Author: Nelly Sérandour-Amar

Categories
News

A Concordia student distributes education

A Concordia student distributes education in Greece. Photo by Nelly Serandour-Amar.

A group of Montreal students travelled to Greece to help educate young refugees

A group of Montreal students, including one from Concordia, travelled to Greece over the summer with a goal to educate and help young adults from refugee camps in the Northern part of the country. Concordia student Joelle Assaf and three of her friends felt personally affected by the current refugee crisis. “We knew we wanted to do something to help out, but we were not sure exactly how to approach it,” said Assaf.

The group initially wanted to work in a Lebanese refugee camp, due to their personal attachment to the country, as three of them are Lebanese. However, this proved to be too dangerous due to constant war attacks occurring in Syria, she said. After doing their research, they chose work at a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Greece, very close to the Serbian border.

In order to pay for the trip and supplies, the group started crowdfunding. They received approximately 3000 euros. “We didn’t know exactly what to do with this money, and so working with the NGO really helped us see what these camps had and what they needed,” said Assaf.

They visited several refugee camps, including Idomeni, the largest in Greece. They spent about a week distributing food, clothes and various other necessities.

They eventually ended up in a refugee camp called Echo. “We saw all of their very interesting projects going on, for example there’s a group of volunteers that were working in the [Echo] kitchen so all the refugees could eat,” Assaf said.

She also worked on building a shower for babies at the camp. “The hygiene was very bad, with eight plastic bathrooms for a thousand people,” Assaf said. “It’s not easy to shower, especially if you have a baby.”

The group also noticed there was a lack of focus on education, Assaf said. “Teenagers and adults were not doing anything. They started university but had to stop because of the war,” she said. This is what gave the team the idea to build a library close to Echo, at Vasilika refugee camp, home to 2000 Syrian, Iraqi and Kurdish people.

“By building one, it would help young people figure out what they want to do for their life,” Assaf said.

The library aims to provide a reading space, access to online courses, learning tools and tutoring, according to the library’s website.

The process of building the library was not easy, though. All of the projects in the refugee camps must be approved by the Greek government. To avoid such issues for now, volunteers decided to rent land very close to Echo and use it to run projects independent of the Greek government. Once they get approval from the government, they will build a library in the Echo camp.

Now that Assaf is in Montreal, she is looking for Arabic-English dictionaries to bring back to the library so that refugees coming to North America know enough of the language to communicate effectively.

The group is currently back in Montreal, organizing different fundraisers to raise money for more books. The group already has an active Facebook page and a website. They hope to start recruiting more volunteers as the project progresses.

For more information, visit their website.

Categories
News

Jack.org Concordia talks mental health

Photo by Nelly Serandour-Amar.

The student organization supports and guides those who need assistance

University can be challenging, and some undergraduates do not know about the free counselling and psychological services offered at the university. However, Jack.org Concordia ensures the student body is aware of the resources available to them.

Jack.org Concordia is a branch of the larger, national Jack.org network. The goal of this network, made up of young leaders, is to change the way people think and talk about mental health.

The organization was founded five years ago after a young man named Jack Windeler died by suicide, Jack.org Concordia’s president, Alexis Lahorra, explained. Windeler was set to begin his first year of university but was struggling with mental health and did not reach out for help. In the wake of his son’s passing, his father, Eric Windeler, created Jack.org with the help of his colleagues and friends. Today, the nation-wide organization is changing the way students think about mental health.

Jack.org Concordia is a registered club with the Concordia Student Union. Ten executive members make up the team, and they work in a non-pyramid way—if someone has an idea, they all support each other and work as a team. “The cool thing about the team is that we are all from different programs,” said Lahorra. “We didn’t know it would be so diverse, but everyone has a story to share.”

Lahorra initially had the idea to start Jack.org Concordia. During her first year of university at Concordia, she found the transition hard, coming from CEGEP. “My friends noticed that I wasn’t attending classes and that my behaviour changed,” said Lahorra. After she learned that free services were offered at school, she realized that recovery was possible. She realized that if this happened to her, it must be happening to other students, too. She decided it was time to end that silence and started the club during her second year at Concordia.

