“Afghanistan has to take its future in its own hands”
declares President Hamid Karzai

President Hamid Karzai thanked the Director-General for UNESCO’s contribution to Afghanistan, notably in the fields of education and culture.

“I congratulate you for your leadership to stand up for girls’ education. Through your initiative for Malala, I hope you will continue to speak up for the education of girls of Afghanistan and Pakistan”, which he defined as most challenging.

Affirming that gender equality is the big issue of the 21st century, the Director-General commended President Karzai on the considerable progress achieved in enhancing literacy and girls’ education, and assured him of UNESCO’s continued support and engagement in Afghanistan up to the elections in April 2014 and beyond. “Providing education to girls and women is not against religious beliefs. It enhances their opportunities to contribute to the development of their societies, to feel an integral part of them, and to benefit their families.”

President Karzai acknowledged progress in achieving education and literacy in the country but stressed it still represented a “drop in the ocean” as the great majority of girls are uneducated “staying behind the walls of their homes.”

“Education is the only way forward, there is no shortcut, if we do it properly it will get us back on time”.

President Karzai went on recalling that Afghanistan had been a pioneer for women’s rights in the Muslim world, referring to the first Queen of Afghanistan, Princess Suraya, who used to show ‘herself unveiled‘ in 1920. Conservatism was promoted in resistance to the Western influence.

The Director-General voiced the concern expressed earlier during the day by women Parliamentarians and by the Women’s Media Association over possible setbacks for women after the 2014 elections, and she emphasized that women need to be given self-assurance as full members of their communities and societies. She further stressed the challenges in changing mindsets and traditions.

Turning to the rich cultural heritage in Afghanistan, Irina Bokova noted that “Afghanistan embeds an Eldorado of archaeological assets” and appealed to President Karzai to preserve the millenary cultural heritage from destruction in the name of the modernization of the country.

“Countries across the world strive to reconcile modernity and preservation of their cultural heritage assets”.

“The cultural heritage of Afghanistan will be the future economic and social asset of your country, it will provide self-confidence and pride to the people of Afghanistan”, declared Irina Bokova.

President Karzai expressed great appreciation for the planned visit to the World Heritage site of Bamiyan by the Director-General the day after, referring to the “magnificence of this iconic site still very much inhabited by the presence of the two giant Buddhas despite their having been destroyed by the Taliban Regime in 2001.”

“We are a place of 3 religions, the Greek, the Buddhist, and the Islamic. We are at the crossroads of several civilizations. This country has – when and if peace will come – a great deal to offer to the world’s culture through the exploration of former civilizations”.

“Afghanistan has paid a heavy high price during the last three decades in losing great parts of its cultural heritage due to the long internal conflict. We want to make this country visible again through its culture by regaining the pride towards our own past and our culture”. He further emphasized the need to re-educate the people of Afghanistan towards a greater appreciation of its culture and deplored the size of the Afghan diaspora and the negative image of Afghanistan depicted by certain foreign media featuring war-related images to the detriment of showing “the positive works of the history of Afghanistan. Media do not show the culture and history of Afghanistan but what Afghanistan is not. They show our suffering as our culture”.

In this context, President Karzai invited the Director-General to return to the country on the occasion of the celebrations of the birth of Nowruz in Afghanistan, in 2014.

“Afghanistan does not want to be a burden to the international community, it has to take its future in its own hands and start looking after himself” concluded President Hamid Karzai referring to the post-elections time.

Journalists belonging to the Afghan Women Journalists’ Association urged UNESCO to play a leading role in supporting Afghanistan’s transformation after 2014, the date when most peacekeeping forces are expected to withdraw and national elections are to be organized.

On 17 May, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova met in Kabul with the Association, founded in 2005 by Ms Shafiqa Habibi and now counting 350 members in five provinces.

“Our greatest challenge is the lack of capacity – many journalists have no professional training. In some provinces there are no women journalists,” said Ms Habibi, whose Association conducts training workshops for women journalists across the country.

“We are also afraid that women won’t participate in the elections. This is why we are now developing projects to run workshops for all women journalists, to encourage them to cover the issues.”

According to Ms Sharifa Zurmati, a journalist who became one of 68 Afghan women to win a seat in the country’s Wolesi Jirga, the Lower House of Parliament, there are 2400 women journalists working across the country. “We have been able to bring tremendous changes in the last decade, we have made great gains in freedom of expression and we don’t want to lose these gains,” said Ms Zurmati. “We hope that UNESCO will play a lead role in putting pressure on the world community to keep supporting Afghanistan and Afghan women after 2014.”

