In The News
For the Media
The Slaight Family Foundation funds Crossroads to advance sexual and reproductive rights for vulnerable youth in Senegal
TORONTO, ON – MARCH 3rd, 2020 – Young people at risk of sexual violence in one of the poorest regions of Senegal will be the beneficiaries of a new funding for Crossroads International from The Slaight Family Foundation. The funds will allow Crossroads to reach 30,000 teens and 75,000 indirect beneficiaries through a youth-led initiative to increase awareness of sexual and reproductive health rights among adolescents at risk of child trafficking, forced prostitution, child labour, and sexual violence. The Slaight Family Foundation announcement, in advance of International Women’s Day, is part of a $15 million, 15 organization commitment to improve human rights and opportunities for women and girls.
“This support will allow Crossroads and our partners to reach an unprecedented number of children and youth at great risk in one of poorest regions of the world and transform their ability to access sexual and reproductive health information and services,” said Heather Shapter, Executive Director of Crossroads International. “We are very grateful to The Slaight Family Foundation for its inspired leadership.”
Kedougou, Senegal is a hub for extractive industries. The region can see its population rise from 150,000 to 2 million for several months out of the year. More than half the population is under the age of 17. Forced prostitution, child trafficking, and sexual violence are a significant crisis: pregnancy and childbirth is the leading cause of death for adolescent girls aged 15-19; child and forced marriage is prevalent where 52% of girls are already married; only one adolescent in 20 use contraception; and 77% of girls stated they need safe sexual and reproductive health services. Stigma around sexual and reproductive health is great and services are limited.
Crossroads will partner with Action Aid Senegal, and local partners APROFES (Association Pour la Promotion de la Femme Sénégalaise) and CONAFE (Coalition Nationale des Associations et ONG en Faveur de l’Enfance) to transform access to quality, gender-responsive heath services in Kedougou by providing gender sensitive information and accessible health services to adolescents including testing, family planning services, and increased access to contraception.
The Slaight Family Foundation is also funding outreach, data collection, reporting and monitoring of girls forced or coerced into prostitution in the mines. With reliable and real time access to information on violence against women and girls including child trafficking, child labour, prostitution, and early pregnancies, as well as early and forced marriage, governments and other local stakeholders can develop appropriate interventions for children and youth to live free from violence.
The Foundation’s funds will match Global Affairs Canada support for Crossroads’ ground-breaking project. “Funding commitments from foundations and government are fueling the growth of a youth led movement to help young people assert their rights and make choices for a better future,” said Ms. Shapter.
About Crossroads International
Crossroads International is a leader in international cooperation and has been fighting inequality for 60 years. Crossroads works with local partner organizations to create decent jobs and to empower women to become leaders and live free from violence in some of the world’s poorest nations. Every year, we engage experienced volunteers and staff North and South who apply their expertise locally to address global issues. Together we are leveraging knowledge, expertise, and dollars to create a more just and equitable world.
-30-
To arrange an interview or for more information, please contact:
Christopher Holcroft
Empower Consulting
416-996-0767
christopherholcroft@hotmail.ca
LAURA DA RE
Laura Da Re is Vice President, Finance at Numeris, an audience measurement company. She is an experienced executive with over twenty-five years in the field of Finance. Throughout her career, she has worked in a variety of industries, providing her with a vast range of knowledge and expertise. Laura is a board member of the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine and mentors accounting students obtaining their CPA designation.
Vanita Varma, vice chair & chair of governance committee
Vanita is a senior non-profit executive with over 20 years of experience in organizational leadership, strategic and operational planning, change management and social innovation. Having lived and worked in over 3 countries in Asia and Middle East, Vanita is passionate about engaging diverse community stakeholders and leading multi-sectoral partnerships towards collective goals on social change. Currently, she is the Interim Chief Executive Officer at WellFort Community Health Services and is a coach and mentor at Ryerson University and University of Toronto.
JEAN OLEMOU
Jean is Co-Founder and Principal of GreenDev Inc., an impact investing firm dedicated to advancing the circular economy in Africa, the Americas, and Europe. He has extensive experience working on financing mandates in renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure sectors globally. Jean is a community-minded leader with a track record of serving on boards and advisory committees to advance sustainable development goals in Canada and globally.
