Threads – From Winnipeg to Zambia: Connecting Across Continents with Compassion

Episode transcript:

Kyle Rudge (00:02):
It begins with a single thread woven through other thread, and then another and another until we have a single piece of fabric. That fabric is stretched, cut and stitched together with another, just like it. This process is repeated over and over and over until we have a beautiful tapestry that all began with a single thread. Welcome to an MCC Threads, where we look closely at how our stories in Manitoba weave together with the stories of MCC and its partners around the world.

Anna Bshouty (00:51):
Passion I feel like develops at this age. Like in grade nine, the students are 14, 15, and I think that that's where a lot of different passions can start. And so just doing something different outside of their daily routine, I think can be very helpful to help them decide what's meaningful to them and what they maybe wanna do after high school.

Kyle Rudge (01:17):
A new school year is just around the corner. And whether you're excited or dreading it or somewhere in between, there's no doubt, a lot of possibility, a lot of change, and a lot of hope waiting for both parents and their kids.

Anna Bshouty (01:32):
Hi, my name is Anna Bshouty and I am a teacher at St. John's High School.

Kyle Rudge (01:37):
Before last school year ended, we spoke to Anna about how she was connecting her grade nine math students to a world bigger than just the numbers in their textbook. She brought with her to that conversation, one of her students.

Harriet Adigue (01:50):
Hello, my name is Harriet Adigue. I'm in grade nine and I'm representing the grade nines.

Kyle Rudge (01:55):
Harriet did a wonderful job representing the grade nines. It was an overall fun conversation, but one that was regularly interrupted.

Anna Bshouty (02:04):
Sorry, that's our school bell <laugh>.

Kyle Rudge (02:08):
So what's the connection? How did MCC get connected to the grade nine math students at St. John's High School?

Anna Bshouty (02:14):
We were, you know, learning about surface area and I was just trying to think of a you know, fun little project to do.

Harriet Adigue (02:24):
It just basically started with Ms. Bshouty asking us to make boxes in the most efficient way, and so we just rolled with it.

Anna Bshouty (02:32):
So I had given a piece of paper to each of my students, and it was just like a 8-by-11 construction sheet, and I had said, you know, you have one piece of paper and the goal is to have the biggest volume with just one piece of paper. So it's kind of like an optimization problem. Sort of to set the stage I gave a scenario and said, so let's say we wanted to create packages to send around the world for those who need care packages for those in need. And we wanted to pack the most amount of resources in these boxes, but we also don't wanna spend too much money on packaging, so that's why we have this limit.

Harriet Adigue (03:21):
And we ended up asking her if we can actually go on with this project.

Anna Bshouty (03:29):
A lot of students were very much aware of, of what's been going on around the world, specifically in Gaza. And so a lot of students felt like it was on the forefront of their minds already.

Harriet Adigue (03:40):
First, we planned to go to Mennonite Central Committee, but they came to us instead. So we laid out classrooms, three classrooms, and everyone separated into groups, and we worked together to make the kits.

Kyle Rudge (03:57):
By kits, Harriet is talking about hygiene kits. We'll get to those a little later.

Harriet Adigue (04:02):
We planned to fundraise money, but we all had like different ideas of how to raise it. We had ideas for silent auctions, coffee shops and bake sales, but our bake sales were the most successful towards it.

Harriet Adigue (04:19):
And then I had my friend Sophia at MCC that I contacted and then we sort of got it rolling.

Sophia Kutsiuruba (04:28):
My name is Sophia Kutsiuruba and I am the Material Resources and Engagement Coordinator at MCC Manitoba.

Kyle Rudge (04:35):
Sophia works out of the Winnipeg office. Part of Sophia's work is going all around Manitoba, speaking to groups, teaching about the work of MCC, the impact of things like hygiene and dignity kits, and encouraging groups of all ages to put them together for those in need.

Sophia Kutsiuruba (04:50):
It's one of my favorite parts of my job because I think truly this, this metaphor of, you know, our positive actions rippling out isn't just kind of a fluffy idea. I've seen it at work and that you can't maybe change everything, but you can certainly do something and that something can do more than maybe you might even guess. And I think that's really important for kids to know, and I really love seeing when they can kind of understand that and maybe take that home with them.

Kyle Rudge (05:20):
Every year, the Material Resources Network, of which Sophia leads here in Manitoba, meets together. When the opportunity presents itself, the network will meet together in a country that receives kits and comforters. In 2023 they met in Zambia.

Sophia Kutsiuruba (05:34):
It's an amazing opportunity to visit, to be able to collect some stories, see how folks are using the kits and comforters that we provide, and then hear from them and then bring back some of these stories and tell people what we saw. So Zambia receives lots of, we've sent every, every kit that we put together, whether it's sewing kits, hygiene kits, relief kits, school kits, dignity kits, comforters, they have received all of those kinds of kits in the past few years. And so we thought it would be an amazing opportunity to see how those are put to use.

Kyle Rudge (06:08):
While in Zambia, Sophia and the Material Resources Network met with two different MCC partners.

Sophia Kutsiuruba (06:14):
You know, they do different kinds of work and they're located in different parts of the country. The first one that we were able to visit, it was a quite a long drive to sort of the northwest part of Zambia, and that partner is called Braveheart Foundation. And they are doing programming in a refugee settlement. It's called Maheba Refugee Settlement. It's the largest refugee camp or settlement on the continent of Africa. It is maybe the size of the country of Singapore in area. So it's quite spread out, over 36,000 people living there. And our other partner is Zambia Correctional Services. So it is the country's, you know, judicial, the corrections arm of the governance of the country. And so we visited a few prisons and around the small city of Kabwe. And so those are the kind of areas of the country that we traveled around to see.

