GlobalHeroes_final.pdf 1 2022-03-23 10:32:26 AM
Etobicoke West Mall
Wexford - Mar��ale
nto New Toro
Clairlea - Birchmount
�ORTH ST. ��M�S ���N
Rexdale - Kipling
MORNINGSIDE
Kingsview Village - The Westway
Agincourt North
flemingdon park
Scarborough Village
MALVERN
n nt Tow Cresce
le ~ ~ South Parkda
woburn
Regent Park
Thorncliffe Park
TONE MOUNT OLIVE - SILVERS JAMESTOWN
Oakridge
MO UNT DENNIS
Black Creek
Moss Park
Since 2008, The Children’s Book Bank has given away more than 1.5 million free books. Help fill even more bookshelves across our city. Learn more at www.childrensbookbank.com
May • 2022
globalheroes.com The power of positive, solution-based journalism.
ADVERTORIAL
100 Years of Patients
Growing Up at Shriners Hospitals for Children — Canada Richard was a patient at Canada Shriners Hospital for many years of his childhood after experiencing a terrible car accident with his family when he was just two years old. It was 1968, and Richard and his family were on their way to visit their relatives in Montreal, just an hour and a half drive from their hometown of Trois-Rivières, Quebec. At about the same time his mother had taken him into her lap to settle him from crying, another car swerved into their lane, causing them to veer off the road. Richard was thrown from the front window, landing in a ditch with the vehicle on top of him and his mother. With the help of a kind stranger passing by, Richard’s father was able to pull him out from under the car and was attended to by first responders shortly after. He made his way to several emergency rooms, spent some time in another children’s hospital, and then found his way to Canada Shriners Hospital. Unfortunately, his spine was beyond repair, and the accident left him a paraplegic. Despite the difficult circumstances
Shriners Children’s is celebrating 100 years of changing the lives of children all over the world.
Find out how at shrinerscanada.org
he was facing at such a young age, Richard only has positive memories of his time at Canada Shriners Hospital. “I grew up at the Shriners. I’m a Shriners kid,” he recounts. “I lived there until I was 18. I have so many memories. There was a dormitory for the boys and another for the girls, each with about 30 beds. It was great! There’s nothing like having all of your friends around when you’re a kid.” Richard was in and out of the hospital until he was 18 years old, receiving treatment for his spine. “We did all sorts of fun activities, including theatre, which I loved! We did the set décor and we were the actors. We presented our plays to the patients, their families, and staff. In addition to my parents, it was the nurses who raised me. They taught me to be positive and respectful.” Richard went on to enjoy many hobbies as a teen and young adult, discovering his passion for both music and sports. He played the drums, percussion, and guitar, and participated in sports such as basketball, tennis, swimming, and sailing. He became an elite sailor and won
© SHRINERS CANADA
many notable races, including the Mobility Cup in 2008. “I made my way despite the circumstances,” he says. While he met many challenges on his path through life, he always had an open mind and a generous spirit and says he will be forever grateful to Shriners Hospitals for Children - Canada. Shriners Hospitals for Children - Canada is among a network of healthcare facilities across Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Together we are celebrating 100 years of providing specialized care to children all over the world.
