A-Z Challenge: W is for World University Service of Canada (WUSC)

Of all my A-Z posts, this one is the most important to me. World University Service of Canada (WUSC) is my life. I've been volunteering with WUSC for eight years and every year since I initially got involved my life has changed substantially for the better.

WUSC works towards a world in which all young people can grow up in safe, secure and supportive environments; have access to high quality education opportunities from early childhood to adulthood; are able to secure fair, decent and fulfilling employment; and can actively participate in all aspects of their society's development.

Every year through WUSC's Student Refugee Program (SRP), Brandon University sponsors a student from a refugee camp in Kenya, Malawi, or Thailand to come and gain a post-secondary education. It is these students that have continually changed my life over the past eight years. Each and every one of them climbs in and finds a comfortable place in my heart to call their own. The cross-cultural awareness that my eyes and mind have been opened up to is unfathomable and indescribable. All I can say over and over and over again is that WUSC and the SRP and these men and women have changed my life, made me a better person, taught me about humility, and renewed my faith in humanity time and time again.

The conditions in refugee camps are atrocious. Think of the worst living conditions you can imagine and multiply that by ten; those are the conditions of a refugee camp. Imagine what the conditions of their original homes must have been to force them to seek asylum in a place as awful as a refugee camp. That is where the students that live in a special corner of my heart come from.

When I meet them for the first time they are quite timid, so very thin, and incredibly thankful. The timidness slowly fades away as time passes and so does the thinness, but they never cease to be thankful for the opportunity to study in Canada, for the opportunity to change their lives, for the opportunity to have a real future. In actuality, though, it is I who am thankful. Thankful to know what it means to be a Muslim in Somalia, thankful to hear stories about witch doctors in South Sudan, thankful to taste real Ethiopian injera, so thankful to have these epitomes of the human spirit in my life.

 

Their success is my success. Their pride is my pride. Their happiness is my happiness. Their lives are my life.

I've been volunteering with WUSC at Brandon University for eight years. I'm leaving for Fredericton and the University of New Brunswick (UNB) in a few short months. As soon as I made up my mind to accept UNB's offer, I immediately contacted the WUSC committee at UNB Fredericton and got put on their mailing list. No matter where this world takes me, WUSC will always be a part of my life.

If you are interested at all in making a monetary contribution to WUSC, please visit my fundraising website. WUSC is strictly not-for-profit and all donations over $10 CAD will receive an official charitable tax receipt. 

Help me help these students; you won't regret it, I promise!

RAOK: DAY 84 - I am Grateful

Wednesday, May 16
Inspirational Quote: "Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom."





My Grateful List:

• At 28 years old, I am grateful for a mother that I can call at 7:30 a.m. when I've had a bad dream. 
• I am grateful to be working at Brandon University where I am given masses of used and unused textbooks that I, in turn, send to others in need. 
• It's May and we are going to hit 30 degrees Celsius, for that, I am grateful. 
• I am grateful for the friends I have currently residing in Kenya, Peru, Botswana, Thailand and the many friends who have traveled the world. 
• As I walked up the hill to my apartment, I came across some chalk art. "The World is My Canvas" and "Love is All You Need." I am grateful for the stranger who brightened up my strenuous uphill climb.

Other things I did today included donating $20 to the Cadet Wake-a-thon I mentioned on Day 82 and donating $20 to a colleague who is participating in the Caged for Critters fundraiser for Funds for Furry Friends. She is being locked in a make-shift jail cell until she raises a $250 bail. 

I also entered and started bombarding people to vote for Brandon University's WUSC Student Refugee Program in a contest being held by Better World Books. The winning entry, a.k.a. the entry with the most votes, wins $300 for their cause. So VOTE!

Remember Day 83? The half marathon, the raising money for WUSC, the insanity? Well, here's my new blog all about it. 21K for Change!