Kyle Rudge (07:08):
One story that stood out for Sophia was seeing the work of the Braveheart Foundation and the refugee camp, [at] the northern border of Zambia. Their hygiene, relief and dignity kits from MCC were all being distributed.

Sophia Kutsiuruba (07:20):
I remember I'm meeting this one woman who had this stall. There was a path that walked right by the entryway into her yard. It was sort of the path between you know, houses. And she had this table, and she was selling these beautiful looking waffles called galettes. And her name was Félicité, and she was from Democratic Republic of Congo. She had been living in Maheba for about five years. And she had received a hygiene kit from MCC.

Kyle Rudge (07:52):
A Hygiene kit from MCC includes a hand towel, a new adult toothbrush, a wide tooth comb, a bar of soap, a quality nail clipper, and all put together in a reusable drawstring bag.

Sophia Kutsiuruba (08:03):
We were just talking a little bit and learning a little bit about her story, and I was curious about the food that she was selling, smelled so good. And she was saying that she had learned to, she liked to cook, and she had learned to make this kind of treat at home at 14 years old. And so when she had to leave her home and arrive in this totally new country, she was thinking, you know, what are the things that I can do to support myself and how can I, you know, besides wait for some kind of support, which is, you know, can be hard to come by, whether it's from the government or organizations, because there's so many people that do need support. You know, she would be able to get a couple dollars and then mix together some flour and water and the various things that she would need and sell these beautiful biscuits that people would walk by and buy a little bit and if they didn't have money, you know, they would have an IOU and so then she would wait until she had more money to make another batch, and that she would kind of like sell these beautiful treats and also some peanuts that were on the table as well to kind of help to support herself. And she had this huge garden in her backyard that in a year, it was just stunning. It was, it was amazing. I'm a gardener as well, and it was just truly amazing to see how she was, you know, she had made this fence and woven everything so beautifully to keep, you know, the right things in and the wrong little critters out. And so, you know, she said that, you know, even if someone gives you a needle, it will help you to sew. And even, you know, saying that the smallest things that they're able to receive are truly such a big help because every single item that folks receive is one item that they do not have to struggle or stress about how to access or how to afford, especially when you're living in a rural space that would take many hours to walk to. In fact, there's a row of motorbikes at the beginning of the refugee settlement if you need to get in and out of the place because it's the size of a small country, you know, and so it can be really hard to access some things when you are starting all over. And so every single one of those items is something that you don't have to purchase anymore. I remember really enjoying my conversation with her and she had this beautiful smile and beautiful ways of, you know, making a life for herself in truly such challenging circumstances where it's not for lack of motivation or trying. That was one of the things that really sort of struck me, that there are folks can do their, you know, try their hardest to improve conditions for themselves, but it's not just them. It's, you know, how far away is any possible employment? What kind of tools do you have access to to build your home if you need to. A lot of the time it's just access to resources. What struck me more even then the scale of how much, you know, support was maybe needed for so many different people that have had to start over. What struck me more than that, was the amount of resilience and truly the strength that they had to every day wake up and positively look at the day and do what they could to take care of their kids and themselves. I remember that encounter very vividly. She had a beautiful, beautiful smile and beautiful story.

Kyle Rudge (11:51):
Bringing it all the way back to St. John's High School in Winnipeg. What did Harriet and the students know about MCC?

Anna Bshouty (11:57):
Did you know about Mennonites?

Harriet Adigue (12:00):
No. <laugh> Not at all. I don't think anyone really did.

Anna Bshouty (12:04):
Yeah, I knew about MCC before becoming friends. Although I'm not Mennonite myself, I did go to a Mennonite high school. I went to Westgate Mennonite Collegiate. So I had known about MCC, you know, already in high school. I have known about the MCC Thrift store, definitely have frequented there in my time.

Kyle Rudge (12:28):
So after packing kits and meeting with Sophia and hearing about the work of MCC, was it a rewarding experience for the students?

Anna Bshouty (12:36):
And I thought that was really great. I thought it was interesting to see the grade nines interact with each other, some of them for the first time. For me, it was important to do that because they're gonna be moving on to Grade 10 together. And in Grade 10, the classes are quite different. They don't stay in sections. There're gonna be a lot of new students that they're gonna meet in different classes, and I wanted to sort of prepare them for that. And I thought doing so in, you know, while packing these kits, it's something that is like, really meaningful. They're accomplishing something together. And I think that's a really good way to get to know people.

Kyle Rudge (13:14):
So how did they do? How many kits did they manage to fundraise for and pack?

Harriet Adigue (13:18):
We packed 300, so I hope it really spreads thoroughly.

Kyle Rudge (13:23):
300 is absolutely incredible. Well done to the entire math students of grade nine at St. John's High School here in Winnipeg. If you're interested in learning more about the MCC Hygiene, Relief and Dignity Kits, you can head to our website at mcc.org/kits. As we wrap up our conversation on how these kits are connecting people across continents, it's a great time to think about connections closer to home. We Are All Treaty People Celebration is a chance to come together and honor connections between indigenous and settler communities, and is happening at the Forks National Historic Site in Winnipeg on Sunday, September 15th, from 12 to 4 p.m. Everyone is welcome to enjoy cultural performances, free food crafts, and family activities. For more information, visit mcc.org/wearealltreatypeople. MCC Threads is produced by KR Words with story assistance from Jessica Burtnick. Thanks to Anna and Harriet for taking time out of the end of your school year to share both the amazing things St. John's grade nine students were up to. And thanks to Sophia for bringing back those stories from Zambia. I'm Kyle Rudge, and this is MCC Threads.