Women face tremendous challenges in breaking through conservative traditions: at least 300 have been forced to leave their jobs in recent years during to insecurity, says Ms Zurmati. Ms Sohayla Waziri, a student in her third year of journalism studies at Kabul University, said that the first challenge is to break down barriers about women’s role. “Society tells us that this is not a good job for a girl, that only men can do it, that our religion is against it. But we know how honorable this profession is. We are messengers for innocent women who are under the pressure of different ideologies. And after 2014, once I have completed university, will I have the opportunity to work or now?” Ms Nargis Waziri, a student in her fourth year of television journalism, recalls that at the beginning, simply being heard was difficult.

“I always knew that I wanted to form my own ideas and express them, and now my fellow students and teachers respect me.”

The Director-General commended the women for their courage, assuring them of UNESCO’s solid intention to accompany their country and profession. She referred to UNESCO’s expertise in journalism training in transition settings and election-related overage. “We are looking to expand our support in the run up to 2014 and beyond,” said Ms Bokova, insisting also on the importance of gender-sensitive reporting. “How journalists speak about different aspects of women in society, whether in terms of language, politics, family, education, rights, health – all this contributes to slowly changing mentalities, and to showing that an educated woman has benefits for the entire family and society.” She pledged to seek support for training workshops to build up the capacity of journalists to report on elections.

Information thanks to UNESCO

EDUCATE OUR GIRLS!

CLICK IMAGE TO READ MORE

They want to be teachers, doctors and scientists, a dream that would not have been possible just ten years ago.

On 18 March, throngs of girls lined up singing and clapping to welcome UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova, and Afghanistan’s Education Minister Farooq Wardak to the Ayesha-e-Durrani school in Kabul.

The school, named after the first woman who opened a girls’ school in Afghanistan, was severely damaged during the war. Reconstruction started in 2002 and lasted two years. Today, the school welcomes 1600 girls from Grade 1 through the high school years.

It was a moment to praise the achievements of this country that has made strides since 2001 when not a single girl was in school.

“We started from below the ground. We have lost two to three generations through war and conflict,” said Minister Wardaq. “Today 10.5 million Afghan children are going to school, 40 percent of them are girls. Our strategy has been built around community empowerment, ownership and multiple learning pathways.”

Together, the Director-General and the Minister toured classes of biology, chemistry and physics, where students demonstrated experiments with microscopes, test tubes and energy generation devices.

They stopped in geography, computer science and handicrafts classes to watch girls at work on sewing machines.

The girls know that they belong to a new generation. One young student shared her feelings on the pre- and post-Taliban era by reciting a poem, recalling that under the Taliban, “we the girls did not have the freedom to walk in the street and in the open air, to look at the sky.”

“Here in this school I see the results of our work. You have one of the youngest populations in the world. You are the ones who will take the future of your country into your own hands, girls and boys together,” said Ms Bokova. “I have come here with a strong message of support. You are a country of ancient traditions and of young talent. You have the right to make choices and to `take your life into your own hands.”

The journey is still a long one. Three million children remain out of school, 70 percent of them are girls. One of the head teachers at the school explained that the staff meets twice a month to discuss problems that girls face. “We work with the parents to convince them to send their girls to school. We have recently organized short term courses for teacher volunteers and have opened literacy classes.”

The case of Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl who was the victim of an assassination attempt by the Taliban last year, was cited on several occasions. “We face daily Malala cases in our country. There is a disturbing trend of girls being poisoned, with some 4,000 cases reported. In Kandahar, there are cases of acid being thrown into the face of girls,” said the Minister. He explained that education is interrupted by early marriage or because schools are considered unsafe. “They don’t have a boundary wall, drinking water, electricity and separate latrines. They lack qualified teachers and books. We need your support. We ask you to take our message to the world.”

“I know there are many courageous girls in Afghanistan who have to overcome obstacles to go to school. We have to support and respect them. This is their right. I want to pay respect to all these girls,” said Ms Bokova. “I saw a slogan on the wall of your school that read ‘our pen is our sword’. This should be the future. Instead of guns, the pen. Girls can be in the front run of this fight. Continue to study and to learn. This is not against any religious belief. This is the best thing you can do for your family, your community and your country.”

Introducing UNESCO

Poverty is one of the most pressing problems around the world. According to statistics from the World Bank, nearly one-quarter of the global population lives at or below the poverty line of $1.25 per day.[i] With so many people struggling for basic subsistence, it is hard for those affected to get out of poverty, gain access to capital, or develop small firms or businesses that help them build a better life.