Jack.org is divided into three parts: The Jack Chapters, Jack Summit, and Jack Talks.

The Jack Chapters are where students come together to ensure that the conversation about mental health is open to everyone. The chapters host fun activities, such as open mic nights to raise awareness for mental health. Many Canadian universities have Jack Chapters, including Concordia and McGill.

The Jack Summit, held in Toronto, brings together 200 student leaders to develop strategies for positive impact and to speak about mental health as a group.

Finally, there are Jack Talks, a program which trains young speakers on how to give talks to the students and to the community. Lahorra is part of this program—she was a speaker at a high school in Kingston, Ont., and at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. and world health organization joint summit on mental health.

The Jack.org Concordia’s events are designed to open up the conversation about mental health and promote mental health services. Their first event was held last year at Kafein on Bishop Street. The event featured singing, dancing and poem recitals—students were encouraged to openly share their personal stories.

“It was so powerful,” said Lahorra about the open mic night. “By seeing all the performers share their stories, more people decided to do the same and [take] the stage.”

The Concordia chapter also had a movie night where students were served coffee, tea and were provided with colouring tools. “Colouring is a good way to de-stress, we’ve found,” said Lahorra.

This year, Lahorra said the chapter is planning on hosting an event including panelists from the psychology department professors and those who wish to share their personal stories.

For more information about Jack.org Concordia, visit csu.qc.ca/clubs/jackorg or www.jack.org.

Categories
News

The Return of the Hive

The Hive comes back with exciting projects for a new school year

It’s not always easy to find healthy food on both campuses of the university, but CSU’s popular cooperative café the Hive is back for a delicious year, as of Sept. 6.

Over the summer, the café has been working to get approved for the Concordia catering list. Finance and administration coordinator Leigh Hoffman said that being added to this list means the Hive will be able to cater at events and further grow its business. With this opportunity, Concordia’s co-op café will be able to provide their food and space for their upcoming Concordia and Hive events.

The co-op café is also revamping its menu. “We will have egg salad sandwich, grilled cheese with caramelized onions, green vegetables sandwiches, and of course our peanut butter cookies will come back,” said Hoffman.

Hoffman also mentioned that customers will now have the option to have a life membership, at the cost of 5$.. This includes a 10 per cent discount on all products, and members can vote during the Hive’s general assembly. According to Hoffman, all their members have an equal vote at the general assemblies, and the co-op wants its members to have a say in the operation of the cafés through their meetings.

It is a fun and engaging initiative that gets the members involved and creating committees. Right now, they have an art committee and a decoration committee—but they are always looking for more ways to encourage membership. These committees proposes how to decorate the Hive’s space, they can put up paintings on the walls, and also bring out plants for decoration.

The Hive has also managed to become sustainable. The cafés compost, recycle and encourage students to bring their own mug for hot beverages. They both operate as non-profit cooperatives, and they are financially self-sustaining, according to Hoffman.

For their upcoming events, the Hive will hold an open mic night, and a board games and trivia night during the CSU’s orientation. They will also continue their poetry nights later this semester. They will be continuing their free lunch program, which offers a free, vegan, nut-free lunch every school day at the Loyola campus between 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. Since the Hive is a co-op, students are in charge of cooking together to ensure that the meal is healthy and served on time.

All students are welcome to volunteer at the Hive.  Responsibilities include preparing, cooking and serving food, and cleaning at either location. The Hive can provide references for volunteers and they also encourage students to put the experience on their CVs.

Students can visit the Hive at the Loyola Campus (2nd floor of the Student Centre building) and at the downtown campus (in the mezzanine of the Hall building).

Categories
Concordia Student Union News

What’s new with the CSU

The CSU executives preparing for one of their biggest year yet

For the Concordia Student Union, one thing is clear—students’ needs come first. Here is what you can expect from CSU’s coordinators this year.

