G Day For Girls is a new global social movement anchored by day-long events that celebrate and empower tween girls ages 10-12. The next one in the Vancouver area is coming up in October and will be open for over 100 girls aged 10-12 and 100 adult Champions in an intergenerational, empowering community celebration of girls as they transition from childhood into adolescence.
G Day for Girls
When: Friday, October 20, 2017 9:00am to 3:00pm Where: Ismaili Centre Burnaby, 4010 Canada Way, Burnaby, Tickets:On sale now for $50 (plus service charge) for girls and adult champions. A limited quantity of sponsored tickets are available for girls who would not otherwise be able to attend G Day for financial reasons.
Speakers include trans rights activists Michelle and Tru Wilson, Minister of Advanced Education, Skills, and Training, Hon. Melanie Mark, YWCA Metro Vancouver Culture Shift project lead Lori Boland, CEO & Co-Founder of Webnames.ca Cybele Negris, and musician & CBC Searchlight Competition winner Desiree Dawson.
G Day began in the spring of 2014 with over 500 girls and their champions attending both 2014 events in Vancouver. In 2015, G Day was met again with incredible community support and attendance in Vancouver. G Day Toronto launched in April 2015, and G Day Victoria took place in September 2015 and 2016. This year’s event is produced by the charity United Girls of the World Society, which anticipates Toronto, Whitehorse, and Calgary as future G Day host cities.
Guest post contributed and written by Jen Murtagh. All photos by Candace Meyer Photography.
I had yearned to visit Kenya from the time I was a little girl. I was obsessed with documentaries of the Serengeti and incensed by the Ethiopian famine that took the lives of so many children my own age. Those images and the idea of Africa has stuck with me most of my life and although I didn’t know when, I did know I would one day make the trip to a continent that called my name.
Jen Murtagh with Ganze School Girls
I landed in Kenya in the dark but I could feel the energy even if I couldn’t see it. Nairobi vibrates in a way that you sense the moment you step off the plane and onto the tarmac.
A chance meeting with the indomitable Lotte Davis in 2015 had brought me to Kenya. Lotte is the co-founder of Burnaby based global hair care line AG Hair, and the force and founder behind One Girl Can. A native South African, Lotte returned to Kenya many years ago and travels twice a year to oversee school projects. She mentors and connects with the girls, while running One Girl Can’s women’s leadership conference for their university scholarship recipients. Growing up as a young girl in South Africa in the age of apartheid, and witnessing the deepest levels of social injustice and gender inequality, drives Lotte’s vision to empower and educate the girls of sub-Saharan Africa in order to break the cycle of poverty.
Lotte Davis, Founder One Girl Can
Thankfully Lotte was quite open to me tagging along with her on her most recent visit to Kenya. Established in 2013, Vancouver-based One Girl Can has made considerable advancements in a relatively short period of time. The key to their growing success? Meticulous oversight, low administration and Lotte’s passionate drive to reach as many girls as possible. To date, the organization has built 6 schools, provided scholarships for 190 girls and mentored 7,000 — and their impact continues to grow exponentially.
One Girl Can believes that education is the key to alleviating poverty and their work is focused on a cycle of empowerment that begins with building and improving schools. From there, they identify girls whose parents are struggling to pay their school fees and offer them scholarships.
Girls from Ganze School
Girls on scholarship must maintain a B average, showing their commitment to their studies. Through hand-picked mentors and program managers, each girl in school will go through four different mentorship programs. They then have the opportunity to be supported through their university studies with a further scholarship and stipend for living expenses. Finally, One Girl Can provides ongoing support to the girls, helping them to find internship opportunities and preparing them for their careers.
My role on this trip was simple – try to keep up with Lotte’s fervent and impressive pace of doing as much as possible in 24 short hours and provide support in running a few leadership workshops for both their high school and university scholarship recipients.
Lotte Davis meeting with girls from Ushrika School, Kiberia
Our first day, we visited a school in the middle of the Nairobi Kiberia Slums, the biggest slum in Kenya. One million people existing in abject poverty, with no running water, sanitation and very little electricity. When you are immersed in this you do start to grasp why 64% of girls are not attending school. School fees in Kenya are close to $700 a year and with most families surviving on $1.90 a day, it’s nearly impossible. This is why One Girl Can’s work is so vital.
Over the next week we visited more areas, including Ganze School in Kilifi and Masinga School about three hours outside of Nairobi. The transformations at both of these schools thanks to One Girl Can is simply breathtaking. Classrooms, science labs, dormitories, fresh paint and new washing and bathroom facilities all paid for by generous donations. The smiles, songs and gratitude when we arrived signalled to me the profound impact the donations have made on these girls’ lives.
I feel honoured to have had the opportunity to travel to Africa and participate in a cause that is deeply woven into the fabric of my heart. As a mother of an eight year-old girl, the importance of gender equality and equal rights is paramount. Education is a fundamental key to poverty alleviation and these girls deserve just as much of a chance as my own daughter does.
Ganze School
To some, Africa might seem like a world away but I believe we all have a collective responsibility to leave this world a better place. The Dalai Lama has said “the world will be saved by the western woman” and what better place for us to share our resources and make a profound impact than in Kenya — a country where only 24% of girls make it to secondary school. We have the chance to change the lives of countless girls. Don’t you think we should take it?
My hope, with this piece, is to inspire other men and women to get a group of friends together and sponsor a girl either as a collective or individually, through One Girl Can. What a beautiful way to celebrate your friendship and pay it forward. You will receive letters from the girl you sponsor, hear about where she goes to school and learn more about her.
