A Promise to Keep...

Relief (noun) – Alleviation, ease or deliverance through the removal of pain, distress, oppression, etc.

A week and a half ago, Japan suffered from a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and a 10-metre tsunami. Being able to empathize with others has always been a strong characteristic of mine, and my whole heart goes out to those affected in Japan. However, I can’t help but feel frustrated at the rates of people willing to redirect their focus and funds from impoverished nations to industrialized nations, from poor nations to rich nations, from resource-poor nations to resource-rich nations.

The reality is Japan is a G8 country, with the world’s third largest economy by nominal GDP. It has the economy, means and access to resources to rebuild itself. The government of Japan has expressed that it does not want as much international help as is being offered, with the acceptance of help from fifteen of ninety-nine offering countries. To be blunt, it is not a nation that needs floods of NGOs rushing in to save the day... Not as much as other nations at least.

For hundreds of years, Haiti has been a nation of oppression. Up until the early 1800’s, Haiti (then known as “Saint Domingue”) was a colony of France where thousands of people were taken from Africa and forced into slavery on the island. In 1804, the number of slaves outnumbered the “master class” and the first successful slave revolt in the history of humankind occurred. France was slow to recognize Haiti as an independent nation, and only did so at the cost of 90 million francs. They argued that Haiti owed them this money as a result of property (slaves and land alike) lost during the revolt. This was ultimately the key element in making Haiti the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere because the debt was not able to be paid off until 1947.

Before the earthquake hit in Haiti:
-Only half the population had access to sanitation;
-Only one third of the population had clean drinking water;
-There was a 67% primary school enrollment rate (though this number is thought to be too high);
-and economic stress of putting a child through school often superseded the benefits and many children would not be able to attend.

On January 12, 2010 a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti. I remember being in Belize and having our BSU faculty members let us know that we had a tsunami warning. We were all pretty shocked and concerned, but I don't think many of us understood the reality of the situation. This earthquake left 250,000-300,000 people dead, over 1.5 million people homeless (including an additional 200,000 orphans) and destroyed over 4,000 schools. Since the earthquake, there has been a major cholera outbreak and 80% of the population is living on less than $2 a day, with more than half the population living on less than $1 a day.

Today, there are still over 800,000 Haitians in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps, there is a 50% illiteracy rate, and massive corruption is occurring during the elections.

I am not saying that we should not help Japan; it is up to each individual to decide where they want to help. All I am saying is that we cannot forget about Haiti. Over a year ago we made a promise as a global community to help our brothers and sisters in Haiti... I know I will continue.

Will you?

Words and Deeds

Holy moly it’s been a while! Life has been crazy busy up here in the good ol’ TO.  Work has been a bit busy and is about to get even more crazy…

Almost two weeks ago was Free the Children’s Youth in Action Summit where hundreds of youth voluntarily give up their Saturday to come and learn about social issues. I have heard some people refer to this day as “the heart of the organization” along with our summer Take Action Academy. It’s a day full of workshops, guest speakers, and most importantly, 500 inspiring youth voices. Yesterday’s Summit theme was “Free from” to go along with our “Five Days of Freedom Campaign”. Youth attended workshops throughout the day based on freedom from poverty, freedom from exploitation, freedom from disease, and freedom from thirst. Amber and I had the chance to be MCs for the day and I even introduced our afternoon speaker… my mentor and friend, Dr. Jonathan White!

I can’t even begin to explain how excited I was for the opportunity to introduce Jonathan. As I told the youth in the crowd, I never knew about social issues or my capabilities when I was younger, and for that I am truly jealous of them. However, I did learn about these issues when I entered University, and I slowly learned what I was capable of – all thanks to the guidance of Jonathan. When I got the chance to introduce him, I told the crowd that this was the part of the day I was looking most forward to. I asked everyone who had a mentor or a teacher that inspires them to raise their hand… Almost every hand went up! I was truthfully surprised by this because I didn’t even know what a mentor was in high school, and these kids were from middle school and high school! The day ended with an incredible speech by Jonathan which continued to captivate the kids for the rest of the afternoon.

The week continued with speeches per usual and at one of them I was greeted by 25 middle school kids dressed ridiculously as crowd pumpers… it was awesome! When the weekend finally came, the girls and I could not be more excited because Sunday was… Toronto’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade!! Now, I’ll be fair and say it is not the same as the Southie Parade… but it was much bigger and people weren’t drunk! It took a little over an hour for the whole parade to make its way past us, but it was such a great day! We took the afternoon and grabbed a drink at a local Irish pub and called it a day.

