projecthope.pdf

Happening on Friday, April 18th…join the cause of Project Hope.

How to Buy Food Cheap

By Donna Kay Kakonge

Food, as you all know, is something that we need to survive. Whether you eat too much, too little or the right amount for your body type, here are some tips on how to cut down on your grocery expenses without starving.

If you are on a really tight budget, food banks are a great way to get free food. Some people volunteer there to stock on groceries. This could definitely be a great way to meet some interesting people with fascinating life stories as well. One new friend of mine named Greg who I met on my way to meet an old friend Simone, told me about his experience volunteering at a food bank not too far away from where we both live. He said that the people he met there were great and he also got a lot of free food.

Speaking of free food, Greg is a cook and gets a lot of free stuff from the restaurant he works at. If you are looking for a job and need to make ends meet, looking for something in the food industry may be a good way to earn an honest living and stock those empty shelves in your kitchen.

Also, a lot of restaurants and grocery stores throw away food at the end of the night. The Loblaws, close to where I live, have their sandwiches with healthy stuff in it like tuna, egg, cold meats and different kind of cheeses that are half price at closing time. You can get a $4 CDN sandwich for half the price and have all your meals set for the day.

If you are like me and you are a breakfast person who enjoys eggs, bacon and some home fries – check out governmental cafeterias. They often have food at discount prices that do not compare to food you will find in other restaurants for the same price. Remember, it is public property.

For dining out, there is always the fail safe “all you can eat buffet.” If you allow yourself to starve enough in the morning and go at a time when you know you will not need to eat again for the day, you can visit one of these places (the ones in Chinatown and Indian villages are especially good). Actually, you cannot go wrong checking out the food of the world wherever you may be located.

Now for the traditional grocery shopping – flyers and coupons are your friends. Plus, if you can stand the attitude at times (with the exception of local grocers) try going to places where you can bring your own bags or they may provide boxes for you to take your stuff. I was with a girlfriend Joan of mine and we saw a man riding his bike carrying another bicycle. If that could be done, imagine the strength you could build up carrying your groceries with your bike.

If you are blessed to have a car, you need to work out if it is worth it to drive to a supermarket with great deals, or just walk to the nearest one and save on gas. Let us hope the exercise will not kill you.

You can also take advantage of the fact the weather is still good and enjoy an old-fashioned farmer’s market. If you avoid the ones in the ritzy neighbourhoods, you can get great deals on everything from jams to corn. Sometimes these farmer’s markets have such amazing deals that it’s worth it to take your car, or rent one, to get out of town and do some shopping in a place a bit out of the way.

One of my fondest memories growing up was my Dad taking me and my siblings out to do apple-picking outside of Toronto. They say apples keep the doctors away, so stock up. It would be hard to live on apples alone, but at many of the orchards you can get a number of fruits dirt cheap and in large quantities.

If you are ever really starving and there is just nothing in the fridge and in the cupboards, there is a Chinese proverb that says “one can go without eating for many days, but needs green tea.” Mind you I received this proverb from my friend Steve and I do not know about its scientific basis. I would advise you not to try this at home, but green tea (which you can find inexpensively in China Town) is a great way to suppress your appetite, thus keeping your food costs down.

If you have a large family, buying in bulk is always an option. Places like Costco can be a good way to support an army. If you just basically need to support yourself, good advice I got from my friend Joan was to not stock on food. You can end up finding your shelves filled with things you will never eat. Buy what you need and then maybe the rest of the world will have more too.

I hope that helps since $100 can go pretty fast on food. I have seen it happen in the blink of an eye and not really understood what the woman in front of me in the grocery line was buying. Always check the prices of the food, remember flyers and coupons can be your friends if you are into that sort of thing and think cheap and be cheap.

Donna Kakonge is a freelance writer/communicator/professor in Toronto. Her books can be bought at: http://stores.lulu.com/kakonged. She is working on another book she is hoping will be published in 2008.

Getting Around for Less

By Donna Kay Kakonge

With high gas prices now it helps to know how to get around for less money. There are so many options; all you have to do is choose.

If you are travelling within a given city, check out AutoShare. You can rent a car by the hour and bring it back at many convenient locations within your city. This is great if you are planning to do grocery shopping because you have an army to feed or a hurricane is coming, either one. You may have somewhere special to go with someone special and need the wheels to impress. Whatever is your fancy? To find out more about this service, please visit www.autoshare.com.

Another possibility is Craigslist in the San Francisco Bay area. They have Rideshare lists for many cities around the world. This works similar to AutoShare where you have to pay. But, if you are looking for something for free Berkeley has a free rideshare program for people who commute across the Bay Bridge to San Francisco. Many universities have services like these, so check your bulletin boards.

In Quebec, there is Allostop. This service is great. When a former chum and me where living in different cities, this was my primary mode of transportation to see him. Unfortunately, I have been banned from Allostop because I got into an argument with one of the drivers over the fact he was late and I did not want to pay. I was young and hot-headed. I hope I know have my chance to make amends and promote this great service. I advise anyone using these services to pack your anger in your bags.

Many youth hostels around the world, especially the beautiful ones in Germany and through many parts of Europe, have free rides or rides posted for low fees up on their bulletin boards. You never know who you may get, so use this one with caution. If you are travelling in a group, you are less likely to get into trouble.

Caution aside, traveling with rideshare programs or renting a vehicle can be a great way to meet people. If you do not need to get to your destination in a hurry, there are other ways to get around.

September 22^nd is a day where everyone is encouraged not to bring their cars to work. Everyone is encouraged to use alternative modes of transportation. If you hunt at places like garage sales you can find great deals on bikes. What is the sense investing in something expensive when it could get stolen? September, October, April and May are great months to bike because they tend to be cooler. This applies to colder climates.

If biking is not your style, then rollerblading, skateboarding, running and walking are also great alternatives. A good pair of comfortable shoes and it can be amazing what distance you can cover in a relatively short period of time. Just recently, I covered the span of two neighbourhoods in four hours with my friend. It was great!

