Community Individual: Jean Johnson
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When Jean Johnson became principal of Piitoayis Family School in 2008, it was not a happy place. Students were acting out, only a handful of parents were coming to parent-teacher interviews, and the school was in mourning for a student who had committed suicide due to bullying.
Within a year, Jean's genuine caring and serene nature transformed the culturally-based school that serves a diverse group of aboriginal students. With her help, the school has become a place of open communication with a focus on students' personal strengths.
Jean says it was important to create close and trusting relationships with parents, teachers, students, and the aboriginal community. “I went out into the community, I went to powwows, to ceremonies. I went everywhere I could so that I could show that our intent was sincere.”
She then invited people in and asked, “What can we do together to make a difference in our school?” Today, the school has come alive with drum circles and family dinners. Jean herself prepares a breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast, and coffee for a weekly parent meeting.
For her work with the aboriginal community, Jean has been given the name Rain Woman by an esteemed Blackfoot elder, one of the highest honours in the Blackfoot tradition.
Jean Johnson spends every day on peace initiatives and through her character and actions, inspires others to do the same.
Community Group: The Calgary Board of Education's Aboriginal and Diversity Learning Support Advisors (DLSA)
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For more than 15 years, the DLSA team has worked with families, teachers, and school staff to create a positive cultural identity for aboriginal students.
The team uses a holistic, strength-based approach - from providing one-on-one support for individual students to building capacity for staff. They provide aboriginal content, bring in elders and cultural instructors, and help teachers and students practice the traditional Peacemaking Circle.
Basing their work on aboriginal values, the DLSAs focus on creating an inclusive environment. “Peace begins with people being open to others and bringing diverse knowledge and wisdom to the table,” explains team member Janis Weasel Bear-Johnson.
Other team members are quick to note that their successes depend on their unity and strength as a group. Says Shane Cunningham, “All our work is done as a team – without all the people working together, we don't achieve.”
In the words of one teacher, “They can be fierce advocates or quiet counselors. They hold children accountable, yet hold them in their hands. They show compassion and strength. They are proud to share their culture and help move students, families, and teachers forward.”
Community Youth: Bishop O'Byrne High School Leadership Class
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The Bishop O'Byrne Leadership Class is a for-credit class that gives students opportunities to make a difference in school, community, and world.
The class is open to students in Grades 10 to 12 and gives them a taste for humanitarian work and an appreciation of how small efforts can have a big effect. To date, the Leadership class has positively affected the lives of thousands of people in Calgary and around the world.
In just the past year, teacher Kathie Strother and her students have participated in more than 20 projects at school and after hours. They have raised money to feed the hungry and created a Health in Perspective mentoring and modeling program for Grade 5 students. They have sent stoves to women in Darfur, water filters to Sudan and Haiti, and soccer balls to Columbian children. They have filled backpacks, donated blankets and jackets, and collected a bus-load of food for the Food Bank.
Amy Fossheim, a Grade 12 student, says of their latest project, “We work with Spread the Love to make sandwiches for the hungry. Once a month, any student who wants to help brings two loaves of bread and a condiment and we play music and make sandwiches. A couple of weeks ago we had about 50 people come out and we made 1,500 sandwiches. It was an awesome team effort.”
With some projects running over seven years, these youth show a sustained commitment to peace initiatives in their community and the world.
International Individual: Tiffany Fontaine
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Tiffany is the founder of Fontaine Children's Charity Foundation. After spending three months doing humanitarian work in Mozambique in 2002, Tiffany decided to take an active role in helping boys get off the streets.
After working a full day, Tiffany spends after-work hours fundraising and providing support for a local Mozambique initiative that helps street kids feel safe, become educated, be fed, and get a taste for a different future.
“These boys have to be so hard and so tough to survive on the street. Some are as young as four or five. Sometimes these boys are seen as little hooligans, but really, on the inside they are just little kids – they like hugs, and playing, and having fun.”
Pastor Moises Aroa and his family run the program in Mozambique – and through her foundation, Tiffany provides funds to keep the program alive. She recruits Calgary businesses and individuals as monthly sponsors. She also mentors students interested in humanitarian work, bringing them to Mozambique for a life-changing experience. And, of course, she goes to Mozambique as often as she can.
Currently, funds that Tiffany raises are being used to build a dormitory that can house up to 50 boys, allowing them to go to school full time, as well as learn a trade that they can take back to their communities.
Through Tiffany's efforts, hundreds of young men now have confidence that they can provide for their families and knowledge to lead with wisdom.
