Africa Awareness Week - Day 2 - Student Speaker Series

Webcast sponsored by Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. THE TUMAINI PROJECT, Combining ideals and pragmatism, we are bringing together people who are actively involved in ‘Re-Writing the Story’ and who are able from their own experiences of the process required to bring dreams to reality. By hosting this discussion that showcases voices from various disciplines, professions, and levels of engagement, we hope to engage in a real discussion about this context, and in so doing, build the practical skills, knowledge, and understandings needed to engage in this dream. It is a space to collaborate, share ideas, and develop meaningful connections with others, focusing specifically on the Story of the African continent, and the role that our generation can play within

Facilitator:

Peter Wanyenya is a “son of the soil” with roots in eastern Africa and shared ancestry with the Bamasaaba people through their common ancestor, Masaaba. He is the International Student Advisor, Special Populations & Programs at the University of British Columbia. In this role, he serves as the program advisor for over 90 undergraduate scholars in the UBC International Scholars Programs and provides support to the UBC World University Service of Canada Local Committee and Student Refugee Program. Peter also co-manages the UBC Really? Campaign, which promotes intercultural understanding and respect for diversity on campus.

Peter is driven by core values of equity, diversity, and intercultural understanding. He is invested in activities that foster the wellbeing of children and youth, and leverage their potential. Due to this passion he is a national policy working group member through the National Alliance for Children and Youth. He has served as an “at-risk” children and youth worker in multiple inner city communities in Toronto, and led educational programming for Indigenous children at UBC and the Musqueam Nation village. Peter has also coordinated a BC-wide anti-oppression project for children and youth in elementary and secondary schools.

Peter has earned a Bachelor of Commerce, Masters in Educational Psychology, and has the privilege of pursuing a Doctorate through the UBC Institute of Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Social Justice.

Speakers:
James Kamau is an accomplished youth advocate and social entrepreneur, hebelieves in the extraordinary potential of young people. Since his high school years, Kamau nurtured a unique interest in the empowerment of youth. He was born and raised in Dagoretti County of Nairobi, Kenya. His experiences as a child growing up in a community deprived by poverty and crime led to a desire for social change; James earnestly entered the world of social activism in 2003 and has spent the last ten years performing youth work and facilitating community driven development. James moved to Canada in 2006, and in 2008 founded Youth Initiative Canada, a multi-dimensional organization that empowers youth through sports, education and entrepreneurship. Through his community involvement James work has been featured in multiple media houses and he has also been honored to receive prestigious awards that include; 2011 Me To We Award for Social Action presented by Canadian Living Magazine and Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for community service in January 2013.

Tamara Baldwin is a self-described ‘learner in action’, a title she intends to retain for all her years to come. Over the past decade Tamara has spent a fair amount of time living and working between Canada and South-Eastern Africa, primarily in Nairobi, Kenya. Tamara holds a M.Sc. in Poverty Reduction and Development Management from the University of Birmingham and is currently the Associate Director, International Service Learning Programs here at UBC. In part, Tamara was drawn to ISL after witnessing the negative impacts of an international volunteer sending organization, Tamara found herself merging a number of past experiences to consider if it was possible to have a positive alternative and what might that look like. Like many, she herself continues to be critical of the role of the ‘outsider’ in development, a lens that she aims to keep front and centre in the work that she does. Collaboration is a key value that Tamara holds, and is part of what drives her passion for her current work. Connecting, talented, driven and focused CBO’s and NGO’s with faculty and students who are equally as talented, driven and curious, and then helping them collectively push the boundaries on possibilities keeps her where she wants to be as a ‘learner in action’.

Daniel Mundeva was born and raised in a small town Kahama, in Tanzania. He was educated in Tanzania until 2008 when he left for Canada in pursuit of further education at UBC. He graduated from the university with a Geography degree in 2012 and went on to work for Barrick Gold Corporation as an Environmental Specialist based out of the company’s headquarters in Toronto. Throughout his pursuits, Daniel has gained international experience in Australia, Tanzania, Chile and England. Daniel subsequently returned to Vancouver at the end of 2013 and is currently working for UBC.

Daniel is very passionate about people, development and the environment. He believes that sustainability in all its aspects (social, economical and environmental) is attainable. Through his experiences, Daniel believes that there is a “Unique African Story” which awaits to be written. This story involves development, education, culture and politics, which he looks forward to further exploring during AAI’s Conference Week. He believes that there is great potential in youth and that it is up to the young African leaders to recognize the different forms of prosperity, independence and ingenuity belonging to Africa.

Dr. Shafik Dharamsi is an Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC). From 2005-2010 he served as Associate Director of the UBC Centre for International Health, and presently as Lead Faculty for the Global Health Network at the Liu Institute for Global Issues within the Faculty of Arts; Lead Faculty for the Social Accountability and Community Engagement within the Faculty of Medicine; and Lead Faculty for Student Engagement within the College of Health Disciplines. His scholarship is interdisciplinary, with a focus on social responsibility and accountability in health professions education, and ethical issues around global/international engagement initiatives . Prior to joining UBC he was with the Aga Khan Development Network implementing an extensive health promotion and early-childhood development initiative in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. His work has been featured on a Canadian television documentary series, The Global Villagers. Dr. Dharamsi pioneered the UBC Ethics of International Engagement and Service Learning initiative that aims to raise critical consciousness and to prepare students for ethical leadership, civic engagement and global social responsibility.

Dr. Julie MacArthur currently holds posts as an Assistant Professor of African History at the University of British Columbia and a Visiting Research and Teaching Fellow at the Makerere Institute for Social Research in Kampala. Previously she held a SSHRC postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Toronto and taught at McGill University and the University of Cambridge, where she received her PhD in African History in 2010. Her first book manuscript on mapping, ethnogenesis and dissent in colonial Kenya is currently under review with Ohio University Press and she is also working on two forthcoming book projects, one on mapping decolonization, sovereignty and border conflicts in eastern Africa and the other on the trial of the infamous Mau Mau general Dedan Kimathi. She has also worked extensively in the field of African cinema, both professionally through curating African cinema at film festivals and special exhibits across Canada, East Africa and Europe, and academically through the study of cinema as a central technology by which Africans compose, edit and consolidate their pasts, and as a means to express and engage with pressing social and political concerns in contemporary Africa.