This week is March break (equivalent to our schools’ February vacation) so I don’t have any speeches booked and Adam is coming to visit on Saturday for the weekend. Next week I have six speeches including a charity gala on Saturday! The following two weeks will be hectic with lots of speeches in the Waterloo region so we can do outreach and get them involved. It is going to be really busy but I know by the end it will be worth it considering this region hasn’t really had the chance to be involved and now they will.

I came home on lunch today to a card from my grandmother. In this card was a piece of paper with six poems photocopied to it. There was a note on the bottom that explained these poems were written by my grandfather’s mother for her own column in The Brockton Enterprise called the “Cousin Mary Page”… one was even dated back to the 1930’s. Here’s a taste of one:

"Words and Deeds"

If you think a kind deed to do,

But have not courage to do it,

That cannot help others, or you

If you but only knew it.

If a kind word or helpful thought

Ever comes into your mind,

If you don't do with it what you ought,

And use it, are you kind?

So let's brace up and put to use

Any helpful word or deed

For it was put in our mind to use,

In this old world of need."

-Mrs. Irene R. Wilbur

Until we meet again,

Bria

Weird Canadian habit: They dip their french fries in mayonnaise. 

One homeless is one too many.

This past week was rather laid back with a few speeches.

On Thursday, I was asked to speak at an event in Waterloo on Friday. I was already going to be there because I had a speech in the early afternoon, but it turned out that one of Heather's schools was having an event and wanted a speaker. Heather wasn't comfortable with speaking and asked if I would do it instead. I didn't really know what the event was but I agreed because, well, I might as well, right? I am a speaker after all and I'd already be in Waterloo... So we met up that afternoon so she could fill me in on what the event was. When she went into detail - I geeked out.

Turns out that two schools were inspired by We Day two years ago and wanted to make a difference in regards to the issue of youth facing homelessness. They started an event called "Strip the Streets" where youth rally together, walk from Kitchener to Waterloo chanting things like "hey hey, ho ho, youth homelessness has got to go!", eat from a set up soup kitchen, then sleep the night outside with some workshops for those awake. When I was told about this event, my heart started pounding. I'd seen this event before - but with college students and for three nights longer than this. As you can imagine, I quickly agreed to speak at the event and "pump up the youth" of the rally.

Youth rallying at Strip the Streets

When Heather and I arrived at Kitchener City Hall, there weren't many students there... I was a bit concerned, not sure if many dropped out or if the event was much smaller than they told us. We met with the educator and he said, "this is the calm before the storm... last year it wasn't until 4:30 on the dot when swarms of kids showed up"; and he was right! Suddenly, kids were coming from every corner bundled up in hats, gloves, and jackets, backpacks strapped on, holding signs with varying messages regarding homelessness. At that moment, I felt the excitement of my 20-year-old self on my very first night of the very first Tent City. I found myself wiggling my fingers in front of my face in excitement (anyone that knows me well enough probably just pictured me doing that) and started giggling like a school girl. This is my niche, this is my thing... Homelessness awareness.

Guest after guest took the stage - a big concrete stage outside of City Hall - students, members of Parliament, City officials. They spoke of the influence of youth, they sang songs from the Olympics, and they recited slam poetry regarding homelessness. Then I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see a young girl behind me... She asked me who organized the event and I pointed to the educator in charge. She then said, "I just wanted to say thank you... I'm 17 and I have been sleeping out here for a month and a half... and I really appreciate people doing this to see what it's like". Chills ran up my arms as I tapped the educator on his shoulder to introduce the two. I saw her explaining her story, his hand went over his heart, and he extended a huge hug to this girl.

"One homeless is one too many"

Before I knew it, I was being introduced as the "very special guest from Free the Children" and I was on to give my first impromptu speech. I ran up, grabbed the mic and yelled as loud as I could "Strip the Streets participants, are you readyyyyy?" I heard a few cheers, but none that I felt were loud enough... So I asked again, "I'm sorry, I don't think you heard me... I said... Strip the Streets participants, are you readyyyyy"? And I listened as over 200 passionate high school students cheered their hearts out. I proceeded to tell them that when I was asked to speak at the event, I geeked out (yes, I used my own terminology) and I explained why... I told them how four years ago, a few friends of mine and myself realized there wasn't enough talk on campus about important issues... and there was no action. We started the Social Justice League and our first event would be Tent City - a weeklong event where students would sleep outside, leave behind their personal belongings, eat from a mock soup kitchen, collect donations, host speakers from various homelessness organizations, all while educating the campus and community about the issue of homelessness. When we brought this idea to administration we were told "umm usually clubs have a bake sale for their first event". That didn't stop us though - we held many meetings, made our plans stronger, and with a lot of hard work were able to convince the administration to give us a chance. Now, Tent City went from 5-10 participants a night the first year, to 25 participants a night last year... and each year, the campus looks forward to the event and people constantly want to get involved.