Yet with the growth of mobile technology, there are new opportunities for individuals and small businesses to lift themselves up. People can use handheld devices to make monetary transfers, arrange for microfinance loans, establish small enterprises, and improve their economic circumstances. This helps them alleviate poverty and create a better situation for themselves and their families.

Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute, said that wireless communication is a breakthrough technology that helps to solve the worst problems associated with health care, poverty, and educational access. “Now in every village where I go, someone’s got a cell phone, somebody can make an emergency call, someone can find out the price on the market, someone can start a business empowered by the fact that they can reach a customer or a supplier, someone can drive a taxi or a truck for that reason as well. Everything is changing,” said Sachs.[ii]

In this Mobile Economy Project report, Darrell West looks at the growth of handheld devices and investigates the barriers to doing business in the developing world. In particular, West explores how mobile devices enable individual entrepreneurship and small business development. Despite the presence of barriers such as corruption, lack of transparency and capital, and poor infrastructure in many parts of the developing world, there are successful ventures enabled by mobile technology.

The report details some of the cases which illustrate emerging possibilities for alleviating poverty in different countries including:

• The growth of mobile devices
• Mobile money transfer services
• Mobile tools for small businesses
• Microfinance applications

[i] World Bank data is found HERE.

[ii] Kyla Yeoman, “Can Mobile Phones End Extreme Poverty?”, Global Envision, March 16, 2012.

Download the paper – 211 KB

Editor’s Note: The Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings releases this paper in conjunction with the May 16 forum at Brookings, “Mobile Technology’s Role in Combating Global Poverty and Enabling Entrepreneurship.” Both are part of the wider Mobile Economy Project which examines how the rapid expansion of mobile technology around the world is transforming economic opportunity for millions.

People associate eclipses with calamity for some reason.

This makes them nervous. In reality, each eclipse has a unique flavor. It makes sense to consider what you’re dealing with before you go diving under the bed until the eclipse has passed.

Have you see the movie, Big Fish? It’s about a man who tells tall tales. What’s distinct about this man and his stories is that all his stories end well.

My friend and colleague, satori, likes to say, “If a story hasn’t ended well, it’s because it hasn’t ended.”

It’s a Jupiter-flavored statement that may very well be a home (Moon) truth (Sagittarius). It also fits the flavor of Thursday’s eclipse which is decidedly upbeat and high-spirited. Above and beyond the eclipse, there is a massive emphasis on Gemini and Sagittarius on this week.

To fare well, I recommend that you Think Optimistically.

Jupiter is emphasized and grace, generosity and forgiveness are in vogue.

Are you holding a grudge? This is the week you may allow it to be eclipsed!

Heads up to Gemini born between May 20-30th. The Sun, Venus, Mercury and Jupiter will be in your sign between these dates. That’s a lot of action in one area. Check out your Solar Return report to see what you can expect.

Have a great day and good (lucky) time this week!

Elsa P

ElsaElsa Inc. PO Box 440254, Aurora, CO, 80044

Everybody blows it. We all make mistakes.

This means: “I’m not perfect. I don’t bat 1000. I don’t measure up to God’s standard. I don’t even measure up to my own standards. I disappoint myself a lot of the times.”

So because we’re all imperfect, we’re going to hurt other people and other people are going to hurt us in life: intentionally and unintentionally. What’s more important is this: What do we do with that hurt?

What we do with it is more important than the hurt. Are we going to allow it to make us better? Or are we going to allow it to make us bitter, resentful, and carry a grudge?

Now often, it’s not the big things in life that make us resentful. Those can obviously and they do but it’s also a lot of little things that just pile up. And a lot of little things can break the camel’s back. So we get irritated. And those irritations when we hold on to them turn into resentment.

Two Reasons to Not Get Resentful

1. When we get resentful, we stop thinking clearly.

Our logic goes out the door. Our logic gets distorted. Our perspective gets clouded. Our vision gets all mixed up and we don’t think rationally when our emotions are involved.

2. We start acting in self-defeating ways.

The most foolish things that have ever been done in history have been done in revenge or in retaliation or in resentment. The reality is that resentment doesn’t work! It never hurts the other person. It only hurts us. It’s like shooting ourself with a gun to hit them with the kick of the recoil. It doesn’t work!

The antidote to resentment is forgiveness.

Forgiveness builds relationships. Now let me explain what forgiveness is not. Forgiveness is not minimizing the hurt. It hurt. Forgiveness is not justifying it, saying it was no big deal. It was a big deal. Forgiveness is not saying it wasn’t wrong. It was wrong.

So what is forgiveness?

Why would anybody do that?

