Bullets to Butterflies – An Art Exhibit

We are excited to announce that Farahway Global will be hosting Bullets to Butterflies, a collaborative exhibition and interactive art installation by Canadian artists Unaiza Karim, Saba Syed and Huma Durrani, focused on 15 year old education activist Malala Yousafzai. Like so many around the world, we are greatly inspired by Malala’s remarkable resilience in surviving an assassination attempt by Taliban gunmen, and her fearlessness in fighting for girls’ right to education. She has now become the youngest Nobel Peace Prize nominee in history.

We need events such as Bullets to Butterflies to mark such horrific tragedies around the world and in our backyards, and transform them into hope and action for change for our communities, and especially for our children, and youth.  At the very least, they deserve the opportunity to pursue their dreams. I hope you will join us in supporting, promoting, and participating in Bullets to Butterflies. RSVP and invite your friends on Facebook. Follow Bullets to Butterflies and Farahway Global on Twitter for updates and live tweeting. Tweet along with us using #B2Butterflies.

Bullets to Butterflies - Poster - final

Peer Support Workshops

group3Have you ever wondered how a peer support group could help you, your community, your clients/members, or organization cope with transitions, health/mental health issues, or other shared challenges? Or are you already planning or engaged in a peer support group?

Join our Founder, Farah Mawani, and the Self-Help Resource Centre at our upcoming interactive workshops at the Centre for Social Innovation – Regent Park, 585 Dundas St. E.! We have designed them for you to take individually or as a series. Register for both workshops and get a discount! Individual workshop rates are $50/person, and a package of two workshops costs $80/person.

Peer Support 101: March 22, 2013, 1-4pm.Learn about peer support groups, their principles, and distinction from professionally-led groups; the impact of peer support on health and well-being; the process of starting a peer support group; the common stages peer support groups go through; and the benefits and challenges faced by peer support groups. $50/person

Peer Support Groups: Challenges and Opportunities: April 26, 2013, 1-4pm. We will share tools to help you address common challenges faced by peer support groups, and make the most of opportunities offered by peer support groups. We will cover setting boundaries and guidelines, listening, non-violent communication, and conflict resolution. $50/person

Please contact Farah Mawani, for more information and to register.

Let us know if you are interested in attending our other peer support workshops, co-hosted by the Self-Help Resource Centre or having workshops tailored to the needs of your peer support group, colleagues, or organization.

FORUM: Canada’s Recent Immigration Policy Changes: Implications for Mental Health

Credit: Rights of Non-Status Women's Network

Credit: Rights of Non-Status Women’s Network

Our Founder, Farah N. Mawani, will be speaking on ‘Systemic Discrimination and Mental Health’ at this forum hosted by the Rights of Non-Status Women’s Network.

This open forum is a place for VAW workers, shelter workers, community health workers, students, activists, academics, and community members to discuss recent changes to Canada’s immigration system, including Bill C-31 and cuts to the Interim Federal Health Program (IFH), and the implications of this for service providers working in the areas of immigration, gender, and non-status rights.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013
12:30 p.m. Registration & Refreshments
1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Open Forum

**Location: Galbraith Building, University of Toronto, 35 St. George Street, Toronto**

Please RSVP by sending an email confirmation to Rights of Non-Status Women Network by Mon Jan 28.

Please also RSVP and invite your friends and colleagues on our Facebook event listing.

FEATURED SPEAKERS
Julie Lassonde ~ Implications of Bill C-31
Vanessa Wright ~ Implications of cuts to IFH program
Manavi Handa, RM ~ Impact of changes for pregnant refugee women
Farah N. Mawani ~ Systemic Discrimination and Mental Health
Raelene Prieto ~ Gender and Mental Health
Tanisha Sri Bhaggiyadatta ~ Community Needs Assessment & Next Steps

Registration Fee (for operational costs) to be paid in cash at the door. A receipt can be provided.
· All people: $5.00
· Students are free. Please bring your student I.D.

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Space is fully wheelchair accessible.
Please let us know of any accessibility needs so that we can do our best to accommodate them.
Light lunch and snacks will be served.

Please bring materials from your agency to display on our resource table!
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The Rights of Non-Status Women Network would like to thank our event sponsors for their generous donations:
The South Asian Community Legal Clinic of Ontario (SALCO)
Forced Marriage Project – Agincourt Community Services Association
The Sweet Potato Natural Foods Grocery Store
Agora Cafe

SPARKS TALKS WEBINAR: Inspire Action for Change: Social Media for Social Good

SPARKS TALKS WEBINAR

Please join our webinar hosted by the Girls Action Foundation, part of their Sparks Talks Webinar Series.

Register here and RSVP and invite your friends on Facebook.

Follow @_GirlsAction, @FarahwayGlobal, and @farah_way on Twitter for the latest webinar buzz.