Last but not least, public transport is always a good option. Even that guy from that terrific movie Crash managed to make it on the bus after dismissing it.

If you have got a car fetish like me and you don’t have a car J, you can always live out your fantasies by reading the automotive sections of many papers. This could also help you make an informed decision about the type of car you would like to rent or ride in. As well, make sure to keep up-to-date with auto safety news to find out how some of these cars test out in crash tests.

Enjoy the ride!

Donna Kakonge is a professor and journalist in Toronto. Her website is: http://stores.lulu.com/kakonged is where you can find her seven books. She is an eighth book that will published in 2008.

E-mentoring
By Donna Kay Kakonge

Fred Vitez’s outlook has changed since he got a new brother - a Big Brother who he does not see.

Fred and his Big Brother do not get together in person, they get together on the Internet, through e-mail or online chats about his favourite subject in school - science, the latest sports news and life.

The Strathroy youth already had a little brother, but he needed a bigger one so his mother put him on a waiting list with Big Brothers. Teased because he did not have a father, he was having an awful time at school and needed a friend.

“I needed a Big Brother so I could communicate with someone other than my mother and my uncle,” he says.

Fred was lucky, he only had to wait several months for his Big Brother match, thanks in part to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada’s Digital Heroes program, which links youth via the Internet to an adult mentor.

“I really enjoy having a Big Brother to talk to because there are a lot of times I can’t talk to my little brother because he gets irritated,” he says.

Currently, more than 6,000 boys and girls are on waiting lists with Big Brothers and Big Sisters agencies in Ontario. Children, particularly in rural areas or small towns, often wait for years because a local match is not available.

Digital Heroes helps overcome the problems posed by distance and geography, as well as those posed by time. Mentors need only commit to one hour a week online communication from their home or office, rather than the traditional two to three hours a week face-to-face contact.

The demands are different but the results are the same.

“We know that mentoring works and has a long-term positive impact on a child’s life,” says BBBSC executive director Mike McKnight. “Using the Internet to link up more young people with mentors allows us to serve more children and create those caring relationships.”

Having an e-mentor has made a difference in Fred, his mother Marcy Vitez says. He feels more confident and secure, and gained a more positive outlook on life.

“His behaviour has changed a great deal since getting a Big Brother,” she says. “He used to get angry and frustrated because he had no one to talk to but family. Now, he doesn’t speak negatively about things when he has a bad day at school.”

Digital Heroes is administered by BBBSC agencies and Frontier College. The children receive computers with Internet access and training on how to use them before being matched to adult volunteers. The program is expected to expand across Canada.

Computers were contributed by RBC Financial Group and CIBC and upgraded by reBOOT Canada. The Ontario’s Promise initiative launched the project and formed the partnerships.

The major sponsor of Digital Heroes is AOL Canada. John Hamovitch, vice-president of human resources at AOL, says Digital Heroes is a true example of what can be accomplished through partnerships.

“This program brings together technology, innovation and human spirit to benefit children and youth,” Hamovitch says. “I applaud Ontario’s Promise for their ingenuity and determination to make this program a reality.”

The program not only helps youth improve relationships at school and home, but also builds familiarity with technology as well as improves literacy and analytical skills.

“Fred is working harder at school and his grades have shown an improvement,” his mother says.

“This program has greatly helped our family. E-mentoring is great for any child who needs to talk to a caring adult. I would like to send a big thank you to Big Brothers,” she says.

If you would like some e-mentoring and you are over the age of 18, feel free to contact me, Donna Kakonge, at http://www.kasamba.com/donnakakonge/

-30-

Names

Stretching

Gay tourism

Finding love

Etienne Lapointe

Black history

Career switches

Intuition

What Happened to the Afro?

On my way back from Dufferin Mall in Toronto who did I meet, but a black female taxi driver! My first time ever.

This is the Spain where it is easy to play Red Rover on the beach, but hard not to shop. This is the country of siesta, cheap shoes and sangria that flows like a river. You must order your water like this: “aqua sin gaz,” which means still water. But this country is not still. Everything moves, and it moves to the rhythm of a Spanish guitar as you dance the night away meeting Spaniards and Brits who have had too much beer.

Almost anyone could recognize Spain, because Spain is that kind of country where all your expectations are fulfilled. Even Barcelona is the city where Olympic dreams come true.

The south of Spain is where I spent most of my time close to the water. I saw places like Costa del Sol, with my souvenir pen for proof. It doesn’t work anymore. I saw Torremolinos and the famous Rock of Gilbrator. I had to resist the urge to climb the rock in newly bought heels.

In the south of Spain it is also easy to see the tip of Africa, Morocco. A dingy of a boat can take a small group over for a nominal fee. The day I was supposed to see Morocco the water was choppy and the captain of the ship decided that we shouldn’t go, but this did not ruin my traveling experience.

Spain is a place where you can relax and enjoy the ever-present sunshine. It did not rain one day when I was there. Getting up early in the morning to shop and see the castles of old, the whole country shuts in the early afternoon for siesta. Usually this takes place after the noon meal. Being a tourist, I preferred to do my sleeping on a beach towel on top of the sand, rather than in my 5-star suite.

Shopping

Shopping is fantastic in Spain. This is the land that created the fashion outlet Zara and the clothes are feminine and form-fitting for the ladies, stylish and sleek for the men. In Barcelona, a good part of the Eixample is where you can find numerous select fashion shops and jewellery stores. On the Passeig de Gracia and in other parts of the Eixample, shopping arcades abound.

More shopping after siesta, then it’s off to the hotel to get ready for the nightlife. Spain has a vibrant life at night and one of the clubs I went to was called the Coliseum and had the colonial-style white columns to match.

You never have to be alone in Spain, not if you don’t want to. There are museums, art centres and monuments, exhibition centres, art galleries and antique shops, cultural activities and events, parks and gardens and plenty of food and drink.

Art

In Madrid there is a street known as the “Avenue of Art.” Those with an eye for luxury can enjoy the Prado, Thyssen-Bornemisza and Centro de Arte Reina sofia Museums. With these three places of art, you will be exposed to the best in the world.