Mostly for our own sake because we are living in misery the longer we hold it on. Some of us are still allowing people from our past to hurt us in the present. The reality is that they cannot hurt us anymore. The past is past.

And every time we hold onto that grudge we are perpetuating our own pain. They can only hurt us if we refuse to let it go. When we hold onto our resentment we are only hurting ourself.

Forgiveness is the only way to get on with our life.

They don’t deserve it but did we deserve to be forgiven by God? No. But God did it anyway out of His grace and kindness. You see, resentment turns our heart into a desert and it dries us up emotionally to the point where we don’t have anything left to give to anybody else. We don’t have anything to give because we are so stuck in the past that we can’t get on with the future.

Everybody has had some relational disasters in life. Everybody. The question is: What are you going to do with them? Are you going to hold onto that resentment and allow it to destroy you and your relationships OR are you going to choose to forgive?

BONUS Article: Forgiveness… What’s it For? Forgive and Forget??? You’re Kidding, Right?

Kevin Martineau, Guest Author, Copyright 2013 by Kevin Martineau. Kevin is the Pastor at Port Hardy Baptist Church on Northern Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

HE is married to his best friend and has three beautiful daughters.

Visit Kevin’s Website!

Larry James is a professional speaker, author, relationship coach and an award winning nondenominational Wedding Officiant. He performs the most “Romantic” wedding ceremony you will find anywhere. Something NEW about relationships is posted every 4th day on this Relationships BLOG.

Ali Mohamed Ghaleb’s five daughters give him a special interest in supporting the innovative Food For Girls’ Education Programme that WFP has been operating in Yemen since 2007. The 44-year-old retired military officer says it helps him keep them in school.

SANA’A—Ali Mohamed Ghaleb heaves a 25-kilogram bag of wheat over his shoulder and says that without it, he’d have a hard time putting his five daughters through school.

Not all of them have started attending classes yet. His two youngest aren’t old enough, but 13-year-old Fatimah, who helps her father load the wheat onto the back of a motorcycle, is a Grade 6 student at the Al Jeel Al Jadid School in Tawalib village, in the hills south of Sana’a. She’s one year ahead of a younger sister in Grade 5. Ali’s eldest daughter has already graduated.

As long as Ali’s children go to school, he’s eligible to receive for each an annual ration from WFP of 150 kg of wheat and eight kg of fortified vegetable oil. It is normally delivered, as happened at the school in Tawalib, in three separate distributions spaced over the course of the school year.

“For me, it’s a bonus that helps me make sure all my girls get an education,” says Ali, who has been running his family’s farm since leaving the army. “But for many others in this country less fortunate than me, it’s a necessity. Without it, their daughters would probably not be in school at all.”

Girl in school

Ali does not exaggerate. More than 60 percent of primary school-aged children in Yemen who are not in school are girls. While primary school enrolment rates for boys are 85 percent, they are 65 percent girls. The result is a significant gender gap, reflected in illiteracy rates.

Overall, the rate of illiteracy in the country is 41 percent, but it is 60 percent for adult females, compared to 21 percent for adult males.

To address the issue, WFP has been deploying food assistance as a tool to encourage families to send their daughters to school and keep them there. School girls like Ali’s daughters are provided with take-home rations, sufficient to provided nutritional support for a family of seven. The rations are designed to act as incentive for poor families to give their daughters the chance of an education.

The food rations not only help to bridge the gender gap but, indirectly, also address other key challenges — illiteracy, low nutrition and health education, child marriage, maternal/child mortality and high population growth.

“The programme works,” maintains Abdul Wasir Mohamed Al Nuser, principal of the Omar Bin Al Khatab school in a village neighbouring Tawalib. “I would guess that attendance rates for the girls at my school would fall by 90 percent if these rations were terminated.”

WFP evaluations tend to support that view. One study found that girls’ enrolment and attendance rates in WFP-supported schools grew by more than 60 percent. In some districts, girls’ enrolment even exceeded that of boys.

Funding shortfall

Despite the benefits, the programme has run into financial problems in recent years. In 2010, funding shortfalls resulted in most of the 86,000 girls targeted receiving one reduced ration instead of the three initially planned. In 2011, WFP was forced to cut almost in half the number of beneficiaries, dropping from 115,000 to 59,000 girls. The numbers fell again in 2012 to 53,000—371,000 beneficiaries in all when families were counted.

Given funding forecasts, WFP is aiming to reach 35,000 school girls during the 2013-2014 school year, 245,000 people overall.

For Ali, that is not good news. “I hope they’re not going to kill this project,” he says. “I have two daughters in school, two more to go. I can use all the help I can get.

