CMETrust Volunteer Post: Jessica and Jane

Moving to a new city can be challenging. You need to make a new home out of a place that is unfamiliar, you need to find new places to hangout, new friends and get settled into a new life. After being in Ottawa for a year an old friend from Nova Scotia contacted me through – you guessed it – Facebook. He told me he and his girlfriend had recently moved to the city. I replied and told him about some of the things I liked to do and said that we should all get together sometime soon. After not hearing back from my friend I took it upon myself to contact Jessica, his girlfriend. I knew it hadn’t been easy for me to get settled in this new city so I thought I should introduce myself, help someone out and maybe make a new friend too! After a few email exchanges Jessica and I started going around the capital together. It was like we were old friends. We started hanging out more and more. We would go out dancing, take in art exhibits, have homemade dinners together, and sometimes just have a quiet night watching movies.

One night when we were talking about plans for the upcoming week, Jessica mentioned that she was a volunteer for an organization called the Canada Mathare Education Trust. She explained the organization and that her co-worker was the founder/ president. I said, “sign me up.”

Who knew that trying to help a friend get settled into a new city would eventually lead me to fulfilling my dream of volunteering for an organization that helps children internationally, and that makes a difference in the lives of people who don’t always have the same opportunities that we do here in Canada? Before meeting Jessica I didn’t even know where to start to find an organization to volunteer with in Ottawa.

Jessica and I have now been volunteering with CMETrust for over a year. Being part of CMETrust is like being part of a family. Everyone is working together to ensure that children in Kenya can go to school and achieve whatever they set their mind to. It’s refreshing to be part of an organization where everyone is willing to help and lend a hand. You never have to ask twice. Someone is always there to support and get you through.

My dream of volunteering for an international organization came true: I can now help a child in Kenya achieve their dream, from right here in Canada. An added bonus in all this is that I now get to see one of my best friends more often, and planning fundraising events together gives us an excuse to hang out even more!

Volunteering with CMETrust has helped me call Ottawa home, which is pretty hard for an East Coaster.

CMETrust Board Visit to Mathare: Kathie Oginsky

My Neighbourhood
Written by Kathie Oginsky
Mathare, Wednesday, November 23, 2011

As an outsider coming to Mathare, it can be hard to really grasp how somewhere so different can feel like home to someone else.

Today was my fourth time to visit Mathare. Every time I visit, I learn more and feel more comfortable. The more I visit, the more I move beyond seeing Mathare simply as a place and toward feeling Mathare not only as a place but as a community and home.

My last visits to Mathare in May 2011 involved meeting CMETrust Alumni to see how, now as graduates, they could remain involved in CMETrust and to continue to give back to their community. A group of Alumni was interested to work together to produce, market, and sell their Mathare in Focus calendar locally in Nairobi. This idea was partly a practical opportunity for Alumni to run their own business of sorts but also represents steps toward CMETrust becoming more locally-run and sustainable.

For me, the most powerful part of my most recent visit to Mathare was reconnecting with some of the CMETrust Alumni who I had met in Mathare in May and feeling a sense of continuity from that visit. This growing familiarity and excitement to see them again and catch up where we had left off made my world feel smaller.

Each time I visit Mathare, there is at least one experience that really marks the day for me. What I took away with me from this visit was seeing our CMETrust Alumni “in action”.

As usual, we were joined at the petrol station on the main road to be lead down into Mathare by Titus and Benedict. This time, they were also accompanied by Lucas who had just graduated and returned to Mathare a few days earlier.

Just steps down into the valley, we met Rosemary. Rosemary invited us up to see her apartment on the top of a very basic and very worn five story stone building. I had never been inside one of these apartments and had always wondered what they were like. Rosemary invited me into her apartment and showed me some of her assignments from her first semester at Kenyatta University. She told me about her first semester, mixing with other students from outside Mathare, and her upcoming exams. I had visions of a flower blossoming, the strong woman Rosemary was developing into. We stepped out and looked out over Mathare and she unknowingly taught me more with every word she spoke about her new experiences and how she was piecing them into the fabric of her life here in Mathare. I was full of admiration.

As we continued, we met Eunice, another Alumni. I had never met Eunice before but instantly recognized her as I had seen her school portrait next to her photo captions in the CMETrust Mathare in Focus calendar. She had bleached her hair shock white and looked like a younger yet no less beautiful Angelique Kidgo. Eunice introduced us to her mum at the drinking spot that she runs and then Eunice and her mum invited us inside their small home and shared with us two albums of photographs of family, friends and special memories and we took some more snaps together. Eunice and her mum were full of gratitude toward CMETrust as were we for inviting us into their home.