The Prado Museum has the finest collection of Spanish paintings. There are masterpieces by El Greco, Valazquez and Goya. You may already be one of the select few who have some these magnificent pieces gracing your walls at home or in your office.

What you will not find in The Prado, you will find in The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. Unlike the Prado, with its single masterpiece of the period, Fra Angelico’s Annunciation, the Thyssen-Bornemisza showcases Italian Primitives. There are also superb examples of German Renaissance and Dutch 17^th century paintings (of which the Prado only has a few). There are also 19^th century American works of art, virtually non-existent anywhere else in Spain. From the first stirrings of modern art, as Impressionism, up through the harsher years of German Expressionism and Russian Constructivism, to experiments with Geometric Abstraction and the tongue-in-cheek irreverence of Pop Art…all are represented in this wide-ranging retrospective that is the Thyssen Collection.

Leaving the other two galleries behind, your last call will bring you to one of the most famous and in its time controversial masterpieces of this century, Picasso’s Guernica, now hanging in the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. The permanent collection here is primarily made up of Spanish painting and sculpture: Picasso, Gris, Miro, Dali, Chillida and Tapies, along with newer contemporaries.

On the “Avenue of Art” you will be dazzled by all the beauty great minds like yours have had to offer.

After the shopping, the gallery-hopping, the times at the beach and the nightlife, you will need to replenish and refresh the body with Spanish Catalan cuisine.

Food & Drink

Catalan cuisine defies summarizing with a few typical dishes. Dishes with deep-rooted country origins from the humble escudella to the rich and varied seafood cuisine, from grilled fish to excellent suquet de peix can be sampled in Barcelona. There are also many different ways to prepare codfish, an ample repertoire of fowl and game, including rabbit with snails, Catalan-style partridge or boar, and numerous specialities from Ampurdan region, such as duck with pears, chick with shrimp or lobster, etc. Finally, I must not forget dishes using duck and goose as their main ingredient, as well as snails and mushrooms.

Desserts are also varied and are not limited to the most typical ones, such as crema catalana (custard with a caramel topping and mel I matao (cottage cheese and honey).

Catalunya is a land of good wines, particularly the wines from Penedes, Costers del Sergre, Alella and Peralada. Penedes is the region par excellence of the sparkling wine called cava. This all makes for decadent and delightful meals.

There is so much to do that you will find that seven days is not enough and 10 days is just about right. If you would like to fit in Portugal in your trip, which is a short jump away, plan to stay longer.

I left Spain with the feeling that if there was anywhere in the world I would like to live other than where I’m living now, I would chose Spain. You probably will fall in love with it, too.

-30-

Hello out there!

I am looking for people who have learned about home renovations and home décor by watching TV programs. It is for a story. If you are one of these people and live in the Greater Toronto Area, please get in touch with me.

You can e-mail me at: dkakonge@sympatico.ca

I look forward to hearing from you.

Many thanks,

Donna

Kelly Willoughby can help to change your life. Find out more at: http://www.kellyharrington.net/

Happy New Year! I hope everyone who reads this has a smashing year ahead. Also…get ready for cultural new year celebrations too.

Cheers,

Donna

http://stores.lulu.com/kakonged

dkakonge@sympatico.ca

www.addenasumterfreitag.com

Pathways to Education

By Donna Kakonge

Regent Park is the oldest and largest public housing project in Canada. The average income is $18,000 per year, 50 per cent that of other Canadians. Over 80 per cent of residents are immigrants, many of who hold professional training diplomas, degrees and certificates from other countries that are not recognized in Canada. Englis is a second language for nearly 60 per cent of Regent Park adults and the region ahs twice the number of single parent families as the rest of Toronto. To top it off, there are no high schools in the community. It is no surprise that prior to Pathways the drop out rates was 56 per cent, twice Toronto’s average.

Pathways mission is to reduce poverty and its effects by supporting the development of youth from economically disadvantaged communities and promoting their individual health and the health of the community by addressing the two principal social determinations of health: education and income.

They do this by providing four supports which, taken together, help young people to succeed in high school, post-secondary education and employment. In providing these supports we seek to be responsive to the needs of our young people and to be accountable to our funders and the community by focusing on clear results that demonstrate the effectiveness of the program and the capacities of our young people and the community.

-they are an initiative of the Regent Park Community Health Centre

-a grassroots program

-30 staff, 275 volunteers and over 700 dedicated young people

-a program model that can be replicated in other “at-risk” communities”

“A feisty and determined team of people who ‘did it anyway’ when everyone said it was ‘impossible.’

“I sincerely hope the Pathways programme will become a model for initiatives in other at-risk communities in Toronto and across the country,” wrote Mayor David Miller in a letter to the Director, Marni Schecter-Taylor. “The Pathways programmed embodies the principles of engagement and skills development that are at the ehart of the City’s community safety plan. Commitment to these principles ensures that our communities remain strong and inclusive.”

Marni Schecter-Taylor:

“Pathways to Education is making a difference not only to individual young people in the community but to the families themselves. The summer before we started the program there were nine murders in the community and a 56 per cent high school drop out rate. Summer of 2001. It was a very scary time for people in the community because the options that were open to them were few and far between. There was a very palpable sense of failure, rather than success. The prevailing notion, I’ve heard this from people in the community, that you would be lucky if you made it to grade 10. So we were losing most of our students in grade 10. The Pathways to Education program has changed all that. We now have, we’re in our 4^th year of operation – we have enrolled 97 per cent of the eligible students in this community. Everyone from grade nine through to grade 12. They are staying in school, they are accumulating credits, they’re absenteeism has gone down and in fact they are out-performing their peers from other neighbourhoods. So we’re proud, we’re very, very proud. Pathways essentially gives them an opportunity to achieve their full potential, instead of the grim alternative.”

