SASKATOON WOMAN HONOURED FOR WORK ABROAD
The Star Phoenix (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan), CAnada
February 11, 2013 Monday
Final Edition
Jason Warick, The StarPhoenix
As rockets launched by the South African apartheid regime crashed down
around her, Denise Kouri’s first thought was of her three-year-old
daughter, Lise.
“Lise was in a daycare, and all we could hear were the explosions,”
Kouri said.
Kouri, six months pregnant at the time with second daughter, Rosa, ran
through the streets of the Mozambican capital of Maputo. She arrived
at the daycare 20 minutes later, as did her partner, Don Kossick. They
were relieved to see workers had taken the children to a shelter.
“It was very stressful,” Kouri said.
It was May 1983. The South African apartheid government was attempting
to maintain its regional dominance by destabilizing neighbouring
countries. Attacks began in rural and border regions, but Mozambican
hospitals, schools and daycare centres became frequent targets.
“It was a very vicious campaign to destroy any progress, any hope,”
Kouri said.
For her 30 years of dedication to Mozambique, Central America and other
regions, the Saskatoon woman received a Global Citizen Award on the
weekend from the Saskatchewan Council for International Co-operation.
“She is worthy of recognition because of her service,” said John
Parry, a board member of the United Nations Association of Canada
who nominated Kouri.
“But to do it while raising a family, which now includes grandchildren,
is pretty amazing.”
University of Saskatchewan associate professor Lori Hanson also
received a Global Citizen Award for her work in more than a dozen
countries, including several years with midwives in Nicaragua. Heather
Hale, who worked with co-operative groups in Canada and Ghana, was
named an Emerging Global Citizen.
. . .
Kouri grew up near Swift Current in the village of Ponteix. She was
inspired to do international work by her mother, Aimee Kend-ergi,
daughter of Armenian refugees and a strong voice for social justice
and women’s education.
Kouri and Kossick travelled to Mozambique to work for Canadian
University Service Overseas. They knew it was dangerous, but believed
it was important to support Mozambique and prevent the spread of the
apartheid system.
Kossick worked on sanitation projects in poor neighbourhoods while
Kouri used her skills as a systems analyst to bolster Mozambique’s
factories and banking system.
The guerrilla war and bombing worsened. Kouri remembers how her family
grew accustomed to the chaos. One night, Lise walked into their room
and complained that “the bomb woke me up.”
Lise and other kids drew pictures of explosions and warfare at
daycare. There were rumours the South Africans had planted mines and
bombs inside children’s toys and placed them in parks. Opponents were
decapitated and their heads placed on poles in public.
In spite of this, they decided to extend their two-year contract by
a year.
“It was the apartheid struggle. We did feel it was important. We
were involved in a big program and we wanted to learn about these
injustices,” she said.
Kouri and her family returned to Canada. In addition to her work as a
consultant on health and other issues, Kouri served as CUSO president.
In the late 1980s, at the height of war in Central America, Kouri
spent time evaluating CUSO agriculture projects in Guatemala, Nicaragua
and other countries.
“We were in El Salvador and the officials tell me, ‘It’s safe. Both
armies know you’re here and they’re OK with it,'” Kouri said.
Kouri’s involvement with Mozambique took another turn in 1999 when
she and Kossick, fellow Sas-katonians Murray and Gerri Dickson and
others began a program to train local health workers.
The Training for Health Renewal Program has trained hundreds of health
workers, who have fanned out to rural areas to conduct vaccinations,
malaria and HIV awareness programs, basic maternal and infant care
and many other duties. Dynamic role-playing activities and song are
a staple of the process.
“There’s not a lot of literacy. It’s also more lively. If a community
is made passive, nothing will change,” she said.
They’ve also trained groups of teachers, who now train their own
health workers using THRP curriculum. The program partners with the
national health department and has served as a model of rural health
care in developing countries.
The current portion of the THRP program ends next year, but Kouri
still wants to provide resources to the communities in need. Something
taken for granted here such as gas for the workers’ vehicles affect
treatment decisions there, she said.
Closer to home, Kouri and others are compiling data on the food
security and supply for Saskatoon residents. They hope to release a
detailed map and strategy in the coming months.
She said she believes it’s important to think internationally, but
to also link that work locally.
“We cannot be isolated. There are injustices everywhere we need to
think about as Canadians,” she said.
“It’s a privilege to do this work. We enrich ourselves and hopefully
contribute to change.”