Cultivating Active Citizenship: Inspiring Young Canadians to make a difference

Dougherty says that inspiring young Canadians to take action goes beyond Facebook likes and Twitter followers. It’s about getting personal with youth and asking them – face-to-face – to get involved.

Active citizenship is about “understanding our power as individuals and as a collective to make change and to be agents of change,” said Dougherty.

Apathy is Boring is a non-partisan charity that uses art and technology to educate Canadian youth about democracy and motivate them to get involved in their communities, while the EYES Project promotes the importance of community-building and environmental sustainability in youth education, and offers a forum for Canadian educators and students to discuss these issues. Both aim to engage youth in active citizenship.

“When I think of strategies to engage young people, I always start with the premise that we all come to a learning experience with personal knowledge and life experiences,” said Glithero, highlighting the importance of making education personal.

Learning that is driven by youths’ interests and passions becomes an avenue for engagement with local and global issues, she explained.

Youth have plenty of good, innovative ideas to put forward – the key is to ensure that their ideas wind up on the desks of the people who need to hear them, including elected officials and other community leaders, said Dougherty. Youth also need to be involved in decision-making – and not just in token roles, added Glithero. They must be an integral part of the process.

The event was in celebration of 26 young Canadians who are undertaking eight-month placements in Africa and Asia through Aga Khan Foundation Canada’s 2013-14 International Youth Fellowship program. Every year, fellows are placed with partner organizations in the fields of development management, microfinance and microenterprise, and media in order to develop leadership skills, contribute to their host organizations, and learn about international development.

This year’s fellows come from coast-to-coast, bringing a diverse range of experience to the table: from working for the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh; to researching leisure activities in Malawi’s refugee camps; to arranging travel for Inuit from northern Quebec to working on community development projects in Kenya.

Over the next eight months, they will be put their experience and abilities to use while working in Egypt, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, Madagascar, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, India and Bangladesh. This year’s recipients are:

•          Adam Feather (Ottawa, ON) placed in Tanzania with the Aga Khan Foundation
•          Alim Fakirani (Montreal, QC) placed in Tanzania with Aga Khan University
•          Allison Enns (Winnipeg, MB) placed in Mozambique with Aga Khan Foundation
•          Alyza Devraj (Vancouver, BC) placed in Madagascar with the Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance
•          Andrea Shillolo (Emsdale, ON) placed in Kenya with Aga Khan Foundation
•          Andrew Lusztyk (Toronto, ON) placed in Kenya with Honey Care Africa Ltd
•          Caitlin Cassie (Coquitlam, BC) placed in Uganda with Aga Khan Foundation
•          David Meffe (Montreal, QC) placed in Kenya with Nation Media Group
•          Dhaarna Tangri (Surrey, BC) placed in the Kyrgyz Republic with Aga Khan Foundation
•          Douglas Lau (Burnaby, BC) placed in Tanzania with Aga Khan Health Services
•          Edward Zvekic (Gatineau, QC) placed in Egypt with the Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance
•          Flavie Halais (Montreal, QC) placed in Kenya with Nation Media Group
•          Hilary Clauson (Ottawa, ON) placed in Bangladesh with Aga Khan Foundation
•          Jamie Charlebois (Halifax, NS) placed in Bangladesh with CARE
•          Jessica Pisarek (Vancouver, BC) placed in India with Aga Khan Planning and Building Services
•          Kendra Thorogood (Ottawa, ON) placed in Tajikistan with First MicroFinance Bank
•          Laurence Couture Gagnon (Rimouski, QC) placed in Tajikistan with Aga Khan Foundation
•          Nabeel Ahmed (Mississauga, ON) placed in the Kyrgyz Republic with the University of Central Asia
•          Nicole Gladstone (Ottawa, ON) placed in Uganda with the Madrasa Resource Centre
•          Oksana Kovalenko (Toronto, ON) placed in the Kyrgyz Republic with the First MicroCredit Company
•          Olga Mirzoeva (Ottawa, ON) placed in Tanzania with CARE
•          Raafi-Karim Alidina (Edmonton, AB) placed in Bangladesh with Aga Khan Foundation
•          Rukshan Mehta (Toronto, ON) placed in India with Aga Khan Trust for Culture
•          Safiqa Kara (Calgary, AB) placed in Tajikistan with Aga Khan Health Services
•          Savannah Hallworth (Delta, BC) placed in the Kyrgyz Republic with the University of Central Asia
•          Tracey Evans (Oakville, ON) placed in Bangladesh with CARE

Check back to our International Youth Fellowship webpage to read about their experiences and to learn more about AKFC’s fellowship program.