“The program is a pretty comprehensive one. There were a lot of people who said you’ll never do it, it’s such a big undertaking. First of all, there are a couple of key principles that are core to what we do. This has to be available to everyone, that way you build a critical mass – then there is a shift from an expectation of failure to an expectation to success. The other thing we said to ourselves that the parents have to be involved. When you open the story in the Catcham area, it’s opening the program to a lot of kids. It’s almost four programs in one – all the parts responsive to the needs of the kids graduating. We provide academic support, social support in career mentoring, financial support in the form of TTC tickets to and from school and bursaries to school and our advocacy support through the parent support workers and the families and the communities and the students themselves. We provide all of that to all of the students all of the time.”

It’s a year-round program, do tutoring over the summer months for kids who are in summer school.

“In each one of those four supports we’ve built in a rigorous system where we’re constantly measuring ourselves. Each of our supports talk to one another. Each child is surrounded. There’s a huge emphasis in the communication flow. For instance we have a relationship with the Toronto District School Board.”

A student comes in and there is a log with the student support workers who come in to log what they’re doing. And even if they try to say they’re working on English, the log will tell them they’re working on math.

BMO NESBITT BURNS Nesbitt Burns:

Gloria Jones, Vice President, Cash Management Services

-look at press release

BMO Nesbitt Burns and Harris Nesbitt are proud to announce they have raised a total of $1.6 million (US$1.28 million) yesterday in institutional equity trading commissions for charities that support and promote education and diversity.

This is the first year that parent BMO Financial Group (TSX, NYSE: BMO), through its brokerage subsidiaries, BMO Nesbitt Burns and Harris Nesbitt, launched Equity through Education, a charitable program focused on helping people realize their educational and career goals.

“The support of BMO Nesbitt Burns speaks loud and clear about the firm’s selflessness and dedication to others. We feel blessed to have been chosen and 725 young people thank you,” said Marni Schecter-Taylor, Director of Development & Communications, Pathways to Education.

“On May 11^th we raised $1.6 million U.S. Prior to that we rigorously looked through all of the charities and came up with seven that we chose to sponsor on that day. So, Pathways to Education is one of those charities. We presented Pathways with a cheque for $212,500 a couple of weeks ago or so. BMO NESBITT BURNS Nesbitt Burns financial group is a strong supporter of programs like Pathways. There are a lot of times there is a hindrance because of money, not because of anything else and then we then get together with our clients to raise some money.”

When asked how their giving helps their bottom-line.

“We’re enabling very bright young students to get an education, and they in turn are going to give back to the community.”

“BMO NESBITT BURNS Financial Group and what they stand for around their values around diversity. We have a huge group that works on diversity, and we don’t just do it because it’s a nice thing to do – if we are opening our arms and embracing everyone that is able to contribute in various ways then your having a truly diverse workforce that will contribute to the bottom-line. We have a face for the community, that can understand the communities. It does help the bottom-line, at the same time being a good citizen.”

Marni Schecter-Taylor:

“Eighty-seven per cent of the families in this community are visible minorities. The kids in this program while they might not be economically well off, their diversity is so rich. So many of them speak two or three languages. So, that’s what they’re going to contribute to the workforce. And that’s what they’re going to contribute when they’re BMO NESBITT BURNS customers one day, or traders – this is what they’re going to contribute to the changing face of Canada to BMO NESBITT BURNS’s clients. And BMO NESBITT BURNS is very innovative in harnessing that richness and the resource that exists in these kids.”

Marni Schecter-Taylor tells a story about the importance of diversity and how important it is for their students to see themselves where they want to be. One of the students in the program who had to go up and make a speech in front of BMO NESBITT BURNS’s traders at a video conference that was being played in different parts of the world. He was so nervous. He did his speech and talked about how he would like to go to Queen’s for commerce. This was the right thing to see in a room full of traders. After the speech, he had at least four traders come up to him and give him their business cards who were Queen’s alumni and told him if he needed any help – they would do what they could. All of sudden, that student who may not have seen himself on the trading floor, sees himself there.

“Our relationship with BMO NESBITT BURNS Nesbitt-Burns goes far beyond a cheque writing exercise,” says Marni Schecter-Taylor.

“Our bottom-line is realizing the full potential of these kids. We need money to do it. But that was diversity in practice if you ask me.”

Ikeeda Duncan:

“With school, you get a lot of tutoring. There were times when I would get tutoring in class from different students and the teacher was explaining stuff to me and I would get tutors my age and I wouldn’t understand it. You meet people from different backgrounds and different situations. Sometimes the tutors have actually gone through what you have gone through. So, you’re able to talk to them and they understand what you’re saying.”

“Sometimes I would be in school and the teachers would use aggressive ways to teach stuff and you get really mad and you want to do stuff, but you go to your mentors and you talk to them about it and they’ll give you good advice on how to handle yourself.”

“I love history. Right now, I’m pretty good, but I want to do better. Right now, my average is around 70. One of the courses I want to take is African and Caribbean history, but right now I’m taking a lot of history courses right now.”

My plan is: “basically to stick to it. Actually reading a lot. Because my school is not a semestered school, I tend to have to deal with all the different classes.”

If you’re going to a semestered school, there are so many different classes and courses and there’s homework and stuff. It’s not that you don’t know how to do it or how to understand it – you just may not have the time to do it.”

Shequita Thompson:

She goes to Jarvis Collegiate as well as Ikeeda.

“My favourite subjects in school right now are law, drama, gym, basically all of them right now that I’m taking. The subject that I don’t like as much – I would have to say is math. But, it’s okay – it’s nice – I’m not really strong in math.”

“Study, study – that’s how I overcome that [math]. Because usually what we have to do is practicing, because you have to practice the problems over and over again to fully become aware of all the different methods you can use to overcoming the word problems or whatever math problems you need to do. As Ikeeda, I want to study Caribbean history and I also want to do law. But I can take anything at university and still go into law school. I was thinking that I can do something in history, or maybe social science course and study law and sociology around there and go into law.” She’d like to go to U of T or Ryerson – U of T’s downtown campus.