One donation can change a life. For more information and to view girls who currently need sponsorship, please visit: OneGirlCan.com
The 22nd annual Fort Langley Cranberry Festival returns October 7th, celebrating the harvest and history of the cranberry in the region.
Fort Langley Cranberry Festival
Where: Fort Langley Village (free) & Fort Langley Historic Site (free for Canada 150) When: Saturday, October 7, 2017 from 10:00am to 4:00pm
Unique vendors, free entertainment, pancake breakfast, and family activities await everyone for what is always a great day in the centre of Fort Langley. Join over 60,000 other people from all over the region for this community celebration. This year there will be free shuttles running from Trinity Western University and Walnut Grove Secondary from 9:30am to 4:00pm so you don’t have to worry about parking!
Over at Fort Langley National Historic Site, enjoy free admission for Canada 150! Experience the popular cranberry stomp, and play a host of cranberry and farm related games. Don’t miss the wonderful cranberry-themed market in the village.
About BC Cranberries
I researched cranberries around the region for a piece I wrote for Tourism Vancouver a few years ago and found all kinds of interesting facts:
The cranberry is one of only three commercially-grown fruits that are native to North America.
Traditionally, cranberries were hot trading commodities at Fort Langley (aka the Birthplace of BC) as local First Nations used them for food, dyes, and medicine. They would trade cranberries for HBC blankets, beads, and other items. In fact in 1858, cranberries were actually worth more than salmon.
Of all the cranberries harvested in Canada every year, about 60% are grown for Massachusetts-based Ocean Spray, to which most BC cranberry growers belong as a cooperative — as a result 90% of BC cranberries are shipped to the USA.
Approximately 50% of BC’s crop is used to make sweetened dried cranberries, 40% is made into juice, 9% is sold whole frozen and 1% is sold fresh, according to the Government of BC.
Nominations are now open for the 35th annual YWCA Women of Distinction Awards. Recognizing local women for their contributions to their workplace, industry, and community, the awards will be handed out at a ceremony in June of 2018.
The Women of Distinction Awards support the YWCA’s 45 programs and services that help women, children, youth and families at turning points in their lives. It is a chance to pay tribute to our community’s outstanding women and organizations and to support much-needed programs and services crucial to building brighter futures for vulnerable women and children.
Nominations Open
You can nominate an individual or a workplace in the following categories: Arts, Culture & Design; Business & the Professions; Community Building; Education, Training & Development; Entrepreneurship; Environmental Sustainability; Health, Wellness & Active Living; Non-Profit & Public Service; Technology and Science Research; and Young Woman of Distinction.
Nomination Information Session
Tuesday, October 3, 2017 from 5:15pm to 6:30pm
YWCA Program Centre, 535 Hornby St (4th Floor) Register here »
Nominations for the 2018 Women of Distinction Awards are now open and will close on Friday, January 19, 2018 at 12:00pm PST.
The 35th annual YWCA Women of Distinction Awards will be held at the JW Marriott parq Vancouver on Thursday, June 7, 2018.
Follow the YWCA of Vancouver on Facebook and Twitter for more information along with the YWCA Women of Distinction Awards @YWVanWODA on Twitter.
YWCA Metro Vancouver is dedicated to achieving women’s equality. Their mission is to touch lives and build better futures for women and their families through advocacy and integrated services that foster economic independence, wellness and equal opportunities.
The Vancouver International Film Festival (“VIFF”) brings films from around the globe to its audience, inviting viewers to share great stories and unique personal visions in a communal, celebratory environment. This year the festival kicks off with the latest from Vancouver’s own Mina Shum.
VIFF Opening Gala Film
Where: The Centre for Arts (777 Homer St, Vancouver) When: Thursday, September 28, 2017 at 7:00pm
Opening Gala filmMeditation Park is a moving exploration of marriage and infidelity, as well as a humorous tribute to Vancouver itself.
Maria (Cheng Pei Pei) has spent decades of devoted marriage dutifully excusing the prejudices and vices of her husband (Tzi Ma). But when she discovers another woman’s thong in his pocket, she embarks on some unintentionally comic sleuthing which soon introduces her to new East Vancouver communities and ultimately sets her on the course to self-discovery. Mina Shum makes an inspired return to narrative feature filmmaking with this richly detailed, emotionally rewarding and unmistakably Vancouver story.
VIFF Closing Gala Film
Where: The Centre for Arts (777 Homer St, Vancouver) When: Friday, October 13, 2017 at 7:30pm
The festival season ends with VIFF’s Closing Gala film, Todd Haynes’ Wonderstruck, a luminous tale of two children and the special inspiration that drives them.
Todd Haynes (Carol) returns with a marvellous time-travelling tale that follows the parallel fortunes of two deaf 12-year-olds—Ben (Oakes Fegley), a lad in 1977 Michigan, and Rose (luminous newcomer Millicent Simmonds), a girl in 1927 New Jersey—who, for seemingly different reasons, are drawn to a gloriously rendered New York City in search of their own burgeoning identities… “Intricate and ambitious… Embraces so many shimmery, evanescent ideas, it’s a marvel that any one picture… can hold them.”—Time
Win Tickets
I have a a pair of passes to the Closing Gala Film and Closing Gala Party to give away to a lucky Miss604 reader. Here’s how you can enter to win:
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Click below to post an entry on Twitter
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I will draw two winners at random from all entries at 12:00pm on Wednesday, October 4, 2017.
Follow VIFF on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for more information about the festival, its events, special guests, and films.
Miss604 is a proud Media Partner of the Vancouver International Film Festival
