curriculum development‚ group facilitation‚ and consulting. We create new courses for both classroom and online delivery‚ and web-based learning materials; we facilitate public forums‚ conduct program evaluations, produce reports and recommendations, and provide overseas pre-departure training.
Do newcomers themselves struggle with the cultural concept of diversity? Yes! Many newcomers come from homogenous societies. They can be overwhelmed by Canada’s so-called mosaic of different cultures. There are also newcomers who come from countries in conflict and arrive in this country of relative peace. These communities struggle with peace-building among themselves in their new home.
How have you overcome the social and economic challenges that many newcomers face? One of the ways we managed to overcome these challenges was to first acknowledge them and see them as temporal and contextual. We understood right at the outset that these challenges are not about us personally. We began the process by getting out‚ networking with others‚ learning about Canada
and Canadians‚ while at the same time sharing about ourselves and our backgrounds. We allowed ourselves to be surprised‚ to cry sometimes‚ and to laugh most times about our shortcomings and funny little ’integration mistakes’.
You describe your work and life philosophy as one that adheres to the African idea of “Ubuntu”. What is “Ubuntu”? Ubuntu is the idea that people are people because of other people. We believe in the crucial importance of relationships‚ of human interactions, and particularly of the reality that not only are our human issues interconnected‚ but that our lives can’t evolve without each other.
hille-magassa.com
Moussa Magassa is a Human Rights Educator at the University of Victoria and an instructor in various UVic programs‚ including the MA in Dispute Resolution and the Diploma in Intercultural Education and Training. Moussa also teaches at Royal Roads University in the MA in Global Leadership program and at the University of British Columbia Centre for Intercultural Communication. Moussa’s MA thesis was titled: Sworn Enemies Get Together for a Kiss and a Coffee in Multicultural Vancouver: How refugee diaspora make peace among themselves in host countries.
Rosanna Hille has specialized in non-profit management, adult education‚ and community development for over twenty-five years‚ supporting non-profit organizations to improve their societies and managing an international network of non-profits from twenty eight countries.