Story thanks to the World Food Programme – WFP MISSION

 
Toronto Women’s Expo Event Partnering with A Celebration of Women™

Networking: Your Ladder to Success!

 
Come do the best networking possible!

TWE & ACOW are thrilled to host Toronto’s Best, the ‘Queens of Networking‘ speak at our Business Series Event on

Tues. June 4th at Milestones, Yorkdale from 6:30pm

 

Getting word of mouth referrals will help to boost your business profits up.

• But how do you do get them?
• Where do you meet those people?
• How do you connect and promote yourself?

In the world of the internet, it has became easier to find people, events and places. But does it really brings you connections?

With all the social media networking sites you still need to meet people in person!

And when you do, that’s when the correct approach will help you climb the stairs to your success!

‘Networking: the ladder to your success’ is an upcoming event which will help you to find those connections.
 

FEATURING: Two of most successful networkers around!

 

WHEN DOES A CONTACT TURN INTO A PROSPECT?

Business networking: Jennifer Beale

- a great way to market you and your business

- many fail because of a common problem experts call Premature Solicitation

- sell too early in the relationship

- Jennifer shares the art and science behind relationship building with your network

- starting from first meeting till the person is ready to buy from or refer contacts to you.

 

Gentle Marketing: How To Gently Attract Loads Of Customers – Chala Dincoy

Do you want to learn how to attract NEW customers instead of chasing after them with canned marketing campaigns?
How do you stand out and tell clients that you can help them?
How to get into your client’s world and get THEM to ask to work with you?

In this informative and action packed seminar, you will learn:The number one reason why businesses confuse potential customers and MISS the opportunity(yikes!) – Discover the business changing secret to Gently attracting clients instead of chasing them

About Chala: Chala Dincoy is the CEO and Founder of Coachtactics, www.coachtactics.com. She’s a brand marketing expert who helps small businesses feel like a NATIONAL BRAND (without paying the big bucks!)

In her former life, Chala was an award winning marketer at companies such as Pepsi, Pizza Hut, Frito Lay, Diageo, Playtex and BIC Inc for 20years. Now, she’s the author of Gentle Marketing: A Gentle Way To Attract Loads Of Clients, a speaker featured on Rogers TV, a radio segment host on the Small Business Big Ideas Show and a certified business coach, who speaks about turning your brand into rocket fuel so you get more clients!

Chala dishes out big advice that’s to the point, cuts your costs and helps make your brand look like a ROCK STAR to customers!

 

More information on Jennifer and ChalaHERE

 

Location:

Milestones, Yorkdale Mall

3401 Dufferin St, Toronto, ON M6A 2T9

FREE parking

Time: 6:30pm – 9:30pm

Cost: $20 online, $25 at the door

 

 

Jennifer and Randy are sure to teach you the proper techniques of networking, something we should all be experts at!

 
Learn all about networking then put it to action right away.

Sincerely,

Randi Goodman & Catherine Anne Clark
Toronto Women’s Expo Event Partnering with A Celebration of Women Foundation
Need more information, please email: randi@torontowomensexpo.com
416-238-1026

 

A Celebration of Women™

is elated to Celebrate the Life of this powerful example of a woman that can rise above extraordinary circumstance and achieve leadership at the top of her class. Throughout the life of this woman, her prevailing mission has been for the betterment of the lives of those around her, within her scope and beyond. Starting out in journalism, writing of the world moving through life to the highest of stations, this woman will always be celebrated at a human of empathy and heart, be noted here: “Her ability to personally connect with those she met was also noted, as well as her frequent displays of emotion; commentators dubbed her the empathizer-in-chief.”

 
 
 

WOMAN of ACTION™

 

 

Michaëlle Jean

 
 
 
 
Michaëlle Jean PC CC CMM COM CD FRCPSC(hon) (French pronunciation: ​[mika.ɛl ʒɑ̃]; born September 6, 1957) is a Canadian journalist and stateswoman who served as Governor General of Canada, the 27th since Canadian Confederation, from 2005 to 2010, a social activist, journalist, documentary filmmaker, governor general (b at Port-au-Prince, Haiti 6 Sept 1957).

Jean’s early years were spent in a middle-class neighbourhood in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, where her father was principal and teacher of philosophy at an elite, Protestant preparatory school.

She was educated at home because her parents, Roger and Luce, did not want her to attend school, where she would have to swear allegiance to dictator François “Papa Doc” Duvalier.

In 1965, her father was arrested and tortured.

In 1967 he fled to Canada; his wife and two daughters joined him the next year.

