events

Jeff Goldie

Sombrilla’s AGM

Please join us as we gather to celebrate our year, to recognize the contributions of our members, supporters and volunteers and to elect our new board. All Sombrilla members in good standing can vote and memberships will be available at the meeting.

This year we are happy to welcome Bill Howe as our keynote speaker. Bill will be speaking on the need to find ways to reduce the barriers to education and how Sombrilla projects are doing that in El Salvador and Honduras. 

The meeting will be hybrid again this year. There is a link to our Zoom for those who would prefer to join us remotely. The zoom link will be active from 6:30 to 7:45 pm.


Please note that there may be a library strike staring in the next few days. If the library is closed on February 27th due to the strike, we will make other arrangements. Watch for an email with a new location.

6:00 – 6:30 refreshments and socializing
6:30 – 7:45 Keynote and business meeting
7:45-8:15 refreshments and socializing

Keynote Speaker Bill Howe: Removing Barriers to Education

Bill is passionate about issues of education, global citizenship, student voice and student agency. After a year in Nicaragua and seeing the political activism and contributions of adolescents and young adults, he left a career in engineering to become an English Language Arts and philosophy teacher, believing that change will come through the engagement of youth.

Throughout his career he has been involved with numerous student-led activities, learned from and with students in various social justice groups and worked in every level of education, from K to post-secondary, consulting, Alberta Education, university, and the Alberta Teachers’ Association. Expanding his understanding and appreciation of the challenges and opportunities of education, he has had the privilege of travelling to many countries of the world and has had two brief assignments in Uganda through Project Overseas.

After 32 years in the classroom and completing his PhD in education addressing the challenges of education, polarization, and complacency, he continues to work with struggling students at Centre High and teaches periodically at the University of Alberta
.  
As a volunteer on several committees and boards, he is involved in numerous projects researching and supporting global citizenship, student mental health and belonging, and striving as much as possible to support education of, by and for compassion, relationships, and generative difference.

Jeff Goldie

Introducing Rachel Levee, our Keynote Speaker for the International dinner

Pathways to Partnership: Centering our work in community and communication
Rachel (she/her) is the current Interim Executive Director of the Alberta Council for Global Cooperation.  Prior to holding this role, she was the Director – Spur Change Program, while her colleague Andréanne Martel was on parental leave.
Before joining the ACGC team, she was the acting Executive Director, and former Vice-president of the Board, for the Pacific Peoples’ Partnership, a Canadian NGO dedicated to supporting the work of Pacific Islanders through community-led initiatives. She is also active within her local community as a volunteer with her child’s school and as a member of the Canadian International Council (CIC), including previously acting as Community Advisor, and former co-chair, to the South Vancouver Island (SOVI) chapter of the British Columbia Council for International Cooperation (BCCIC). For five years away from paid work, she had the privilege of spending the majority of her moments with her young child, and prior to this time, she was the National Coordinator for the ICN (Inter-Council Network).She has worked and volunteered in various capacities with partners both locally and internationally, including AMREF Health Africa, Shanti Uganda, and Class Afloat, largely focused on community building, knowledge sharing, and good practices in non-profit governance. She loves cycling but has trouble changing tire tubes, and she is currently working her way through reading the books she bought last year, because she tends to be overly ambitious about her reading time. She is currently enjoying the shifting of the seasons to autumn, as she joins the ACGC team from and lives with gratitude on the lands the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations of the lək̓ʷəŋən Peoples (also known as Victoria, British Columbia.
Sarah Cashmore

Join Us at International Dinner 2019

We would like to invite everyone to our annual

International Dinner

for an evening of delicious food, endless entertainment,
and a live and silent auction
to fundraise for projects in partnership with
communities in Latin America.

Saturday, April 6, 2019 at Old Strathcona Performing Arts Centre
(8426 Gateway Boulevard Northwest) with doors opening at 6:00 p.m.

For full details, visit the event page.

For more information about Sombrilla and the work we do, please contact us at: [email protected]

Funded Project

One of the goals of the International Dinner is to raise funds for our new project in Honduras. The goal of the project is to address the root causes of migration. It will focus on developing business skills for unemployed youth to start their own business. The project will also include upgrading and training for young professionals who are looking for employment but haven’t been able to find a job.

25 Hondurans start their journey to the US every hour. Only 10% of them will arrive. About 81% of all Honduran households have one or more members who went abroad in the last 10 years. That has resulted in around 1.2 million Honduran immigrants in the US (equivalent to 14% of the total population of Honduras). The majority of those who decide to leave are young people under 30. Most of them already have a family, thus leaving women and children behind.