CJI youth symposium participants pledge to advocate for girls’ education

CJI Youth for Others Advocacy Symposium participants visit Parliament Hill after learning about political advocacy. Photo: Tess Sison/CJI

Ottawa
From meeting with their MPs to advocate for girls’ education in the Global South, to creating podcasts to raise awareness about the issue, participants at Canadian Jesuit International’s (CJI) Youth for Others Advocacy Symposium shared ideas for action at the end of the gathering. The symposium, now in its third year, was held April 21-23 at Saint Paul University.

About 60 students, chaplains and educators from Catholic schools in Winnipeg, Regina, Montreal, Hamilton, Whitby, Toronto, and Ottawa, attended the symposium, which CJI organizes every two years. The symposium – which focuses on a particular advocacy theme accompanied by resource persons from the international Jesuit network – seeks to introduce students to responsible citizenship and how to effect change through advocacy, interaction with politicians, and visits to the offices of Members of Parliament.

This year’s symposium focused on why girls’ education in the Global South is important to us all, and featured South African girls’ education activist Noluthando Honono, who has been involved in girls’ education and ecology initiatives of the Justice and Ecology Network-Africa. Dr Evelyn Mayanja, Assistant Professor at Carleton University, discussed the intersection of girls’ education and resource extraction in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Dr. Lerona Lewis, Professor at the University of Ottawa, discussed girls’ education in the Canadian context, and the need to improve the learning outcomes and experiences of racialized students in the Canadian education system.

Students heard about the socio-economic, cultural, and political barriers to girls’ education, the plight of Congolese children working in artisanal mines who are denied their right to education, and the challenges faced by Black and other racialized students in Canada. They also met via Zoom with MPs Leah Gazan (NDP, Winnipeg Centre) and Heather McPherson (NDP, Edmonton Strathcona), and received a crash course in political advocacy from Lindsay Sheridan and Gabriel Cassie of Results Canada, which describes itself as “a grassroots advocacy organization that believes in mobilizing everyday people to generate the political will to end extreme poverty.”

Later, the students met to discuss what they could do with all they had learned about girls’ education. Students from St Paul’s High School, Winnipeg, said they plan to write articles for their school newspaper and hold a fundraiser to support projects that address barriers to girls’ education.

Cathedral Catholic High School in Hamilton, Ont., plan to use social media to call attention to the issue and meet with their principal to discuss challenges faced by Black students in school, among other things.
Ottawa area students pledged to engage in individual self-reflection, hold fundraisers, workshops and activities with other schools and recommend that school calendars include October 11, which is the International Day of the Girl Child, as a day for girls’ and women’s right to education.

Students from All Saints-Whitby said they would recommend hosting an event with Honono.

CJI Executive Director Jenny Cafiso urges student participants to remember CJI’s work in “supporting changemakers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.” Photo: T. Sison/CJI

CJI Executive Director Jenny Cafiso urged students to spread the word about the gathering. “The only way we can keep doing this is if more participants come,” said Cafiso in her closing remarks.

She urged them to remember CJI’s work in “supporting changemakers in Africa, Asia and Latin America.” She cited some examples of projects supported by CJI, including the School of Advocacy and Political Formation in Latin America, and Centro Montalvo, a Jesuit social centre in the Dominican Republic that strengthens local initiatives for public action to protect the environment and uphold the human rights of communities affected by mining companies.

“I’m a firm believer in changing structures, changing hearts and changing minds,” said Cafiso. CJI supports changemakers in the Global South “to give voice to people who have always been silenced, and to also ensure that all of us here are working at making changes. The symposium is a great example of helping to effect change, “she said.

In creating change, one can’t help but be political, Jenny said, acknowledging earlier discussions in the symposium about whether advocacy can remain apolitical and non-partisan. “In the end, we do have to make political changes because no matter how much charity we send, unless we change policy, a small change in the education budget can affect the lives of millions.”

Participants included students from Loyola School (Montreal), Campion College (Regina), St. Paul’s College (Winnipeg), All Saints (Whitby), Notre Dame (Ottawa), St Pius X (Ottawa), Immaculata (Ottawa), Holy Trinity (Ottawa), St Patrick (Ottawa), St Joseph (Ottawa), Mother Teresa (Ottawa), and Carleton University (Ottawa).