Orientation Concordia

Orientation is the first big project for the CSU this year, as it will welcome students from all different programs starting next week. Rachel Gauthier, the student life coordinator, is currently organizing the 30 events that will be taking place from Sept. 6 to 16. These 10 days of activities include concerts featuring local bands, club fairs, a hip-hop show and a special night out to the OUMF 2016 festival.

It’s the first year that the CSU will be partnering up with the OUMF “Gala humour de la rentrée,” taking place on Saint-Denis street. “This festival is completely french, which is really cool because it’s something that was never done before, and Montreal is a bilingual city,” Gauthier said.

Another major event during orientation will be “Wellness Day,” which will include workshops focusing on mental, social and physical wellness. Gauthier said she wants students to know what resources are available to them, and to partake in activities that make them feel better.

For more information on the CSU’s orientation week, visit their website: csuorientation.ca.

Divest Concordia

The CSU has also partnered up with Divest Concordia, which aims to divest from the university’s investment in the fossil fuel industry.

“Concordia still has investments in fuel companies that are extremely harmful to our nature,” said Aloyse Muller, the head of the campaign and the CSU’s external affairs and mobilization coordinator. Muller said he wants to create social discussion about the issue through multiple avenues, one of them being from a financial point of view.

He also wants to put an emphasis not only on climate change, but on the communities that are affected by it daily. Open to all, Divest Concordia is looking for people to get involved  in various ways, such as discussion of the issues through art, demonstrations and petitions.

Sustainability at Concordia

Sustainability coordinator Lanna Galbraith said there are different projects in progress aimed to make students feel more comfortable and included at Concordia.

Starting in September, she said she hopes that the number of gender neutral bathrooms for students will increase.

Galbraith said there will also be emphasis on having a CSU that is more representative of the various cultures and ethnic backgrounds present at Concordia. She said the goal is to create workshops on social issues, now that environmental and economical topics have a good framework.

“I think it’s time to start a couple of social projects so that, when we think of sustainability, we don’t only think of it as environmentalism,” Galbraith said. In fact, sustainability is a balancing act that includes environmental protection, social responsibility and good economic practice, she said. Additionally, the CSU is working to make their office space more accessible for all students.

Affordable Housing for Students

Coming to Montreal for the first time to start university can be a bit scary, which is why HOJO, the CSU’s Housing and Job Office, helps students find safe, clean and affordable housing in Montreal. The union will be partnering up with UTILE (Unité de travail pour l’implantation de logement étudiant), a non-profit organization based in Montreal dedicated to creating affordable student housing. Their goal is to build student housing with below average rent that will be managed by students, said the CSU’s General Coordinator, Lucinda Marshall-Kiparissis. “By building cooperative student housing that is not beholden to commercial interest, we’re able to say that we want affordable housing for students, and we want it so we’re not being a detriment to the neighbourhood,” she said. UTILE already purchased land on the plateau, but the project will take two to three years to really take off, she said.

Daycare

With a daycare already available at Loyola Campus for faculty and staff, CSU is taking the initiative to bring a daycare to the Sir George Williams (SGW) downtown campus for students with children.

Sophia Sahrane, the academic and advocacy coordinator, is currently working on this project. “This project was launched eight years ago when the university conducted a study to see if the undergraduate and graduate students needed a daycare,” she said. “The study yielded positive results and earned municipal approval, however, the initiative faded and nothing happened.”

“Not only do these parents have a job, but they have a kid, classes to attend and homework to do,” the CSU’s general coordinator, Marshall-Kiparissis, added. Sahrane receives emails from parents interested in the daycare on a daily basis. “We need the paperwork from the government, which should arrive soon, and then we will start demolition and open registration,” Sahrane said. She mentioned that the daycare will be located on Bishop street, focusing on undergraduate students’ children, but with some place for graduate students’ children as well.

For more information on these projects, the CSU encourages students to visit their website, csu.qc.ca. They have offices on Sir George Williams campus (H-711) and at the Loyola Campus (CC-426).

Exit mobile version