Ikeeda Duncan:

Wants to go to York University.

“Pathways has helped me mainly in tutoring. In a number of ways Pathways has helped me – but mainly in tutoring, because if I need help and usually I just go for math usually. I can go to the tutors to explain it over again since math is the most challenging subject that I face in school – maybe the teachers don’t explain it the way that I should be understanding it and I can go to different tutors to help me understand. The other things that Pathways also helps me with – there’s also a debating club that they formed two years ago and I really enjoyed that and I actually quite liked it.”

They’ve both been involved with Pathways since grade 9.

Ikeeda:

“When you finish high school through the four years through Pathways there’s a $4,000 bursary for the first year of university.”

Shequita:

“The bursary is there to help us to achieve our goals and it’s going to help get us through as Marni Schecter-Taylor said the registration fees. My plan for making it through all four years – I’d say is to study hard and just focus more on school. I’m a person who gets very busy during the year doing different things - I’m involved in a drama club and things like that so it gets very busy during the year. Since we’re coming up to our last year – I need to focus more.”

Pathways also helps them look at different bursaries and scholarships that will help them through all the university years.

“With the debating club – I wanted to go either into doctoring or law – since I liked debating a lot – law was right up my alley.”

Ikeeda’s been in Canada for three years and she’s from Jamaica.

Shequita’s been in Canada since she was about nine and she’s come from Guyana.

Rose Hibbert and Christos Cox creates magic with Donna Kakonge’s hair

The Master Weaver

By Donna Kay Kakonge

With her 1992 red and black Volkswagen Jetta, Hibbert drove me up to Hair & Wigs on the Danforth in Toronto to get the 150 per cent real human cuticle hair for the makeover. Her sister Ingrid Hart, who is an actor and had a long-running role on Train 48, was seated in the back.

Once we got back to Urban Textures Salon, one of their locations in downtown Toronto,

I asked Hibbert why it’s important for people to change their hair sometimes for those people who have always been wearing the natural look, like I have for 13 years.

“I always say, there’s nothing wrong with conforming if it benefits you,” she says. “When people think carefully about that, use kids as an example. Kids will always be defiant. When you ask them to do the right thing and do this and do that, you’re asking them to conform into something positive or into something that can help them in the long run. Same thing with hair – there’s nothing wrong with getting extensions, especially if you know it’s going to benefit you – whether or not it’s short or long. It’s going to emphasize your beauty, or exaggerate your beauty.”

She tells a story about another sister of hers who started off working in the corporate company she presently works in with straightened hair. Now she wears locks and she’s a supervisor.

“She’s earned those locks,” says Hibbert.

I came on a day to get my hair done where I had few other plans. Hibbert advises this because sometimes it can take time. The actually weaving of my hair only took her an hour and a half, but in the traveling time to get the extensions and do the moisturizing treatment I did before the process, this took up a number of hours.

“Look at this,” said Hibbert pointing to my hair. “You feel the softness in your hair and how strong it looks already. Continue your treatments and you’ll be set.”

Hibbert can do all kinds of hair, but prefers doing the weave. She works freelance and has more challenges than just dealing with an invisible part to overcome.

Hibbert has a kidney problem in which she is currently undergoing dialysis. You’d never know it from her quick smile and easy laugh.

She has a cat and started weaving in her early years. Her entire family became her hair models to test out her skills. She’s a specialist because she spends her spare time weaving. Although she does extensions, she also believes the importance of cutting hair.

“You have a house plant that’s growing, and you have about five dead leaves on it – you’re not just going to cut off half the leaves, half of each dead leaf,” she says. “You have to cut off all the leaves, cut it all off – it doesn’t matter if you have a little bit left. All you’re doing is giving it more room to grow. Ever hear the saying one bad apple spoils the whole bunch. It’s the same thing with your hair. No matter how you try to hold onto it, it’s going to continue breaking and it’s not going to grow. Cut it all off and you’re going to notice how healthy your hair is.”

My hair is doing great and now I have an easy to maintain look that makes me feel different in a good way. I have so many people telling me how natural my weave looks, and it’s thanks to Hibbert. She is a master weaver.

Sometimes I miss the exposure of my natural hair, but I know it’s underneath, growing – which is what I want it to do.

I can keep the cuticle hair for six to seven years and that will give a lot of time for my hair to grow. The style will last for three months because Hibbert is a “perfectionist.”

If you’re interested in Rose Hibbert doing your hair, contact her at Urban Textures Salon: 416-977-HAIR.

Hamilton Heroes
By Donna Kakonge and Julie Crljen

Don Lawson remembers his Grade 1 teacher.

“When you walked into that teacher’s classroom she made you feel like you were the most special thing she encountered that day.”

Lawson, now the director of marketing at Big Brothers of Burlington and Hamilton-Wentworth, says that’s the effect mentors have on children who go to Big Brothers.

“When a child feels liked by an adult, it really helps their self-esteem,” he says, adding that has many positive outcomes, such as children staying in school and keeping out of trouble with the law.

But since Lawson started as executive director of Big Brothers of Barrie and District in 1986, the number of volunteers getting involved with Big Brothers and Big Sisters organizations across Canada has been falling.

Kids in Hamilton and Burlington wait one to two years to be matched with a volunteer, Lawson says.

The difficulty of quickly matching kids with mentors is why Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada (BBBSC) has “focused on revitalizing the big brother, big sister movement,” Lawson says.

Digital Heroes, an e-mentoring program, being piloted in nine agencies in Ontario, is one way that BBBSC is trying to increase volunteerism.

Lawson attributes much of the decline in volunteers to more rigorous work schedules.

Digital Heroes, however, takes one hour a week of a volunteer’s time, and can be done from home or work.

In traditional matches, the pair gets together weekly for recreational activities. Digital Heroes is modeled after the traditional program, except any interaction takes place over the computer through E-mail or online chats.

Children involved in Digital Heroes receive a free computer and Internet access from AOL Canada.

The e-mentoring program is like having an electronic pen pal, says Lawson, adding that the relationship can be lasting and special.