During this webinar, Farah will share advice for inspiring action for social change based on her intensive experience with global human rights and mental health campaigns. Farah has applied her commitment to community engagement and social justice to a wide range of issues, from political prisoner campaigns, to mental health equity, to promoting and building capacity among peer support groups

Whether you are taking action in your local community or want to create change in the wider world, this webinar will inspire you to set your goals high and take practical steps to make them happen. Farah will share strategies for building the scope and level of engagement of supporters, within complex and sensitive sociopolitical contexts. She will highlight the importance of peaceful communication, and demonstrate the potential for amplifying impact by integrating social media with media, and community-based events.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Farah N. Mawani is a Visiting Scholar, Massey College. She has global teaching, research, and policy experience in social determinants of health, mental health, inequalities in health, and community-based research. She has national experience in roles including Senior Policy and Research Analyst, Mental Health Strategy, Mental Health Commission of Canada; Multicultural Mental Health Resource Centre Steering Committee member; Mental Health Reform and Policy research team, Centre for the Study of Gender, Social Inequities, and Mental Health; and National Coordinator for numerous national health research projects.

Farah recently founded Farahway Global, a non-profit organization, based at the Centre for Social Innovation, that engages the global public in action for human rights and mental health via social media integrated with community-based events. It builds on Farah’s experience co-founding and directing the social media and global public engagement components of Free the Hikers, which freed Josh Fattal, Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd, held hostage in Iran for 2 years and 2 months.

ABOUT THE GIRLS ACTION FOUNDATION SPARKS TALKS WEBINAR SERIES

The SPARK TALKS webinar series features inspirational stories, advice and tools from ground-breaking women. Presentations are always followed by an interactive Question & Answer session. Direct from your computer, participate in FREE webinars on topics such as safe cosmetics; women in the arts; social, environmental and political activism; building communities and organizations; the law; and arts as a medium for social change.

ABOUT THE GIRLS ACTION FOUNDATION

Girls Action Foundation is a national charitable organization. We lead and seed girls’ programs across Canada. We build girls’ and young women’s skills and confidence and inspire action to change the world.

Through our innovative programs, research, and support to a network of over 300 partnering organizations and projects, Girls Action reaches over 60,000 girls and young women. We reach remote, marginalized and urban communities, including those in the North.

Register here

RSVP on Facebook

Tuned in 2012: Benefit Concert for the Self-Help Resource Centre

Tuned In 2012 - 21.11.2012

Please join us TOMORROW (Sat Dec 1) at a benefit concert for the Self Help Resource Centre (SHRC), and help us spread the word.

We have been working with SHRC to strengthen communities across Toronto, Ontario, and Canada, by promoting and building capacity among peer support groups. Peer support groups facilitate positive outcomes for people facing diverse life transitions and challenges, that affect their physical, mental, and/or social health. SHRC serves a very wide range of organizations, including Access Alliance Multicultural Health and Community Services, CAMH, The 519, Native Canadian Centre of Toronto, Willow Breast Cancer Support Canada, Mood Disorders Association of Ontario, Heart and Stroke Foundation, Sjogren’s Society of Canada, and many more.

We would greatly appreciate any support you can provide, and hope to see you there. If you’re unable to attend, please consider donating.

RSVP and invite your friends here: http://www.facebook.com/events/192466827556221/

Tickets available online until midnight Fri Nov 30, and at the door on Sat Dec 1

Join SHRC on Facebook and Twitter for the latest event buzz!

Fight for Freedom – The Ismaili Canada

Our founder, Farah Mawani, was featured in The Ismaili Canada, the publication of the Ismaili Council for Canada, representing Shia Ismaili Muslims in Canada.

Download PDF: Fight for Freedom | The Ismaili Canada, July 2012

Really Really FREE Market – TO

Mark ONE YEAR of FREEDOM for Josh Fattal, Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and the global community who fought to FREE them from 2 years and 2 months held hostage in Evin Prison, Iran.

Celebrate by joining the Toronto sister event to one initiated and hosted by Josh in New York City.

In Josh’s words:

“Stuff — Free

Haircuts — Free
Bike Maintenance — Free
Food — Free
You name it — Free
You bring it — Free


We celebrate freedom by sharing what we have to offer. It could be an extra this or an extra that. Bring stuff. Take stuff. No exchange, just gifts. It could be a potted plant, an new T-shirt, old suitcases, a massage, a drawing, or a story in the storytelling booth, a song on your guitar, a book or two, gleaned apples, reiki, .mp3s , quirky refrigerator magnets, sewing severed seams, poems or palm reading, there is no period at the end of this sentence”

Ask and ye shall receive” my Christian friends say.
“The Universe Responds” my New Age friends say.
“Undermine Capitalism!” the 99% says.
“If I can’t dance, I don’t want your revolution” a long-dead revolutionary supposedly said.
Don’t read Marcel Mauss, just give!

Come Celebrate Freedom! It’ll be precisely one year since Shane, Sarah, and I are out of Iranian prison. Free from being hostages and hikers. Let’s walk together! A step closer to the concept every day.”

***TORONTO peeps, PLEASE also bring your response to “FREEDOM is…” in words, quotes, photos, poetry or art, to create a collaborative mixed-media collage.***

RSVP and spread the word on Facebook and Twitter!