International Group: Operation Eyesight Universal
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Active for over 45 years, Calgary's Operation Eyesight Universal has helped restore sight to over 35 million of the world's poorest people.
Working in partnership with medical professionals and community development teams, Operation Eyesight Universal prevents blindness through nutrition, awareness, and treatment. They provide sight-restoring medication and surgery and they create locally sustainable services so that communities in developing countries can continue to help themselves.
Pat Ferguson, president and CEO, explains what a $30 surgery can mean. “I have been in the hospital on the day after surgery when the bandages come off. It is just the most remarkable thing – this slow smile breaks across the person's face when they suddenly realize that they can see again.”
Today, Operation Eyesight's work centres on India, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, and Zambia – places where blindness can be deadly, especially to those who are very young, old, or poor.
No less a peace-maker than Mother Teresa said about Operation Eyesight Universal, “The joy of giving sight to the blind is one of the most beautiful gifts a human being can give to another. So keep up the joy of giving – for gifts of love and gifts of peace.”
International Youth: Sheena Parris
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Bubbly, with a mass of shoulder-length curls, Sheena Parris is a force to be reckoned with. Her friends describe her as compassionate, caring, committed, and selfless.
The Centennial High School student is deeply involved in social justice and peace initiatives.
Through her membership in Centennial's Social Justice Club, she organized “Christmas with a Conscience,” a fair-trade bazaar offering socially-just gift alternatives over the Christmas season and “Oath of Silence,” an event that helped students contemplate the invisibility of the world's forgotten children and the tragedy of child soldiers in Uganda.
She has been both a participant and presenter at the Global Youth Summit, an annual event that connects teens with an interest in international issues and increases their global awareness
Sheena is also the co-founder of Student Voice, a group that focuses on creating a unified and peaceful school environment through open communication.
“We created Student Voice as a platform to connect teachers, administrators, parents, and students. Student Voice is a unified way to communicate and a positive way for students to voice concerns and really be able to transport their ideas to the right people.”
Next year, Sheena plans to study sociology or social anthropology with a minor in health studies to prepare herself to do humanitarian work, something she is clearly very passionate about.
YMCA Staff Peace Medal: Judi Rich
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Even at a young age, Judi Rich was intrigued by great existential questions and troubled by conventional answers.
“As I became older, the questions became more troublesome as I tried to define what I was going to do with my life,” she explains. “At the same time, a very close friend passed away. It seemed quite important to use whatever time I had left to secure the answers that she never had time to.”
It was in 1992, with her introduction to the Brahma Kumaris, an international group dedicated to the study and embodiment of peace, that Judi began her transformation. The Brahma Kumaris teach that “when I change, the world changes.” They dedicate themselves to studying peace through learning, meditation, walking the talk, and service.
Judi believes that peace is a personal responsibility, created not by external forces but within ourselves. “For many people, peace is the end of an aversive state or something that we are hoping someone else will create for us. But I really think that peace is a personality trait or a way of being.”
At work, Judi works to inspire peace by sharing daily inspirational messages with her colleagues and has organized Peace Cafés to engage youth.
Judi has dedicated her life to becoming a peaceful person. She is an inspiration to those who come in contact with her at YMCA Calgary.
Humanitarian Peace Medal: Dr. Chris Brooks
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A successful Calgary physician, Dr. Chris Brooks gave up his Calgary medical practice just over ten years ago to move with his family to Malawi in South East Africa “because it was the right thing to do.”
At that time, there were very few doctors in Malawi. “I was the 94th doctor for 12 million people,” Dr. Brooks explains. “I was told that out in the rural areas there was no medical care at all. So after taking a deep breath, I loaded a truck with myself, a Malawian nurse and a box of medicines and we drove out and opened a clinic under a Baobab tree. We had 370 patients that day.”
Working with a small staff, Dr. Brooks established a medical presence in Ngodzi, a rural Malawian community of 40,000 with no trained medical personnel and no access to medicine.
Since then, Dr. Brooks has taken on the roles of doctor, pharmacist, project manager, administrator, fund raiser, and educator. In just ten short years, Lifeline Malawi has constructed two full-time medical health clinics that provide primary health care, maternity services, HIV/AIDS treatment, and health care training for more than 150,000 Malawians each year. His clinic now employs more than 100 local people.
“For me, it's been terrific. I've had a wonderful life in Canada being a doctor, but I've had a wonderful life in the past 11 years in Malawi. It's been a blast.”
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