Victoria Times Colonist
Rethink: A multicural take on the three Rs
By Steve Carey, Times ColonistJanuary 31, 2010
The film being shot at the Victoria Immigrant and Refugee Centre looks
like a typical indie movie project. Outside, a black Lincoln Town Car
sports a camera rigged up to the driver’s side window. Inside the
office, cameras and lights surround actors on a makeshift coffee shop
set, while a director addresses them.
`You’re a barista. You’ve had a thousand cups of coffee. Talk fast,’
the director, Kirk Schwartz, says. `And get close. One thing you have
to remember about video is that it really spreads out space.’
The actors take direction, and filming resumes. What makes this different?
The film project is part of the Multicultural Environmental Education
Program, or MEEP, which helps new Canadians learn about sustainability
and the environment. This time around, eight groups of newcomers are
writing, shooting and editing short films for the Recycling Council of
B.C.’s Trailer Trashed film festival. To enter, films must try to
convince viewers to stop using disposable coffee cups.
The project is a joint venture between the immigrant and refugee
society and MediaNet, a local film and video production co-op.
MediaNet has donated lights, cameras and other equipment while Kirk
Schwartz, the technical director of MediaNet, has donated his time.
`The really important thing to me is that people learn to tell their
own stories and have their own voice,’ he says. `It’s really exciting.
What happens in situations like this is that some people who feel that
they’re disenfranchised or not included, when they get the ability to
express themselves and have their voice, it’s amazing how their
self-confidence goes up and how excited they get about it.’
MEEP has been around for almost two years. Its activities have each
involved from 10 to more than 30 participants. Past projects have
focused on making non-toxic cleaning products, bicycle maintenance,
backyard and container gardening, as well as field trips to places
such as Francis King Regional Park and Galiano Island. Participants
also recorded green-living tips for radio in Spanish, Punjabi and
Mandarin, to spread awareness of things newcomers can do to reduce
their environmental impact, keep their family healthy and save money.
The tips are broadcast on CFUV 101.9 FM, Village 900 AM, Fairchild
Radio and Sher-e-Punjab.
`We saw that there was a gap where the newcomer population wasn’t
engaged,’ says MEEP co-ordinator Gagan Leekha.
`Newcomers have a lot of barriers when they’re settling – language,
housing, trying to get their basic needs met. But we felt that
environmental education was an important topic, especially during
settlement, when people are getting used to new ways of doing things,’
Leekha says.
In many of its projects, MEEP works with other local groups, such as
the LifeCycles Project Society, the Compost Education Centre, and
compost- and recycling-collection business ReFUSE. After completing
each project, participants sign a pledge to set environmental goals
for their lives.
Three immigrants – Viet Tran, Hereity Hagdu and Carlos Gaete – started
the non-profit immigrant and refugee society in Victoria 21 years ago.
The society has grown from the three founding members into a huge
organization, packing the third floor at 637 Bay St., and serving more
than 3,000 clients a year. With more than 400 volunteers and 30 staff,
it offers programs and services such as skills and employment
transition help, a free computer lab, and programs to help young
immigrants plan for their futures. The centre also offers cultural
bridging and host programs.
Gaete, one of the founders, knows how important helping other
newcomers is. When he first came to Canada from Chile in 1976, he
lived in a hotel in Winnipeg, and thought he’d be stuck there forever.
He had no idea how to rent an apartment. Then he met another man from
Chile, who helped him get a place to live, the first step, he says, in
becoming a part of a community.
`We created this organization because we wanted to provide services to
immigrants and refugees from the immigrant perspective, because
immigrants understand what other immigrants are going through,’ says
Gaete, now the executive director of the immigrant and refugee
society. `That makes the newcomer feel at home when they come to our
organization.’
Among staff at the society, 18 languages are spoken, not to mention
countless dialects. The idea for the environmental education program
came about three years ago, when Gaete noted the importance of
environmental education for newcomers. Thinking that environmental
education was a good addition to the society’s existing services, he
applied for federal government funding.
`We receive in Canada, 250,000 newcomers every year. In 10 years,
that’s 2.5 million. That’s a lot of people,’ Gaete says. `That’s 2.5
million people who don’t receive any environmental education. Most of
the newcomers, the great majority, are focused on settling in this new
country, and that’s a big deal. So environment, if we don’t make it
part of the settlement in this new society, it’s not going to be a
priority.’
The federal government rejected the original proposal, but funding was
obtained from the Victoria Foundation. With that money the society
hired a project co-ordinator to work on the proposal, and eventually
funding was obtained from Environment Canada.
Back on the film set, Samantha Rubin and Marianna Galstyan finish a
quick planning meeting about their film. Rubin, 41, who immigrated to
Canada from the U.S. in 1993, first got involved with immigrant and
refugee through a friend who was taking English as a second language
classes. Galstyan, 32, arrived from Armenia three years ago.
`Our film is about a fortune teller who reads coffee grounds. She’s
reading the grounds of someone who uses a reusable ceramic mug … and
then she reads the grounds of a North American who comes in with a
disposable cup, and she can’t read him,’ Rubin says.
The aim is to highlight differences between the rushed lifestyle of
North Americans and the more relaxed pace in other countries. `And
we’re telling people, `Just slow down. Just sit, enjoy your coffee,
and stop trying to rush so much. And your life will be better,” Rubin
says.
Galstyan first got involved with the program when it partnered with
LifeCycle’s fruit-picking project.
`Before, I didn’t know much about the environment – the details, how
to recycle, this type of thing,’ she says. `By participating in
projects like this, you learn things. It’s changing my lifestyle, and
making me more educated in terms of making the right choices.
`Being an immigrant in Victoria is very hard. There are pre-determined
social groups here that are not too open to new things or new people.
Being part of [the immigrant and refugee society] was the first thing
for me to do. It was how I started creating friendships, and started
to fit in,’ she says. `I look at this from the point of view of
obtaining new skills. In Armenia, you have preset fields that you’re
encouraged to go into by your parents – finance, law, medicine – but
for a woman to do film or photography … it doesn’t bring you money, so
you’re not encouraged to do that. But here, you’re given so much
freedom to explore the artistic side of you.’
Rubin agrees that the program is a unique way to explore and
understand other cultures.
`When you have projects like this you get exposed to a lot of
different ways of being, ideas that people have, ways of navigating
through life. I think it’s a wonderful opportunity, because it can
shatter presuppositions about other cultures,’ Rubin says.
While the education program will end in March, the plan is to
integrate environmental education into every program the immigrant and
refugee society offers.
`We’re working on another project called `Green is For Everyone.’ It
is offering diversity training for local environmental groups. It
looks at how environmental groups can make their outreach,
communications and workplace even more inclusive and welcoming,’
Leekha says. `Environmental groups have the resources and skills to
engage a wider range of people.’
Read Steve Carey’s blog at timescolonist.com/rethink to find out how
to enter the Trailer Trashed film festival, and to hear an interview
with Gagan Leekha, MEEP Project Co-ordinator.
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