Continuing on our way, we quickly ran into Elma. I first “met” Elma through her amazing photographs in the Mathare in Focus calendars and the CMETrust video diaries. I had the pleasure to finally meet Elma and work with her in my meetings with the CMETrust Alumni last May. Although only one of these contacts was in person, each of these connections with Elma made me feel like I knew her more. In some ways, I felt like I was meeting a celebrity as I knew some of Elma’s stories and her great photographic eye and talent.

When we made it to MCEDO, I spotted Michael, another of our Alumni and chatted with him about how he had been since we saw each other last May. Calm and quiet and that huge modest smile, it was great to see him again.

Finally, our day in Mathare finished with stopping in to greet and observe a class that Elma and Lucas teach together. Watching Elma at the front of the cramped room, students piled into desks, I was again filled with admiration. I watched her wipe and re-fill the black board, explain to students, and ask them questions.

This is when it really clicked for me just how much CMETrust Alumni bring back to their community. As a CMETrust volunteer in Canada, I am mainly involved in fundraising events and public outreach in Canada. I tell people about how bright our scholars are and how we are trying to send more to school next year… yet seeing Elma teaching others in her community made things come full circle for me. Paying it forward. I felt a tingle as I realized how much anyone can bring to their community by volunteering to do something, to share knowledge or a talent that they have. I felt connected to Elma and all of our CMETrust Alumni as a volunteer working for the same cause. I felt the click of us all working on this together, tuko pamoja, just as if we lived in different neighbourhoods of a very large city.

So, to our CMETrust Alumni, thank you for bringing the human feel to Mathare for me and for helping make my neighbourhood feel bigger and my world feel smaller. Ni na shukuru sana!

CMETrust Volunteer Post: Sarah Mousseau

By Sarah Mousseau

The first time I heard about CMETrust I was surrounded by artists, canapés, champagne and hundreds of eager volunteers. The room was abuzz with the excitement of a silent art auction where we donated time instead of money. I was at Toronto’s Timeraiser event!

I had been invited to Timeraiser by a friend of mine and never having heard of the event, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The room was hot and crowded with lights blaring down on the art. Scattered throughout the room were tables with reps from various not-for-profits. As I looked down the list of organizations, I started to hone in on the type of group I was looking for.

I had very strict specifications in terms of how I wanted to volunteer. I was looking for a humanitarian organization that was helping people in need, but I didn’t want the work to be face-to-face as I worried that it would get too emotional. I wanted to get my hands dirty and really get involved, but I also wanted to be able to take a step back when I needed to. Most of all, I didn’t just want to be on call for events and fundraising sprees. I wanted to invest my ideas and thoughts and to really feel a part of something!

I spoke with a few not-for-profit organizations and was offered a volunteer experience that ranged from registering event participants to protesting government agencies dressed in a costume. Having a good feeling about the group, I headed to CMETrust’s table. They engaged me in a conversation that weaved its way from the history and future of CMETrust through to the kind of volunteers they were looking for and what I myself wanted as a volunteer.  And you know what?  They were looking for everything in a volunteer that I wanted to be.  They wanted me to get my hands dirty and really be involved.  They wanted my ideas. And they also understood that things get a little crazy sometimes and you have to take a step back. But most of all, they shared a passion for CMETrust that made me want to jump in head first!

Once I’d found my not-for-profit, it was time to find some art! I had been eyeing one piece in particular all night and had made sure my name was on the top of the list. As I did, the amount of hours I was committing to volunteering was increasing at a dramatic rate. I drew comfort from the fact that I had a year to complete the hours and so many worthy organizations to chose from. But as the seconds ticked down on the clock, I watched in horror as another zealous volunteer walked up to my coveted art piece and slowly wrote her name in big bold letters.

While heart-broken, I walked away from Timeraiser knowing that I had connected with an organization that was a perfect fit for me and my time as a volunteer.

There are several things that I love about volunteering for CMETrust. I love that volunteers on every level are asked to participate in decision making, feedback and event planning. I love that volunteers are encouraged to become leaders and try out new things. But what I love the most about volunteering for CMETrust is how great it makes me feel to know that halfway across the globe the scholars think of us volunteers as much as we think about them.