I told these youth this story because I wanted them to see the impact they are having, and can continue to have. Their event has doubled went from 7-8 schools last year to 15 schools involved this year... Incredible! I wanted my story of Tent City to show them that if they could double their schools involved in just one year, then picture what the event will be in four years. After telling these kids how much of an inspiration they are to me, I reminded them that even though this event was incredible, that the real challenge is continuing their action the next day... "Your actions don't stop here, they continue to tomorrow". And they cheered.

Heather and I watched as they marched away, chanting the whole way. I can't even describe the feeling in my heart when I see so many young people wanting to change such an important issue. I thrive off moments like that one, they remind me why I do what I do... and they make me want to do my job that much more, and be that much better. The youth I meet are the youth I wish I was, and the ones I strive to be. Kids may tell me that I'm an inspiration after my speeches, but they'll never realize how much they truly inspire me.

"I couldn't climb the temple,
I just didn't think it was possible... it was huge!"

My challenge for you this week: When someone inspires you... let them know.




Fun fact: This past week I spoke to over 500 youth!

Cheers,
Bria

"And we raise our voices and shout 'Freedom'!"

My CP Team!

Last week, on my birthday to be exact, was Free the Children's first We Day in the Waterloo region! I was on the Crowd Pumpers team, which basically means I got to dress ridiculously, watch the show, and make sure everyone in the crowd was having a great time! Our team went up the night before We Day so we could have a practice/meeting with the CP volunteers. A few of us missed the first couple of minutes because we were taking a staff photo on the We Day stage, but when we came back upstairs, Amber and I burst into the room, and the six staff members of CP did a skit (half improv, half planned) to show what you should and shouldn't do at We Day... it was hilarious! We split the group up into teams and then split the teams up amongst the venue so each group would have sections to cover. The night was pretty successful, but we definitely got a taste at how hectic We Day can be once rehearsals and such got pushed back. The CPs that were picked to dance onstage with Shawn Desman were stoked when they got to rehearse with them, and it was definitely a lot of fun being able to dance his choreography!

The next day at We Day it was even more hectic! For the last two years I have volunteered at We Day in Toronto, which is about three times the size of the Waterloo We Day.. but man oh man, it's totally different from the Staff side! We wore ridiculous (but rather entertaining) headsets so we could communicate with each other and be able to hear. Everyone's outfits the day of were just what we requested: Tight and Bright! We spent the day pumping up the crowd for: Marc & Craig, Shawn Desman, Al Gore, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Michel Chikwanine, Spencer West, Robin Wiszowaty, etc. I must say, my favorite speakers of the day were the Aboriginal speakers that presented on Aboriginal awareness and the importance of our Local Spotlight campaign. It was interesting to hear a girl's perspective of how she was a child soldier in Canada when the Canadian military tried invading their reserve. Al Gore and Jesse Jackson weren't as good as I was expecting them to be, a bit disappointing. Aside from that though, the day was all we could hope for and more!

Nathaniel and I at the CN Tower

Once we returned to Toronto, it was an exciting time because Nathaniel came to visit for the weekend! We decided to celebrate my birthday and Valentine's Day this past weekend since we couldn't be together on either day. I planned a whole adventure in the city with Bachelor style "date cards" to some of Toronto's best spots. We had hot chocolate at Soma, went ice skating at Nathan Philips Square, went to the Eaton Centre, went to the top of the CN Tower (he's been trying to get me up there for two years), and went to a nice Italian dinner. It really was an incredibly fun day filled with love and laughter :) I will be visiting him in April down in Virginia and couldn't be more excited for it!

Overall, my last week or so has been nothing short of exciting and fulfilling! I've had "Happy Birthday" sang to me at least four times by co-workers, shared my birthday with some of my heroes, and was able to spend some quality time with my favorite person. Coming up, I have many speeches each week, the Youth in Action Summit in a week and a half (where I get to see my favorite professor), and Easter weekend in VA to look forward to!

The O-North family

From my family (Toronto family that is) to your's -

In Peace,
Bria

"Distance is not for the fearful, it's for the bold. It's for those willing to spend a lot of time alone in exchange for a little time with the one they love. It's for those who know a good thing when they see it...even if they don't see it nearly enough."

"But you inspire people too, so we love you."

Holy moly it's been a while since I posted! Sorry to all my followers out there (I'm sure there are oh so many of you), it's just been a crazy past few weeks! A lot has been going on, and a lot is going to continue to happen!