Healing Through Dance:
Toronto Artist Sheds Light on Sexism and Trauma many women and trans people experience in Latin America. When most of us dance, it’s to “On stage, I get to create the celebrate at a party or let loose world that I want to manifest,” in our living rooms. When Mata explains. “And in this world, Victoria Mata dances, it’s to my protagonist has a nude torso heal intergenerational trauma, that is not sexualized and wears empower young women fleeing a traditional culoepuya skirt domestic violence, and explore that is connected to the people the diasporic experience. of Venezuela. The machete she Mata is a Venezuelan-Canadian holds is an instrument that can clear paths, but it is also a tool choreographer, director, activist, for protection and killing when and expressive arts therapist who has been dancing professionally needed. There’s a warrior entity to her that I feel we all have to carry.” for over 20 years. Drawing Through ConSECUENCIAS, inspiration from her home in an artist network she co-founded Toronto and ancestral roots, her work is influenced by the that operates in Canada and Latin traditional Afro-Venezuelan America, Mata brings dance and filmmaking to women’s shelters, genres of the cacao-farming regions her grandfather hails from inspiring participants to exhibit and produce their own critical art. and the contemporary Canadian dance scene. Her face lights up when talking about the young women she’s Telling stories of women mentored over the years. that aren’t commonly told in “It’s really awesome to see performance spaces is a major when participants start their focus of her work. Her characters own production companies and are often seen standing strong music labels, become teachers, and beautiful against the sexual violence and “machismo” or sexism have kids and reach out to us VANESSA GRANT
and say, ‘I want to put my kid in a workshop!’” she says. Besides equipping young women with the tools to create their own art, Mata also uses expressive arts therapy to support them as they work through trauma. Her clients use collage, clay, painting, movement, song, and more to heal. “Expressive arts therapy is a field that accesses the power of the imagination. It’s in moving from one art form to another that we connect with the subconscious and gain deeper knowledge about our relationship to other people and experiences of trauma, and then begin to imagine how we want to choose to shift those relationships.” Mata also uses art to call attention to timely social issues. In Cacao: A Venezuelan Lament, an upcoming theatre work premiering in September, she highlights the exploitation of cacao farmers through the global chocolate trade and the fight to preserve their traditional way of life.
Another frequent theme in Mata’s work is mental health. She investigates grief in Suspended, hanging from a harness in mid-air to recreate the feeling of the world turning upside down when we lose someone or something. She’ll be presenting a version of this work to Toronto audiences this May through Discover Dance, a free lunch-hour series presented by TO Live and Nova Dance that introduces many of the city’s incredible dance artists. Mata explains that the motivation behind her work isn’t just professional—it’s personal, too. She has a family history of suicide, addiction, and displacement. “As I learn more about my family’s story, there’s an answer to why I’m doing what I do that is bigger than me. There’s a calling to heal the intergenerational trauma that I feel my body is holding onto. And I have both expressive arts therapy and the world of dance and choreography to heal what my cells carry.”
VICTORIA MATA © ANA HIGUERA
ADVERTORIAL
From Loss to Landing The Mothers Matter Centre launches a May 2022 campaign to support refugee mothers and children. Globally, by the end of 2020, 82.4 million people were forced to flee their homes. With the current crises in Afghanistan, Sudan, Ethiopia, and—now—in Ukraine, this number will rise, breaking new records of people forcibly displaced. The Mothers Matter Centre (MMC) and its partners have an essential role to play in meeting the complex and urgent resettlement needs of arriving refugees. WHAT DOES THE MOTHERS MATTER CENTRE DO? The MMC works to assure mothers they are not invisible, that they are valued, and that help is now at hand. The MMC does this through their flagship program, Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY), an evidence-based program where Home Visitors come into a family’s home to support vulnerable and isolated mothers in their critical role as their
child’s first and most important teacher. HIPPY strengthens families and communities by empowering mothers to be active in Canadian society while preparing their children for success in school and life. THE MMC’S RESPONSE TO THE REFUGEE CRISIS In 2018, in response to Operation Syria, the MMC partnered with the Immigrant Services Society of BC to deliver Reviving Hope and Home, a program for newly arrived, high-risk refugee mothers and their children. It was a responsive, personalized collection of settlement services assembled to meet the complex and evolving needs of vulnerable refugee mothers. The successful implementation of Reviving Hope and Home yielded many sustainable outcomes for participants, including supportive social networks, bridges to essential social services, relief of food insecurity, child care assistance, and the successful
transition of pre-school children to school. The Canadian government announced a doubling of refugees to 45,000 in Canada over the next two years, a number likely to increase in response to the crisis in Ukraine. Much effort is required to welcome refugee
mothers and their families, who arrive after arduous journeys filled with violence, loss, and extreme uncertainty. The MMC will ease this complex transition into Canadian society by building on the success of Reviving Hope and Home. But, we need your help!
To support the MMC’s work with refugees, please consider donating to our From Loss to Landing campaign launching in May. There is no better time to show Mothers how much they matter. Visit mothersmattercentre.ca/ from-loss-to-landing
© COURTESY OF MOTHERS MATTER
YOUR IMPACT BRINGS HOPE TO MOTHERS IN CRISIS.
VISIT MOTHERSMATTERCENTRE.CA TO LEARN MORE.