After more than a year of volunteering with the CMETrust Toronto chapter, I have made some wonderful friends, changed lives and I’m now acting as the Outreach Coordinator and working to raise awareness. I hope to volunteer with CMETrust for many years to come and to help support more and more Mathare scholars through high school. Even though I lost in the silent auction,  I found something that fills a lot more than just a space on my wall.

CMETrust Scholar Post: Rosemary Mueni

CMETrust Ottawa Trivia Night

Written by Jessica Mitchell

The Ottawa Chapter of CMETrust held their first ever Trivia Night on September 15, 2011 at Lieutenant’s Pump and the event was a huge success! It sold out in a record 4 days and raised over $600 – that’s enough for one student’s scholarship for a year!

This event couldn’t have been so successful without the help of many CMETrust volunteers, and the generous contributions of several local Ottawa businesses. Lieutenant’s Pump let us use their venue for free, donated some prizes, and gave us 10% of the bar proceeds that night and Sugar Mountain provided delicious candy bags to the lucky winning teams of each round. In addition, attendees could munch on tasty vegan cupcakes for the low price of $2 each and purchase the answers to trivia questions to help their score, all proceeds going to CMETrust. Local comedian Charlie Ebbs deserves special thanks for his excellent work hosting the event.

CMETrust’s Trivia Night was comprised of three rounds, and included not only factual questions but also song clip identification questions and image-based questions. Feedback from attendees was positive and we had a great night – so you might want to keep your eyes peeled for a future CMETrust trivia night!

CMETrust and the GCWCC

Dear Ottawa Friends of CMETrust,

First, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you very much for your generous support. Your contributions to CMETrust have helped us raise enough to provide 58 secondary school scholarships over the past five years. To date, we have seen 13 CMETrust scholars graduate and are currently supporting 45 students — providing youth from the Mathare Valley Slum in Nairobi, Kenya, with the important chance at a high school education and at making a change in their lives and in their community.

Once again, CMETrust-Ottawa is participating in the Government of Canada Workplace Charitable Campaign. As a registered Canadian charity (No. 83906 0720 RR0001) federal public servants can donate to CMETrust through payroll deductions. Over the past four years, federal public servants from across the country have contributed over $15,000 to CMETrust through this program. All of us at CMETrust are extremely grateful for this generosity. Each dollar helps a student half way around the world attend high school in hopes of making their dreams a reality — please visit YouTube.com/CMETrust to see the impact your donations are having on the ground.

We hope you will consider donating again this year, and humbly ask you to encourage others to do so as well… every dollar counts!

Thanks again on behalf of CMETrust’s Board of Trustees, Kenyan Field Agents and most importantly our Scholars.

Sincerely,

Victoria Sheppard
President, CMETrust

Save the Date! Saturday Nov. 19th, 2011.

CMETrust’s third annual Mathare in Focus vernissage fundraiser will take place Saturday November 19th, at the Orange Gallery near Ottawa’s Parkdale Market. Order Tickets Here!

Ottawa Trivia Night Event on September 15th

“Hearts for Smarts” – Thank you!

CMETrust’s 5th Anniversary “Hearts for Smarts” – Thank you!

CMETrust’s 5th Anniversary Hearts for Smarts fundraiser & 2011 Mathare in Focus Photo Exhibition took place on Thursday March 3 at Peridot Resto Lounge 81 Bloor St. East, in Toronto

CMETrust was pleased to feature host Heba Alba, the kind words of president of the Kenya Community in Ontario Ben Ondoro and musical performances by Tanika Charles and DJ L’Oqenz.

Thanks very much to all contributors, donors and attendees for helping us raise over $8,700 enough for 14 new scholarships.

Culture Quest at Harbourfront Community Centre

CMETrust’s Photography Challenge! Saturday June 11th 2011

Culture Quest at Harbourfront Community Centre.

Are you into Photography? Are you a facts and trivia know-it-all? Or maybe you have a competitive side…

CMETrust invites you and a friend to join Culture Quest! CMETrust’s Photography Challenge!
Registration opens at 9:30am with the Kick Off at 11am on Saturday, June 11th, 2011
at Harbourfront Communty Centre (627 Queens Quay West, Toronto)

For more information and advance registration please visit
Facebook: Culture Quest! CMETrust’s Photography Challenge

For more information and advance registration please visit Twitter: #CultureQuest