She was baptized at the Holy Trinity Cathedral, and spent winters in that city and summers and weekends in Jacmel, her mother’s hometown. Though her father worked as principal and teacher for an elite Protestant private school in Port-au-Prince, Jean was educated at home, as her parents did not want her swearing allegiance to the then Haitian president, François Duvalier, as all Haitian schoolchildren were required to do.

With her family, Jean fled Haiti to escape Duvalier’s regime, under which Jean’s father was in 1965 arrested and tortured.

Jean’s father left for Canada in 1967 and Jean, her mother, and sister, arrived the following year; the family settled together at Thetford Mines, Quebec.

Jean’s father, however, became increasingly distant and violent, and her parents’ marriage eventually fell apart; she, with her mother and sister, then moved to a basement apartment in the Little Burgundy neighbourhood of Montreal.

She received a Bachelor of Arts in Italian and Hispanic languages and literature, and continued her studies towards a Master of Arts in comparative literature at the University of Montreal. From 1984 to 1986, she taught at the Faculty of Italian Studies at the same university. During the 1980s, she pursued linguistic and literary studies at the University of Perouse, the University of Florence and the Catholic University of Milan, all of which cited her for excellence. She is fluent in five languages: French, English, Italian, Spanish and Creole.

As she pursued her studies, Michaëlle Jean worked for eight years, from 1979 to 1987, with Québec shelters for battered women. She has taken in, supported and accompanied hundreds of women and children in crisis, while actively contributing to the establishment of a network of emergency shelters throughout Québec and elsewhere in Canada.

She was also involved in aid organizations for immigrant women and families, and later worked at Employment and Immigration Canada and at the Conseil des Communautés culturelles du Québec.

Madame Jean’s sense of social commitment and her appreciation of national and international realities led her to journalism. For 18 years, she has been a highly regarded journalist and anchor of information programs. She joined Radio-Canada in 1988, working successively as a reporter and host on such news and public affairs programs as Actuel , Montréal ce soir, Virages and Le Point . In 1995, she anchored a number of Réseau de l’Information à Radio-Canada (RDI) programs such as Le Monde ce soir, l’Édition québécoise, Horizons francophones, Les Grands reportages, Le Journal RDI, and RDI à l’écoute. In 1999, she was also asked by the English network, CBC Newsworld, to host The Passionate Eye and Rough Cuts which broadcast the best in Canadian and foreign documentary films.

In 2001, Michaëlle Jean began anchoring the weekend editions of Radio-Canada’s major news broadcast Le Téléjournal. In 2003, she became the anchor of Le Téléjournal’s daily edition Le Midi.

In 2004, she started her own show, Michaëlle, which is broadcast on both French-language public television networks. This program features a series of in-depth interviews with experts, enthusiasts and visionaries.

In the mid-1990s, Michaëlle Jean also participated in a number of documentary films produced by her husband, filmmaker Jean-Daniel Lafond: La manière nègre ou Aimé Césaire chemin faisant, Tropique Nord, Haïti dans tous nos rêves, and L’heure de Cuba. These thought-provoking documentaries were critically acclaimed and earned awards both in Canada and internationally.

Michaëlle Jean has won numerous honours for her professional achievements, including: the Human Rights League of Canada’s 1989 Media Award for her report titled La pasionaria, on the struggle of an immigrant woman in Québec; the Prix Mireille-Lanctôt for her report titled Partir à zéro, dealing with spousal violence; the Prix Anik for best information reporting in Canada for her investigation of the power of money in Haitian society; the inaugural Amnesty International Canada Journalism Award; the Galaxi Award for best information host; the 2001 Gemini Award for best interview in any category; and the Conseil de la Langue Française du Québec’s Prix Raymond-Charette. Michaëlle Jean has also been named to the Ordre des Chevaliers de La Pléiade by the Assemblée internationale des parlementaires de langue française, and has been made a citizen of honour by the City of Montreal and the Ministère de l’Immigration et des relations avec les citoyens of Quebec in recognition of her accomplishments in communications.

Jean denied separatist leanings, renounced her citizenship of France, and eventually became a respected vicereine.

Jean became a reporter, filmmaker, and broadcaster for Radio-Canada in 1988, hosting news and affairs programmes such as Actuel, Montréal ce soir, Virages, and Le Point; she was the first person of Caribbean descent to be seen on French television news in Canada. She then moved in 1995 to Réseau de l’information (RDI), Radio-Canada’s all-news channel, in order to anchor a number of programmes, Le Monde ce soir, l’Édition québécoise, Horizons francophones, Les Grands reportages, Le Journal RDI, and RDI à l’écoute, for example.