FABIEN-LANTERI
Fabien is an attorney specialized in Bank Financing and Project Financing at the law firm Blake, Cassels and Graydon, LLP. He has been involved in numerous financings in Canada, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Other areas of expertise include renewable energy and infrastructure projects, as well as public-private partnerships (P3). Fabien has extensive international development experience with points of focus on Africa, gender equality and sustainable development.
LYSE DOUCET (CÔTE D’IVOIRE 1982)
I was sitting with a group of African women pounding yams. Day in day out, they pounded yams. Then, one day, I finally asked: “Wouldn’t you like to do something different?” They stole a glance at each other, and at me, and laughed and laughed. “What kind of question is that? We can’t do anything else. So why would we ask?”
It was one of my first lessons as an aspiring journalist in trying to understand a society on its own terms. It shouldn’t be my questions, never mind the answers. It was their questions that matter.
My Crossroads experience in 1982 changed the direction of my life. It was the catalyst that propelled me into the international work I do to this day.
My placement was in the town of Adzope, at a small private school set in lush tropical forests a short drive from the Ivorian capital, Abidjan. It was my first trip abroad. I am grateful to this day that I started my journey at village level. It gave me a window on a world so different from my own.
Whenever I do journalism training, I recall my own beginnings in an African village which taught me that to truly understand a society, you must try to feel its “heat and dust,” the rhythms of its days. Life at an Adzope school with two fellow Crossroaders was endlessly interesting, absorbing and an occasional challenge!
When my placement ended, I travelled across West Africa to Senegal where I started freelancing as a journalist where I got my first article published in 1983 in “West Africa” magazine. I ended up spending five years in Africa, and my Crossroads experience in those first months shaped my understanding of the continent. It’s a badge of honour when I return to Africa for my work, or meet Africans abroad.
Two years ago, I returned to Adzope. It was bittersweet to walk the paths I had taken so long ago and to see the sad turn Ivory Coast had taken from a beacon of stability to a divided land. Even our much-loved representative there, Tete Kpakote, had to flee the violence.
Each time I visit Canada, I am reminded of how these cultures we discover in our Crossroads placements are now part of our own national mosaic. They present a richness and a responsibility within our own neighbourhoods. More than ever, it seems critical for us to try to understand differences in cultures and attitudes. This is where Crossroads also plays a role.
I will remain forever grateful for my Crossroads experience, a defining moment that opened my eyes to the world, starting with my first meetings with Crossroaders in Toronto. They had such optimism and curiosity. I’ve stayed in touch with my fellow travellers. And in the world I live in now, interviewing everyone from peasants to presidents, I appreciate my connection to the Crossroads community and its commitment to a better world.
Lyse Doucet is a presenter and correspondent for both BBC World Service radio and BBC World News television. She began her journalism career following her Crossroads placement and was based in Abidjan for five years as a foreign correspondent for the BBC. She often anchors special news coverage around the globe and has frequently interviewed world leaders. Her reporting has earned her numerous broadcasting awards. Lyse is an honorary patron for Canadian Crossroads International.
LISA R. LIFSHITZ, CHAIR OF RISK COMMITTEE
Lisa R. Lifshitz is a partner at Torkin Manes LLP and is currently the Chair of its Technology, Privacy and Data Management Group. Lisa is nationally and globally recognized and ranked for..
Janet Riehm, Treasurer & Chair of Finance Committee
Janet is Owner and Principal Consultant of Janet Riehm Consulting, advising charities and non-profit organizations internationally. A CPA and CGA, she has provided strategic and financial services to a variety of clients in communities extending from First Nations in Canada to rural development in communities in Africa. She is also a former Crossroader having volunteered in Botswana in addition to having served as a member of the Finance Committee at Crossroads. She joins Crossroads, providing over 25 years of experience in the non-profit sector.