Most people have preconceived notions of what it means to be in a Big Brother or Big Sister relationship, he says.

“When people hear about BBBSC they think of the traditional program,” Lawson says. “People have boxed us in to what we can do.”

The Hamilton agency has roughly eight different programs for volunteer mentors to participate in.

Digital Heroes is administered by BBBSC and Frontier College. The program is expected to expand to different parts of Canada in 2003.

Computers for the project were contributed by RBC Financial Group and CIBC and were upgraded by reBoot Canada. The Ontario’s Promise initiative was responsible for launching the project and formed the partnerships.

AOL Canada is the major sponsor of the project. Jon Hamovitch, vice-president of human resources at AOL says Digital Heroes is a true example of what can be accomplished through partnerships.

“This program brings together technology, innovation and human spirit to benefit children and youth,” Hamovitch says. “I applaud Ontario’s Promise for their ingenuity and determination to make this program a reality.”

In Hamilton and Burlington, one of the highlights of Digital Heroes is taking children off waiting lists and putting them into e-mentoring relationships, Lawson says.

“When it takes a long time for kids to be matched, they get the message ‘I’m not good enough,’” he says. “Hopefully Digital Heroes gives us another way to say ‘You matter.’”

Mike Labbé - President of Options

Options for Homes – Making Home Ownership a Reality – October 2005 – published in New Dreamhomes and Condominiums Magazine

By Donna Kay Kakonge

Bring a community together from the ground up and give them what they need to own a home seems to sum up the Options for Homes belief system.

When President Mike Labbé, started the non-profit corporation he figured the best way to mobilize prospective buyers, would be by getting them to literally build their own condominiums.

“Really we’re providing our expertise for the buyers to build their own homes,” says Labbé. “They [the owners] hire the contractors, they hire the lawyers, and they hire all of the pieces they need to build a condominium for themselves. As a result they get it at cost. And we put in different things to protect against flipping and stuff – but that’s the gist of what Options does. It pulls people together to build their own homes.”

As Labbé said earlier, essentially people acquire the home at the cost price. The difference between the cost price, and the market value is then added in the guise of a second mortgage that will contribute to the individual’s down payment, usually about half of the down payment goes to the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) when people want to sell.

As long as they stay in the home they don’t have to give that money back to Options. It’s an incentive for owners to stay there as long as possible.

“So there are a very small number of investors that come along,” says Labbé.

Labbé says Options does not prevent resale because then there’s no advantage to purchasing. You can buy and sell any time you want. But when you sell, you pay back that differential.

Weston Village was the first project. Options for Homes had three condominium sites under construction. One at the Distillery District, one at 650 Lawrence Ave, two in Pickering and one in Scarborough, near Eglinton and Markham. The one at Markham and Eglinton was completed by the spring of 2006. Another project near Markham Road was scheduled to begin in the fall of 2005. Options goal would be to construct three to four projects a year, and this model is one that has spread to Montreal and Waterloo.

Where Options manages to keep costs down, is in not offering any facilities or amenities. Most of their condos might have a meeting room with a kitchen that could hypothetically allow owners to meet and mingle, but that’s about it.

“We don’t put pool and sauna rooms in normally,” says Labbé. “The only exception to that was in Pickering where the amenities were already built, they were already there. Normally we don’t do this because it reduces the caring maintenance costs and reduces the capital costs.”

Just because Options lack amenities doesn’t mean there are no condominium fees, fees do exist, but are usually five cents less, a square foot than the general market. Labbé says the condos are about $300 to $500 less a square foot than a regular condominium.

“We can reach people that have $10,000 to $15,000 less in income than the regular condo owner. You still need to have a good income. You still need good credit. You still need to qualify for a mortgage in all cases. By starting a lot lower, we can get a reasonable two-bedroom into people’s hands for $1,100 a month – which is about what it costs to rent. And that’s where we’ve done really well, getting homes to people who otherwise couldn’t have owned homes at all,” says Labbé.

Sometimes Options can help people with $40,000 of their down payment says Labbé. That allows a lower income group to get a mortgage.

“We have people much more varied in income,” Labbé said.

The way they do their marketing, usually 40 to 50 people come out to an information meeting. After that they put down a non-refundable $100 deposit.

“Special thing is that dreams people have to get rich enough to buy a piece of land to build their own home they can help make reality. Create a community participatory community, energy conservation, creation own home,” says Labbé.

Options for Homes marketing plans are low-key. I once saw a poster on the subway, and they have a website at www.optionsforhomes.ca, but outside of that, if you’ve heard about them before someone you know may have told you.

“A lot of their marketing is word of mouth,” says Dee Gibney, narrator of promotional video.

One Options for Homes owner expresses how she feels about home ownership in the promotional video.

“I feel very wealthy” Nona Segal, an Options for Homes Owner.

Options have support from the Ontario government.

“This is a win-win-win for the government housing options of this province,” said Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal, David Caplan.

Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation’s Manager of the GTA, Mark Salerno says Options for Homes was given a Housing award in 2002 that is granted every two years.

The promotional video also shows how Options has support from writers like June Callwood.

“I think this concept is one that’s going [to] sweep the country,” says Callwood.

You can find out more about Options for Homes from their website, www.optionsforhomes.ca.

-30-

How to Make Your Mall Experience a Free One

By Donna Kay Kakonge

Being in a shopping mall can be an overwhelming experience – especially when you don’t have cash to spend. But, there are ways to have a good time without spending a cent.

Before you go shopping, you want to make sure you look good. Visit a makeup counter and get a free makeover and look gorgeous while you walk through the mall. It’s also a great form of exercise.

First and foremost – know about samples. Rather than buying anything you need, you can always ask for samples of things and stock them for supplies. This goes for just about anything. For example, I had heard that there was this great hair product called Phyto and went to the mall to get samples every time I needed some. You can do this for face creams, body lotions, and many other toiletries.

Trying on new clothes for the fun of it could give you some great ideas to find cheaper versions of what you love at discount places or to get hand-me-downs from friends.

