the right to exercise a non-traditional profession. They now feel fulfilled in their profession of choice, in their capacity to exercise their rights within society, and to take control of their lives. Their increased contribution to the family income has led to an increase in decision-making power within their family and community. These associations are calling into question the sexual division of labour in Burkina Faso. Most importantly, the increased independence of these women is allowing them to escape the cycle of poverty.

Josephine adds: “This is the impact of Equitas’ training session…We tradeswomen can change the world!”

A truly amazing woman from Tanzania is transforming the lives of women and children and entire communities.

Aginatha Festo Rutazaa, is a community worker who lives in the village of Moshi, near Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. In 2009, Aginatha  participated in Equitas’ International Human Rights Training Program (IHRTP) in Montreal in 2009 where she came to understand that by financially empowering women who were traditionally marginalized and at risk, they could solve many of their problems and improve their living conditions themselves. 
 

Upon her return to Tanzania, this single mother of two left her secure job to start a new organization, Tusonge – a Swahili word meaning “let’s move forward”.  Through local workshops, she began coaching women who were selling second hand clothes in local markets on how to borrow and invest. She helped them develop a plan of action for the improvement of the status of women which was publicized and discussed during the local elections.  She encouraged women to vote and to run for office.  She helped the women start a credit circle.  She helped them become aware of and fight for their inheritance rights.

And…. the community began to change.  Women were talking.  Women were being heard.  Women were voting.  More women than ever before were elected at the district level.  They were becoming more successful at business and thus had more money – they could afford to send their kids to school.  They invested in and managed the credit circle, lending money to women who needed it and supporting other members of the community who were in need.  They could afford better food and nutrition, which in turn improved their health, and the health of their children and those living with HIV/AIDS.  They helped a widow reclaim her matrimonial home after customary practices had forced her out following her husband’s death. 

This was all unheard of before.  These women, who were living hand-to-mouth, selling second hand clothes in the market, many infected by their husbands with HIV/AIDS and cast out, unable to properly care for themselves and their families, with no support systems…these women went from marginalized second class citizens to women who were lobbying for property rights, voting and being elected, forming and running credit circles, developing their businesses, improving their health and that of their families, ensuring their children’s education…and this happened in less than one year. 

Aginatha tells us:

” It is Equitas which raised my understanding and interest to start this organization which

 supports women. The IHRTP programme was an eye opener to me.

  It helped me find the gold within me”