I got the chance to shadow my first bureau speech and go out on the road with Scott Hammell. Scott is a Me to We speaker and his speech focuses on the ideas of fear and conquering fears. He opens it with a video of him skydiving blindfolded and handcuffed... oh yeah, I forgot to mention that he's a magician! He then talks about fears (his biggest used to be heights) and how our fears in North America - heights, spiders, the dark - differ drastically from those around the world - malaria, not being able to feed your family, wild animals. He then uses this to discuss our Adopt a Village program. I have had the chance to see a few people speak, but I think that Scott has been my favorite by far. He has an incredible way of captivating kids and really keeping them engaged. After he spoke, their Me to We club came up and all the kids were asking him for his autograph. Then, this girl walks up to me and asks me for my autograph... I giggled and said, "You don't want my autograph, you want Scott's autograph", and she said "But you inspire people too, so we love you", and asked again. Suddenly I had a line of kids waiting for my autograph. It was truly uplifting to think that these kids truly look up to us at Free the Children and Me to We. It reminded me that regardless of any stress I come face to face with, those kids are the reason I am where I am, and that's all that matters.

The following weekend I had my first real Canadian experience... That's right folks, I went curling! My friend, Larissa, was going with some of her friends and invited me to come along, I figured why the heck not, right? Turns out, curling isn't so Canadian. Anyone I've spoken to has never curled in their life and no one really watches it. Canada -1; American stereotypes of Canada - 0. The sport itself is rather difficult (for real) and to be honest, somewhat boring. But overall, I was happy I tried it out because how many Americans can say they've curled? :)

My last two weeks have been jampacked with practicing for We Day (this Thursday!), writing my speech, practicing my speech, delivering my first speech (!), and LOTS of crafting! I had my first speech yesterday and it went really well! The kids loved it, a few came up to me afterwards and told me how great it was, and even the educator told me I am a great storyteller, which made me feel much more confident. My speech is like any other outreach speech where I explain what FTC is, how it started, Craig and Iqbal's stories, and our Adopt a Village program. The unique part of my speech (as with each speaker's speech) is my personal story from Belize... when I told the story about the boy and the canoe, the kids fell silent and they were beyond attentive. Towards the end of my speech I talk about how difficult it can be to keep your peers engaged and I explain how when SJL first started and all the hoops we had to jump through at BSU. It's really nice to sit down and think about all we accomplished, and all that SJL continues to accomplish there.

Finally, the best part of my past few weeks? The crafting :) I have met a few friends up here that also enjoy making all sorts of stuff so I've been making cards galore and other crafts I can't yet post here. They've all come out pretty well and it's nice to have that feeling of home while I'm here. (Sidenote: Julie and I also put together my desk all by ourselves!!) I definitely miss everyone back home, but I am loving it here. The people are great, my job is phenomenal, and the culture is incredible. As for now...


In Peace,
Bria

Interesting Canadian fact: College and University are completely different here. A College is a vocational school you attend after high school, and you receive a diploma in a specific trade (much like our vocational high schools), whereas University is for four-year programs like in the States. 

One week down!

It's already Sunday... where did the week go?! We just finished having 'family dinner' and a house meeting, and now it's about time to get myself together for the upcoming week... But first... my first week at FTC!

Welcome to Free the Children! My name is Bria and I will be your new Outreach Speaker for the Youth Team :) Conveniently, my desk is set up in the "Team America" office because there was no space for me in the Outreach Office. My first week was super hectic, intense, and incredible! Everyone at FTC and M2W has been over the top in making sure I feel comfortable and understand everything that's fluttering around me. I spent the week reading up about the organization (still not done!) and meeting with what felt like a million people (okay it was more like two dozen) to go over different programs within FTC. I still have a few people to meet with, but most of those training meetings are done and over with. The most interesting meeting I sat in on was learning about the We Schools in Action Program (WESAP). What is WESAP you ask? Well I'll be glad to tell you...

Can you pick out my desk?!

WESAP is a group of schools who, after attending We Day, commit to making one local and one global action of social change throughout the school year. They are responsible for reporting back to FTC and keeping us posted on what they are doing, their results, etc. They are the first schools to get chosen to attend We Day and they definitely work their butts off to accomplish their goals they set once they get back to school. Now, what is We Day? Well, I'm glad you asked...

