YMCA Peace Medal 2010

I was lucky enough to have been nominated for the YMCA Peace Medal Award last year and even more humbled to have won in the Humanitarian category.  The video outlines my work here in Calgary and further, abroad.  I can't watch it myself, it's a little ridiculous, but take a peek, take a minute and let's talk about making a difference, donate some money, donate some time.  All Acts of Love are important.  Shoot me a line: mom4life@shaw.ca or use the donate button under here.  

-M.

Selling the Cause

This is all new for me, the blogging, the raising funds, the awareness.  It's much easier to go about doing what you do without any attention and added processes, although it's important to share the passion, the "cause" just like you'd share anything.  If it's to inspire, to gain support or to increase an awareness of the goings on of a community struggling and the solutions we've found and the the things that have failed.


The work I do in Calgary is just a part of my chipping away at the mountains of trouble our society, whether in the microcosm of community or in the larger context of national and international tangles, has produced. Children have always been where my heart has gravitated to, so I've started a tradition to travel abroad yearly, when I have a summer's month or two off from teaching at my home-school, and open classrooms in orphanages.


It's India, the children, especially the girls, who are in the most need. They are in orphanages, in crowds, given away because it's the boys everyone want.  They get a nominal education in government schools, they don't learn English. Upon finishing their basic education, learning the appropriate way of carrying out common household chores, they are married and go to the homes of their husbands to continue the cycle of poverty and disadvantage. There's a chance for change here, there's a chance to get these girls when they are young, there's a chance to teach them, before they get told otherwise, that they are worth more than the dusty schools and crowded thatched roof classrooms that are in the business of producing wives not women. Last year, I opened a classroom in an orphanage on the tip of the continent, Madhurai, Ballar Illam, I trained a teacher, I brought material and I made a classroom.


The original intent of my trip was to provide the girls with a playmate, someone to help with chores, and while this sounded worthwhile when I was here, planning my trip, it soon turned into a short term and useless endeavour when I reached my destination.  The girls didn't need help doing their chores, they needed a spark, a light in the otherwise dreary world of 5:30 am chores to all day school to evening chores, waiting for a husband or some other way out of the place they were in.  They were beautiful, the material I brought was just enough, they were smart, they loved every minute of it.  The at first hesitant hands, exploring new colors, new letters, new numbers became excited and confident, curious and insistent.  It was the most inspiring thing I'd ever seen.


This year, I'd like to focus my efforts on a different part of India, specifically, Pune.  In Pune, there's a place called Maher, meaning "Mother's Home" in Marathi.  It's a place for women escaping domestic violence and abusive or life threatening situations.  Most of the time, these women have no place to go and children in tow as well.  It's these children I want to draw out, to alleviate the trauma they are suffering at the hands of an unforgiving and violent chain of events.  They will break the cycle of anger and poverty that has brought them to Maher if given the chance.  In the month I'm at Maher, I'd like to train a teacher in Montessori method, set up a classroom and give these children a chance to hope and dream.  At this time, I've been able to put together material for the school through private donations and just need to cover my travel costs there.  India is very far away and it costs a pretty penny to get there, I'm talking to a few companies, looking for some kind sponsors who are interested in the work I do, enough to support it and send me across an ocean.  If you are interested, and I hope you are, in helping, there's a donate button at the end of this.  Any amount means the world to me, eventually every such Act of Love will pool to become waves of change.  So let's make some change.

-M.

Me Myself and Everything

Welcome, welcome.  First to my heart and then to my blog.  Here you'll find a little bit about who I am, what I do and why I've chosen to dedicate as much time and effort as I can to carrying out small Acts of Love.


I'm Munira, I'm a proud Mother, a dedicated learner, a passionate teacher, an advocate, a maker, a doer. I reside in a big, busy city, Calgary, on the prairies, home of year round winters and short, glimmering summers.  In these recent years, in this nervous city, I've discovered a specific and unique love and joy in teaching young children.  In my community there are droves of young children who are being left behind by the public education system, languishing in their own perceived failures and differences in households that do not understand and are uncomfortable with the culture and lifestyle they exist in.  The children I teach come mostly from Central Asia, Afghanistan, and belong to families that have migrated to Canada in search of better jobs, better houses, safer streets and safer politics.  Now it's a period of adjustment, now their children are being caught with one foot in their homeland, homeculture, and the other foot hesitantly planted in this country, where the language is not theirs, the food is not theirs and the mannerisms or cultural cues are certainly not theirs.


These children are the children I open my doors to daily, pro bono, I catch them young. My living room, with all the furniture given away to families needier than mine, is now their classroom.  It's red and blue and full of the pattering of little feet and the hum of little voices.  All industrious, all excited, all learning.  This system will not break them, will not forget them.  Through the program I teach, the Montessori methods I impart, they will be ready to negotiate the public schools that so often leave their kind behind, in dusty corners and too-full rooms.  My students are 3 to 6, I teach 7 days a week, sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon, and my students learn to read, they learn to write, they learn grace and diligence and most importantly, they learn patience, they learn not to give up.  This is an exciting thing to watch and facilitate. 


All the school material as well as crafts and other learning tools are all paid for out of pocket and from any private donations I receive.  My school is in the process of certification, licensing with the city and soon I will be able to take 6 children for 3 hours every morning and 6 children for 3 hours every afternoon.  Soon I'll ask the government for subsidies for the ESL students I teach.  The need is more than I can fill but I'm plugging away anyway, one act of love is worth its weight in gold.  What if we all took the time to teach a needy child in our community or contribute to their education, in monetary or material means, what would the world look like?  Get in touch with me if you can offer something, material, monetary support, words of support, anything, I'm open and I'm looking:  mom4life@shaw.ca


-M.