Once you’re done with looking your best, catch some entertainment by going into an electronics store and watching some of the stuff they have on their screens. Some really nice stores have chairs set up and might even have a new DVD on. You could always ask them to put on something interesting so you can see the quality of the latest flat screen monitor, without having the money to buy it.

What is this world without music? Even the smallest of malls will have one music store and the bigger ones will have more for you to choose from. The best way to find out what’s hot and what’s not is to look at the racks and see how the different CDs are ranked. You can even mellow out by checking out the listening stations in places like HMV and enjoy the tunes.

Speaking of how things are ranked – check out the bookstores for the bestsellers. Books from Dr. Phil or the upcoming biography on Bob Denver you can read for free at Indigo or Chapters. Take your time; some bookstores have places to sit so you can be there for awhile. Or squat on the floor.

If you have a child, spend that special time in the children’s department of a bookstore reading to your little one. Toy stores are great ways to keep the kids occupied. Perhaps if they can play with that doll or toy truck in the store, they’ll tire of it and won’t hound you to buy it.

Get decorating ideas that you can do on the cheap from places like the Pottery Barn.

After all this excitement, go to the furniture department and take a nap on one of the luxurious couches of any of the big stores like Sears.

Now after you’ve experienced a fulfilling free time, look for loose change in pay phones and on the ground (it can pay to walk with your head down) go to the mall’s bank and make a small donation to Hurricane Katrina relief (every penny counts as you know).

If you do have a little cash to spend – The Dollar Store is always a great place. For example, I bought a pair of sunglasses for a dollar with black frames from there and took them to a one-hour optical place and paid way more for the prescription lenses than the frames. People are telling me all the time they look like $300 glasses – but I didn’t spend any thing near to that.

When you get hungry, try checking out places like Baskin Robbins and many others for samples to get a quick fix. If you go to enough fast food joints for samples, you might even end up feeling full.

All this will make your shopping experience pain-free for your wallet and enjoyable. Have a good time and remember to throw a penny in the waterfall if your major mall has one!

Lawrence Hill, Review of Black Berry, Sweet Juice

by Donna Kakonge

“The blacker the berry/The sweeter the juice/But if you get too black/It ain’t no use.”

Author Lawrence Hill says his father passed along this saying to him. In his memoir Black Berry, Sweet Juice, On Being Black and White in Canada, Hill tells the story of a young black and white man who developed his identity from two racial worlds in Canada. It’s a revealing tale of how his black father and white mother met, married and had three children. More importantly, it’s about how race has played a factor in his life:

Race becomes an issue as a result of environmental factors. The average white kid growing up in a totally white suburb doesn’t have to think of himself or herself as white. For a huge portion of my childhood, I was very much like that white kid. But gradually, as imperceptibly as the movement of the hour hand around the clock, my environment started talking to me and making me aware that I was different, that I could never truly be white. There’s nothing like being called “nigger” to let you know that you’re not white. It didn’t happen often. But it happened enough to awaken me.

Hill writes that growing up racially different in Don Mills wasn’t easy. However, he still was a privileged child who went to good schools, traveled to such places as Africa and dealt with his multicultural and multiracial extended family.

Lawrence Hill faced many difficulties, but his experience doesn’t seem any different from the life of many black people growing up in Canada. I will take myself as an example.

Hill talks about not knowing if you’re black. Until I was 5, I had no idea that I was black. And I thought my mother was white because she wasn’t the same colour as the rest of our family. Being from the Caribbean, she was lighter. My father is a dark-skinned African.

I grew up in a white suburb as Hill. I was privileged enough to learn French like Hill and travel to Africa.

Hill writes about having hair issues – I wrote my master’s thesis on that. If that’s not an indication of having an issue with my hair, I’m not sure what else could be.

Where the paths differ is that in a black and white existence, passing for white becomes an issue, where that has never been an option for me. Although Hill discusses in his book a passion for embracing his blackness and identifying as black, this becomes particularly fascinating for a man who could pass for white under an undiscerning eye.

I believe many black people could identify with Hill. So why are their story not told, and Hill’s is? There are so few black people published in Canada.

I am so grateful though that Hill mentions in his book, since he does have the privilege to get published by Harper-Collins, that he recognizes race as a social construct more than a biological one:

“It’s necessary to probe into the social meanings of race. The book is my attempt to examine the issues of race. [The book is for] anyone who’s interested in examining the core of race and how it’s played out. My existence is the fighting against easy definitions of race.”

Hill’s writing style is similar to the way he speaks. It flows and it has a beat. It’s as easy to follow as an Amanda Marshall song. And it’s good that, as in Marshall’s song Everybody Has a Story, Hill tries to include the stories of other black and white people in his book. There are so many voices not heard. And he admits to this.

Perhaps Hill’s voice can become an echo for others. That would be sweet juice indeed.

Winterize your skin (published on Canoe.ca in 2001)

By DONNA KAKONGE

Did you know that the sun can cause damage to your skin in the winter, as well as in the summer?

If you said yes, great. For those of you who said no, there can be grave consequences to not using sun protection in the winter. Even more damage can happen to your skin in winter than in the summer.

“I would say it [my skin] would be more dry than in the wintertime. I try to use a moisturizer,” says Jill Serrao, an executive assistant at an accounting firm, like most people she does not use sunblock in the winter.

Using winter sun protection is a routine Canadians have to start getting used to, in order to keep their skin healthy.

Fewer people think of wearing sunblock in winter. Winter winds, UV rays reflected by water, snow, sand or cement can really give you the cold and bruised shoulder.

Vanessa Visard, who works in consumer relations, says, “My basic routine is a good moisturizer once in the morning and at night. I wash my face everyday. I don’t have problem skin.”

For many, the solution is not that easy.

Ombrelle Cold Weather Defence, with an SPF of 25 is L’Oreal’s answer to protecting drying winter skin with a sunblock.

It comes in a cream which guards against UV rays and the harsh realities to the skin against outdoor sports, shoveling snow, and walking children home from school.

