A Week to End Poverty

March 15th- 19th, 2010
McGill University
All Proceeds go to the grassroots projects supported by End Poverty Now

SCHEDULE

5 Days for the Homeless
Spend a few days in someone else’s shoes and help raise awareness and funds against local poverty {read more}

Clothing and Non-Perishable Food Drive
Have a shirt or can of soup to spare? Bring it to our table and we’ll bring it to someone in need! {read more}

Guest Speaker Series
Monday, March 15th. 6:30 pm, Bronfman 011.
Become inspired. Become informed. Meet some people leading the fight against poverty. {read more}

Victoria Korsos, Montreal World Health Organization (MonWHO):

As the Assistant Chief of Operations for the Montreal World Health organization, This year, the MonWHO secretariat hosted a talk "Recognizing Pandemics: Public Health in an Interconnected World" by Dr. Timothy Brewer, Head of the McGill Global Health Programs, examining how the World Health Organization is facing recent pandemics. Listen to the recording: http://monwho.org/

Sky Bellefleur, Executive Director at Projet Autochtone du Quebec 

Sky was homeless for a long duration in her life but found the strength to uplift herself out of the cycle. She has been working with a wide variety of initiatives to support those that are homeless in Montreal since. PAQ is her most recent and most involved. It is a co-ed homeless shelter in China town, the heart of Montreal, that caters to the aboriginal community. It faces some of the strongest challenges imaginable, all of which Sky faces with perserverance, honesty, and hope. As a wealth of knowledge, a great public speaker, and truly a remarkable contribution to the greater community of Montreal, her words would be sure to move any audience.

 Steve Baird, Executive Director at the Darfur/Sudan Peace Network (DSPN) 

DSPN is a strong Canadian network and mobilizing force that dually raises funds for NGO's on the ground as well as acts as a resource tank to provide Canadians with the needed information and methods to push governments around the globe to act more for the hundreds of thousands facing severe conflict in the Darfur region. Steve has a great amount of knowledge around the issues presented in genocide and human rights. Also, he would be an excellent speaker for how the general public can mobilize to create the change they see fit in our world.

 Michael Watson, Director of Programs at the Institute for Cultural Affairs International 

Michael is the Director of Programs at the Institute of Cultural Affairs International (http://ica-international.org/index-en.html), but he wears many hats including communications, policy, community outreach, funding, and project management. Along with a small office of committed employees and a handful of interns / volunteers, he works hard to achieve the organization's mission which is "to advocate for and actualize the fundamental right of all peoples to define and shape their own futures, toward the goal of realizing sustainable, just solutions to human challenges."

Cooking up Hope
Tuesday, March 16th, 2:00-9:30 pm, Labre House
Provide a meal at one of Montreal’s great homeless centres and learn about volunteer opportunities. {read more}

If I Can’t Dance, it’s not my Revolution
Thursday, March 18th, 10:00pm- 3:00am. B-Side
$1 for every drink sold goes to EPN’s International grassroots projects. Entrance by donation.

Abhilasha for the Bollywood Movie and Indian Cooking Night
Friday, March 19th, 5:30-10:00pm. SSMU 302

5:30-6:30 Indian Cooking Workshop, Midnight Kitchen

6:30-10:00 Catered Indian Dinner and Movie

Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=388704289166

Poster (click here)

DJ, Drinks and Date Auction
Friday, March 19th, 9:30pm- 12:30 am. Gerts Bar, basement of the McGill SSMU building.
Come bid on some of McGill’s finest. Wrap up the week with some amazing music and cheap drinks. Never has ending poverty looked so attractive. See who we are auctioning!

GRASSROOTS PROJECTS

Projet Autochones du Quebec is a co-ed homeless shelter in Chinatown, the heart of Montreal, that caters to the aboriginal community. End Poverty Now has worked with them for many years. Funds from the 5 days campaign and all clothing donations will go to this important project

The Benedict Laber House is a day centre for the homeless in Griffintown. It provides the guests of the House with services such as hot meals, emergency food bags, clothing and showers, as well as services and programs to suit individual needs. Learn more at http://www.benedictlabre.org/. Our food drive non-perishables will be donated here as well as our meal from the Tuesday cooking event.

End Poverty Now is supporting a community school in Northern India as their main international project. The project will focus on some sustainable means including a gardening project, computers for skill training, and possibly a craft/sewing program. These areas will enable children to develop skills necessary for employment in their area as well as the potential access to secondary schooling that they would not have otherwise.

COLLABORATORS

Student Network for Economic Development (SNED) is currently supporting the South Asian Women’s Community Centre (SAWCC) “Autonomy & Independent Project”, which focuses on encouraging women (mostly immigrants of low income background) to become economically independent by starting their own group catering business. They focus on supporting low-income entrepreneurs through microfinance among developing communities. Abhilasha McGill has the goal of building a school in India for children with disabilities. Both organizations will be raising money for their projects with the film and cooking night on Friday.

CONTACT

epnmcgill@gmail.com