Four years later, she was asked by CBC’s English language all-news channel, CBC Newsworld, to host The Passionate Eye and Rough Cuts, which both broadcast the best in Canadian and foreign documentary films. By 2004, Jean was hosting her own show, Michaëlle, while continuing to anchor RDI’s Grands reportages, as well as acting occasionally as anchor of Le Téléjournal.
 

 
Over the same period, Jean made several films with her husband, including the award winning Haïti dans tous nos rêves (“Haiti in All Our Dreams“), in which she meets her uncle, the poet and essayist René Depestre, who fled from the Duvalier dictatorship into exile in France and wrote about his dreams for Haiti, and tells him Haiti awaits his return. She similarly produced and hosted news and documentary programming for television on both the English and French services of the CBC.

The Catholic University of Milan, where Jean studied languages and literature

Jean received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Italian and Hispanic languages and literature from the University of Montreal, and, from 1984 to 1986, taught Italian Studies there, while completing her Master of Arts degree in comparative literature. She then went on with language and literature studies at the University of Florence, the University of Perugia, and the Catholic University of Milan.

Besides French and English, Jean is fluent in Spanish, Italian, and Haitian Creole, and can read Portuguese.

Concurrent with her studies between 1979 and 1987, Jean coordinated a study on spousal abuse and worked at a women’s shelter, which paved the way for her establishment of a network of shelters for women and children across Canada. She also involved herself in organizations dedicated to assisting immigrants to Canada obtain the entry they desired, and later worked for Employment and Immigration Canada and at the Conseil des Communautés culturelles du Québec, where Jean began writing about the experiences of immigrant women. She married French-born, Canadian filmmaker Jean-Daniel Lafond, and the couple adopted as their daughter Marie-Éden, an orphaned child from Jacmel.

Jean was a refugee from Haiti—coming to Canada in 1968 — and was raised in the town of Thetford Mines, Quebec. After receiving a number of university degrees, Jean worked as a journalist and broadcaster for Radio-Canada and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), as well as undertaking charity work, mostly in the field of assisting victims of domestic violence.

In 2005, she was appointed governor general by Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, on the recommendation of Prime Minister Paul Martin, to replace Adrienne Clarkson as vicereine (A woman who is the governor of a country, province, or colony, ruling as the representative of a sovereign), and she occupied the post until succeeded by David Johnston in 2010. Early in her tenure, comments of hers recorded in some of the film works by her husband, Jean-Daniel Lafond, were construed as supporting Quebec sovereignty and her holding of dual citizenship caused doubt about her loyalties.

Jean was Canada’s first governor general of Caribbean origin; the third woman (after Jeanne Sauvé and Adrienne Clarkson); the fourth youngest (after the Marquess of Lorne, who was 33 years old in 1878; the Marquess of Lansdowne, who was 38 years old in 1883; and Edward Schreyer, who was 43 years old in 1979); the fourth former journalist (after Sauvé, Roméo LeBlanc and Clarkson); and the second after Clarkson to not only have neither a political nor military background, but also to be a visible minority, to break the tradition of Canadian-born governors general, and to be in an interracial marriage.

Jean was also the first representative of Queen Elizabeth II to have been born during the latter’s reign, and her appointment saw the first child living in Rideau Hall, the official residence, since Schreyer and his young family lived there in the early 1980s.

Jean (left) with Queen Elizabeth II at Queen’s Park, Toronto, July 2010

Jean announced to the press in early 2010 that she would step out of the viceregal role near the end of the traditional, but not official, five-year period. The then official opposition leader, Michael Ignatieff, publicly advocated the extension of Jean’s tenure, in doing so breaking the tradition of keeping consultations on the next governor general among the prime minister and opposition party leaders confidential. Polls conducted around that time showed that Jean had earned an approval rating of 60%, and a constitutional expert at the University of Toronto called her performance as governor general “superb,” though some of her missteps were noted.

On May 10, 2010, Princess Margriet of the Netherlands presented Jean with a new tulip cultivar named the Michaëlle Jean tulip; with deep maroon petals; it was designed to reflect the Governor General’s personal tastes. This carried on the tradition of Dutch royals gifting tulips to Canada.

Summaries of Jean’s time as the Queen’s representative emerged by mid-2010; Jean was regarded as having fulfilled the role in an admirable, though not perfect, fashion.

It was noted that she used the office, her speaking abilities, and photogenic nature to Canada’s advantage, promoting freedom, human rights, and urban youth, and to bring attention to socio-economic problems in the country’s north.