We Day is... well, We Day is a social activists pep rally as Diane Bell once put it. It's a day where thousands of youth come together to show their love and commitment of changing the world. We Day typically happens between Oct and Nov and usually in three cities - last year it was Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. Most of you know, I have volunteered with BSU at the last two We Days in Toronto. Put it this way... last year there were 18,000+ youth at the We Day Toronto... 18,000 youth that want to make a difference in the world! Pretty powerful, eh? :)

So this year, we are also having a We Day in Waterloo - where many MOBilizers (a group of super awesome youth that are called the MOB in FTC and M2W) attend school. This We Day will be taking place on February 17th... yes, my birthday, and will have roughly 5,000 youth in attendance! Biggest birthday party ever! Anyways, I was put on the 'crowd-pumping' team - a team which is responsible of dressing ridiculously, teaching all the youth the We Day dance, and just pumping up the crowd all day long with Lev3l energy! That being said... at We Day Waterloo, Shawn Desman is the opening act. He is a popstar from Toronto and is pretty well known and well liked up here. Today, us crowd pumpers and about 15 chosen from the MOB went to his wife's dance studio where he and his back up dancer, Jungle, taught us the choreography from his music video "Night Like This". In turn, we taught him the We Day dance. When We Day happens, he will open up the show, and when "Night Like This" comes on, we get to go on stage and do his dance with him. Later on in the show, we're hoping he'll help us teach the We Day dance! So yeah, we got dance lessons from a popstar :) it was pretty sweet!

This week, I have a meeting with Louise to begin discussing the difference between telling a story and story telling. After meeting with her and shadowing Amber on her first speech, I will begin writing my speech! I have been thinking all weekend about it, which personal story to use, how to frame it, etc. I think I came up with a story - one from Belize - that I really want to use... I'm going to get some general feedback about it first though. I'm a little nervous about writing the speech because then I have to practice it for Louise and Dawson and I get really nervous speaking in front of my peers. I'm excited for this opportunity though, I think this will really help me in my public speaking skills and hopefully take away that fear :) We shall see what this week holds...

In Peace,
Bria


Odd Canadian fact of the week: No one has any idea what Fluff is! Apparently it's a Massachusetts thing... thankfully my former boss loves me and will be mailing me a package with Fluff in it :) crisis averted!

Welcome to 'O-North'!

Welcome to Toronto, Ontario, Canada!

Greetings from 'O-North' a.k.a. 499 Ontario Street in Toronto, ON! I arrived on Thursday (thank you mother nature for an extra day with my family) and was greeted by my roommate, Brittnei. The house is a big, beautiful, Victorian home with five bedrooms, four washrooms (bathrooms), two kitchens, and a living room. Unfortunately, Brittnei had to leave quickly for a weekend trip to Ohio, so I ventured upstairs to our room in the attic (or the 'loft' as D calls it) to start unpacking. Not too long after I start do I hear voices downstairs, "want to go meet the new roomie?" so I venture down...
"Hello?" "ROOMIE!!"... It was Hamza and Amy. I was greeted with huge hugs and quick chatter. We spoke about the house, what I did at BSU, Free The Children, FAM for Change, etc. Incredible housemates, check!

Friday we had a going away party for Amy. She will be leaving this week to continue her own journey through Kenya, India, and Israel. She is a very strong, motivated, independent woman and I am already sad to see her go... Anyways, party! Many Free the Children and Me to We staff came over, including Michel who I haven't seen since last March! I met a few folks that I'll be on the same team with, both coordinators and another Motivational Speaker, Larissa. She started last week and is in the same boat as me where she will be working the same position, on the same team, and just up and left her family, friends, and boyfriend as well. We bonded for a while and really started chatting about plans to explore the city together! Every person at the party was nothing short of warm and welcoming!

My weekend consisted of errands, unpacking, and girly time with Amy. Today we went to Kensington Market which is a few streets in Chinatown of little coffee shops, independent stores, and a really sweet Rasta store. We got coffee at Moonbean coffee and chatted for a couple hours about mentoring programs (she will be implementing a mentorship program in Kenya for street kids). She picked my brain for a while about how it felt being at the roots of FAM for Change, what works, what doesn't, etc. It was a great conversation with great company and great coffee! We visited a couple shops after, then decided our numb toes deserved the warmth of our house and hopped on the street car!

I finally finished unpacking and putting my room together, which is a huge relief! Tomorrow is my first day of work at Free the Children and I'm really excited, as well as nervous and anxious! A few people have given me tips and pointers on what to expect and it sounds like a super busy day. For now, I'm off to get my things prepared and get a good night's sleep for my first day of my new adventure! Until later...

In Peace,
Bria

"To find the balance you want, this is what you must become. You must keep your feet grounded so firmly on the earth that it's like you have four legs, instead of two. That way, you can stay in the world. But you must stop looking at the world through your head. You must look through your heart, instead." 

-Eat Pray Love