SCIC is excited to announce the 29th Annual Global Citizen Award Winners. Join us February 2nd in Regina and February 9th in Saskatoon, as we celebrate the contributions of these amazing Saskatchewan people and movements working for a more just and sustainable world: Joanne Blythe, Nest Saskatoon, Rhonda Rosenberg, Cheryl Stadnichuk, and Kyla Wendell McIntyre. Event details can be found on the International Development Week page. You can also visit the Global Citizen Awards page for a complete list of winners since 1990.
Rhonda Rosenberg has been working with the multicultural community in Saskatchewan for over 20 years. She has been the Multicultural Council of Saskatchewan (MCoS) Executive Director since 2009, bringing expertise and experience in multiculturalism, education, anti-racism, youth leadership, experiential education, non-profit management, and policy governance. Rhonda has worked intensively using transformative drama with youth and adults to explore racism and discrimination and find opportunities for positive change. Read Rhonda's Bio & Interview [coming soon!]
Cheryl Stadnichuk grew up in Guernsey, SK, and has been passionate about international and social justice issues since high school. Cheryl was one of the many Tools for Peace activists in the mid-80s who paired with farmers, church activists and health activists to conduct educational workshops around the province about Nicaragua. Since 1996, Cheryl has been the researcher for CUPE Saskatchewan, and has been acting in an advisory role for their Global Justice Committee for most of the last 15 years. Her insightful analysis has made her an invaluable resource for Saskatchewan and Canadian trade unions and NGOs seeking to deepen their relationships and engagement with similar groups in the global south. Read Cheryl's Bio & Interview [coming soon!]
Kyla Wendell McIntyre is a peace builder. She works alongside students from diverse countries, cultures, languages, and perspectives, teaching English as an Additional Language, creative writing, and mindfulness. In 2017, she developed a Mindful Creative Writing course that helps develop compassion, tolerance, peace-building skills, authentic communication, self-confidence, conflict resolution, and kindness for self and others. She is helping to create a culture of peace while giving the practical skills to achieve this. Read Kyla's Bio & Interview [coming soon!]
Joanne Blythe grew up on a mixed farm near Plunkett Saskatchewan and came to Saskatoon to attend the University of Saskatchewan. She has spent her working and volunteer life with non-profit community and international development organizations – the Saskatoon Women’s Calendar Collective, Project Ploughshares Saskatoon, the Saskatoon Women and Peace Collective, the CUSO Saskatchewan Regional Office, the Training for Health Renewal Project, and the current Mozambique Canada Maternal Health Project. For 30 years Joanne has played a vital role in supporting and overseas development programs and projects. Her contributions all required a sensitivity and awareness of the demands being made on communities and the different realities that people and communities work with. Read Joanne's Bio & Interview [coming soon!]
Nest Saskatoon was founded in July 1997 when a small group of Saskatonians, motivated by a desire to respond to the needs of a Nigerian refugee, met to discuss a suggestion from a refugee group in Winnipeg that Saskatoon should create its own group. Although the government refused to accept the young man that they had hoped to sponsor, by 1999 the first successful sponsorship brought Margaret, a Sudanese woman who had spent five years in refugee camps, to Canada. Since then, people from Iraq, Liberia, Burundi, Uganda, Afghanistan, Colombia, Ecuador, Syria, and Myanmar followed. Over the years, Nest Saskatoon has developed a few guiding principles: our job is to help build independence, ensure that refugee families can make their own decisions, and support the challenge of adjusting to a new country. Read Nest Saskatoon's story and Interview [coming soon!]