She was commended for her dedication to the arts, Aboriginal Canadians, the Armed Forces, and her outreach to Haiti following the earthquake there, but critiqued for specific incidents, such as referring to herself as Canada’s head of state and making public comments that skirted the political. Her ability to personally connect with those she met was also noted, as well as her frequent displays of emotion; commentators dubbed her the empathizer-in-chief.

In the weeks before Jean’s departure from the viceregal office, the Cabinet announced that the Michaëlle Jean Foundation would be established by the federal Crown-in-Council to focus on promoting education, culture, and creativity among youth from rural, northern, and/or poor communities in Canada.

It was also reported that the Secretary-General of the United Nations would be appointing Jean to act as special envoy to Haiti for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, with an aim to fight poverty and illiteracy and raise international funds.

 
 
The Governor General and her troopsGovernor General Michaelle Jean visited staff and patients at the Role 3 Hospital at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2009 including a seven-year-old boy who lost his leg in an IED blast.

Jean has wrapped up a two-day whirlwind tour of Afghanistan, where she’s encouraging Canadian soldiers to stay the course in helping better the lives of the Afghan people.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Bill Graveland – Michaelle Jean in Afganistan – 06/08

She was on November 8, 2010, appointed for a four-year term. Although the position’s office is located in Paris, France, Jean opted to remain in Canada and base herself out of space provided by the University of Ottawa and rented by the Michaëlle Jean Foundation.

Visiting the devasted Haiti in March, Michaelle Jean walks into the demolished St. Trinite church in Port-au-Prince where she was baptized as a baby. Accompanying her are her husband Jean-Daniel Lafond, left, and Father Beauvoir.

In early 2011, Jean made a call for the overhaul of Haiti’s education system, as “the cornerstone of the impoverished nation’s future prosperity.”

In April, 2011 Jean was appointed by Abdou Diouf, Secretary-General of La Francophonie, as the Grand Témoin de la Francophonie for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England, with the task of promoting the French language and ensuring compliance by the London Olympic Organizing Committee with rule 24 of the Olympic Charter, which gives French the status of an official language of the Olympic Games. Later in the year, it was announced that Jean had been appointed as Chancellor of the University of Ottawa and she began her term on February 1, 2012.

Michaelle Jean was sworn in as a member of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada on September 26, 2012, giving her the accordant style of The Honourable; however, as a former Governor General of Canada, Jean is entitled to be styled for life with the superior form of The Right Honourable.

Jean is currently the Special Envoy for Haiti for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and Chancellor of the University of Ottawa.

Michaëlle Jean is married to Jean-Daniel Lafond. Their daughter, Marie-Éden. Michaëlle Jean’s family also includes Mr. Lafond’s two daughters from a previous marriage and his two grandchildren.

 
 
 

FIND Michaëlle Jean HERE

Contact – Michaëlle Jean Foundation

Michaëlle Jean (@MichaelleJeanF) on Twitter

Michaëlle Jean, Envoyée spéciale de l’UNESCO pour Haïti

Facebook – Michaëlle Jean

 

 
 
 

A Celebration of Women™

is elated to welcome this power of example of what positive action can be accomplished through the ability to practice empathy. Team Celebration in appreciation looks forward to collaboration in bettering lives for all women, building future women leaders.

 

 

Brava Michaëlle!

There are over 370 million indigenous peoples living in 90 countries across the globe.

Protecting and advancing their rights have been at the heart of Tonya Gonnella Frichner’s mission for almost three decades, serving as an attorney and former member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

“Gonnella Frichner is a lawyer and activist who has devoted her life to the pursuit of human rights for Indigenous Peoples on a national and international level. From 2008 to 2011, Gonnella Frichner served as North American Regional Representative to the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

She is the president and founder of the 33-year-old American Indian Law Alliance (AILA), an indigenous, non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO) that works with indigenous nations, communities and organizations in their struggle for sovereignty, human rights and social justice. The AILA is one of only 20 indigenous NGO’s with special consultative status with the U.N.’s Economic and Social Council.

Gonnella Frichner has received numerous recognition, including the Harriet Tubman Humanitarian Achievement Award, Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the New York County Lawyers Association Award for Outstanding Public Service, and the Alston Bannerman Fellowship. She sits on several boards, including the Seventh Generation Fund and the Boarding School Healing Project”. READ MORE

With the upcoming 12th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues taking place on 20-31 May, and with the world conference more than a year away, DESA News got an exclusive opportunity to meet with Ms. Tonya Gonnella Frichner, President and Founder of the American Indian Law Alliance, to talk about past achievements and the work that lies ahead.

For more information about the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.