· 1- Winterize your skin

· 2- Sun protection

The formula is also sensitive-proof enough to be used on children’s skin as well.

Yonette Ward, a fashion and interior designer, says the only form of sunblock she uses is a UV-protection gloss on her lips.

The Ombrelle sun protection also has anti-drying agents to lock in the moisture of the skin. It includes ingredients like glycerin, silicon and fatty alcohol to add the much needed moisture to winter skin.

“We realized it [the sunblock] was important because following discussions with doctors and consumers, we need to protect from cold weather aggressions,” says Ombrelle’s Public Relations Manager, Nathalie de Champlain.

The spokeswoman for Ombrelle’s Cold Weather Defence product launch is World Champion freestyle skier Stephanie Sloan. Out on the slopes from the first snowfall she understands the importance of winter sun protection. Her husband who was a Crazy Canuck skier, died of malignant melanoma in 1990.

“To me, daily suncare protection has become as necessary and important as a balanced diet or regular physical exercise,” says Sloan. She also adds sun protection is important to her as an anti-aging device.

The new Ombrelle product will be available in November across Canada. Its suggested retail price is $14.49.

· 1- Putting your best foot forward

· 2- Treat your feet

Perfume has gone to the dogs
(published in Canoe.ca in 2001)

By DONNA KAKONGE

Oh my dog! Now pet owners can get even more intimate with their loved ones by wearing the same perfume with their cat and dog.

Dog Generation Paris has designed the first ever prestige fragrance for dedicated dogs and frisky cats.

The French company offers an eau de toilette spray and a shampoo (”Oh My Dog! Eau de Toilette Spray and Shampoo”) for dogs, and an eau de toilette (”Oh My Cat? Eau de Toilette Spray”) for cats.

“Pet lovers may not always admit it, but they often share everything with their canine or feline friends, from their bed pillow to their favourite dish,” says Veronique Viellerobe, public relations for Dog Generation Paris. “Humans can now share and wear the same perfume with their dog or cat.”

The creators of the perfume and shampoo are two former Parfums Givenchy executives, Laurent Jugeau, Etienne de Swardt, and Olivier Echaudemaison.

yummy

Dim Sum & Friends

by Donna Kay C. Kakonge for the Murmur Project – aired on CBC Radio 3

“Every time I see you falling, I get down on my knees and pray.”

The techno-rhythms and words of New Order blared in Sharon’s car as six teenagers were squeezed inside. We were going down to Kensington Market as part of our late 80’s ritual, coming from “Asiancourt.”

Finding parking and walking through alleys to get to Pearl Saigon was all part of the adventure. The whole way, in the car, while parking and through the alleyways, me and my friends chatted about our week at school and our part-time jobs so we could have the extra cash to shop at all the second-hand stores in the market.

The owner of the Saigon knew us by now. Every Sunday brown-faced me and my Asian girlfriends would enter the restaurant and fight the crowds for a table to fit us all. That day I had news for them.

“Did you see what so-so was wearing on Thursday?” Sharon asked us.

“Of course!” said Catherine. “Fuchsia is not a colour to be worn, or a colour to be missed.”

That was all I heard of the conversation. My mind was drifting on finding the right words to tell my girlfriends my news.

“Donna!” Yoko snapped her thin fingers in front of my eyes. “Come back to earth.”

“Oh, sorry.” Okay, now was my moment. “Ladies, this is the last time we’re having Dim Sum together.”

I almost let the tears fall. Meeting with my friends over Dim Sum was like the therapy I’m lucky enough to have OHIP cover now. It was a good, old-fashioned, positive moaning session.

“Oh ma God. You don’t like the food or something, Dee?” asked Sharon.

“No, that’s not it. I’m going to school in Ottawa. I got my letter on Friday.”

There was silence. Out of those six girls who were my chums, the silence continues to this day.

I never knew then that it would take more than a decade to eat Dim Sum again and have my moaning sessions. This time I had one companion, my friend David. He would pick me up from downtown and we would drive to the market. The first time we went, I marveled at the fact he took me to the same place. We even parked in the same lot and started our moaning (I guess his groaning and my bitching) in the alleyway on our way to the Saigon.

I still do shopping in the market with whatever job I have at the moment. Now my tastes have changed. I shop for Shea Butter at 426, drums from Uganda at the African shop on St.Andrew, and incense and candles at the store next door.

What hasn’t changed is my love for Dim Sum and friends.

we all inherit the earth

Matoke

Published in Spiderwoman in 2006

By Donna Kay Kakonge

In the early 1980s, when I was 10 years old, things changed at my school with the arrival of a new vice-principal. At O’Connor Public School in Toronto, Canada, Mr. Goldberg set up a close-circuit television studio. The show the students and Mr. Goldberg produced was called OCTV News.

In a small room of the school that used to be the teachers’ lounge – coffee makers and plastic cushions were replaced by an anchor’s desk and a camera as big as me. A few grade five students, myself included, rotated through the various production jobs. Sometimes I was the sound engineer, which meant putting the needle on the Beatles’ song, “Here Comes the Sun” – our theme music. Sometimes I was the announcer, which meant telling Angelikki to show up to the Peter Pan play rehearsals. She was playing Peter, and I was Wendy.

One “International Day,” we had to bring a dish from our heritage to be sampled by other students. Mr. Goldberg forgot it was International Day and did not write anything into our scripts about it for the OCTV News. That day I was co-announcing.

“Donna and Eric, just ad-lib about the International Day after the news,” Mr. Goldberg said seconds before we went on-air.

After the news, Eric asked me what dish I had brought in and I told him “matoke” - a common Ugandan meal made of steamed and mashed green bananas.

“Where is Uganda?” Eric asked.

“In Africa,” I said.

“Oh Africa!” Eric said. “I thought they ate people there, I didn’t know they ate food!”

I almost burst into tears.

“I think there’s a lot you don’t know about Africa, Eric. My uncles, aunts and cousins who still live there do not eat people,” I said, still forcing back the tears.