PATRICIA ERB, VICE CHAIR
Board Chair & Chair of Executive Committee & Nominating committee
Patricia Erb was the Interim Executive Director of Crossroads International from December 2018 to May 2019. She has worked with Save the Children throughout countries of Latin America for 23 years before taking up the role of President and CEO for Save the Children Canada in 2011 until the end of 2017. In the mid-1970s, Patricia, was kidnapped and tortured by the Argentine Junta. Patricia has been recognized by both government and human rights organizations for her contribution to the process of truth, memory and reparation in Argentina.
She has also done extensive work on issues of decolonization, cultural preservation and communal well-being with Indigenous Peoples in Latin America, particularly in Bolivia and Canada. She is also known for her work with women’s grassroots organizations and gender transformation.
MARIAMA DRAMÉ, BOARD CHAIR & CHAIR OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
With over 15 years of experience, Mariama Dramé is a seasoned Human Resources Executive and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) advocate.
The Honourable Audrey McLaughlin (Barbados 1986)
Audrey was the leader of the NDP from 1989-1995, making her the first female leader of a political party in the House of Commons. She volunteered in Barbados with Crossroads International in 1986. A committed advocate for women, Audrey has served as President of the Socialist International Women and as member of the National Democratic Institute with which she helped women in Kosovo run the country’s first democratic election.
LAWRENCE-HILL (Niger 1979, Cameroon 1981, Mali 1989, Swaziland 2014)
Lawrence is the award-winning author of ten books, including The Book of Negroes, which his years of work with Crossroads partly inspired. He has volunteered with Crossroads in Niger, Cameroon, Mali and Swaziland. He won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book, and both CBC Radio’s Canada Reads and Radio-Canada’s Combat des livres. Lawrence is also professor of creative writing at the University of Guelph, in Ontario.
ANN MCCAIN EVANS (ETHIOPIA 1976)
Ann volunteered with Crossroads in Ethiopia in 1976. Currently she serves as Chairperson of the Harrison McCain Foundation and as a Director of the Marion McCain Foundation, The McCain Foundation and the Beaverbrook Art Gallery. She has served on a number of boards and committees, including the Montreal Board of Trade, the Steering Committee of the Westmount Environment Action Committee and served on the Board of Governors of Acadia University among others. Ann is a native of Florenceville, New Brunswick.
A 1974 graduate of Florenceville High School, Ms. Evans studied at the Canadian Junior College in Lausanne, Switzerland and L’Université de Grenoble, France (Certificate, Languages, Literature and Civilization, 1978) and Trent University (B.A., Politics and History, 1979).
Poverty, gender-based violence, early marriage and limited participation in political and public life are some of the hardships women and girls face in Burkina Faso. The country has a child marriage prevalence rate of 52% and 76% of women and girls aged 15 to 49 have undergone Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Despite positive actions taken by the Burkinabe government, the influence of traditions and culture is still important and continues to weigh on women and girls. Women representation in the Burkinabe parliament is only 11%.
CBDF is a network of 15 NGOs and associations with a diversity of skills and the common goal of improving women’s rights. CBDF works on promoting equality between men and women, defending women’s effective participation in politics and fighting against gender-based violence. Crossroads International and the CBDF main area of collaboration is preventing girls’ forced and early marriages.
Since 1994, this organization has been committed to the well-being of the populations in Burkina Faso and works directly with 105 grassroots community organizations and 4 networks in catering and processing, agriculture, mutualists in rural and urban areas, with in and out-of-school youth and populations between 14 and 65 years old, especially women and children. Crossroads works with ASMADE since 2020 to improve access to justice and rights in matters of sexual and reproductive health, and reduce gender-based violence, to strengthen the leadership and political representation of women and girls, to increase women’s economic power and increasing women’s resilience to climate change and environmental sustainability.
The Group was created in 2006 with the mission of enhancing, promoting and developing voluntary engagement in Burkina Faso, structuring and managing the development of national volunteering in order to effectively contribute to national development. Crossorads works with GIP-PNVB since 2020 to strengthen the leadership and political representation of women and girls, to increase the economic power of women and youth, and to increase women’s resilience to climate change and environmental sustainability.
