By Taylor Parsons
Today marks the start of Humber’s International Development week, hosted by Lakshore’s International Development Institute.
Established over 10 years ago, Humber’s International Development Institute (IDI) was created to provide skill-training workshops, international internships, and it also manages several development projects for Humber students.
From Feb. 3 to 7, Lakeshore will be hosting a series of workshops, panel discussions, and events based around this year’s theme, “We Are Making the Difference”.
“It’s a celebration of international development in Canada, what it is the Canadian government, schools, youth, non-profit organizations do, and also individuals who are developing some kind of initiative to make a positive change,” said Jennifer Wilson-Lee, manager of international initiatives at Humber.
“This is the first time Humber has really put a concerted effort into setting up a bunch of workshops and events. We’re also screening a movie called Revolution, which is focused on creating positive change,” said Humber Internship Coordinator Nathan Fenn.
The first event of this year’s program is Beyond Abolishment: Children and Work, a panel discussion from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in L1017. The discussion will take a look at child labour in developing countries.
“The reality is many children do have to work in some aspect to generate income for their families. It’s a discussion of these international experts and academics to give their insight to this spectrum, “ said Wilson-Lee.
“Everyone has the right to education, but to go to a country and say children can’t work because they have to go to school, how realistic is it, considering a family might not have shelter or enough food to eat,” she said. “This is a debate that’s exploring how we can ensure that the children have rights to education and safe environments, while at the same time realistically meeting their families needs.”
On Wednesday, a workshop will be held, run by Humber students who have participated in Canada’s International Youth Internship Program, traveling overseas for a six-month period to work.
“They are going to break the attendees of the workshop into groups and do activities that illustrate some of the challenges they’ve experienced while working in an overseas context, as well as other things related to their internships. They’ve set up a really great hour and a half period to get people engaged.”
Currently, International Development Week is only being hosted at Humber’s Lakeshore campus, but Wilson-Lee hopes to extend the experience to other Humber campuses.
“I would love to. My goal is to expand this year and make it an annual event, I think it would be exciting,” she said.
For a complete list of programs happening this week, and for further information on International Development Week, visit their website.