Parker: Calgary-based Sewing Seeds launches life-changing program in Uganda
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Rick Castiglione has produced hundreds of promotional videos and documentaries to help organizations and individuals who work to help improve the lives of others. Telling 'stories that matter' has taken him to more than 70 countries, and he recently returned to Uganda with one of his favourite charities.
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Castiglione first met Sylvia Rempel — founder of Calgary-based Sewing Seeds — in western Ukraine, and since then has been on every one of its overseas missions to the seven countries it serves. Rempel was the founder of Sun Ice, which designed and manufactured clothing worn by Canada's first Everest expedition. Its success helped it win the contract as a supplier to the 1988 Winter Olympics.
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Her new journey began when 100 Huntley Street called to report a donation of 30 sewing machines — and asked if she would travel to Sierra Leone to teach women how to use them.
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Her amazing experience in the troubled East African country, seeing how newly taught sewing skills could make such a difference to the lives of women, resulted in her founding Sewing Seeds. The organization provides a set of skills that could lead to financial security, healthy families and stronger communities, resulting in many women benefiting greatly from her passion to develop a sewing skills training program. It has transformed lives in areas she has visited, and has established sewing centres in Sierra Leone, Ukraine, Haiti, Peru, Mexico and Guatemala.
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Uganda is a new country for Sewing Seeds to support.
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Castiglione has spent a lot of time in Africa, producing videos and escorting his safari tours. A considerable amount of his time has been in Uganda, where he met a woman in Nkuringo — a small, remote community in that country's south where he has spent a considerable amount of time — who shared that she had a heart to teach local women how to sew.
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Recognizing how she could benefit from a Sewing Seeds program — which always needs a partner on the ground in any country — with the help of a not-for-profit organization in Uganda and his Rotary Club of Calgary Downtown, the newest Sewing Seeds Program has launched.
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‘General acceptance': A year of banning cellphones in Canadian classrooms
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Since then, Schenker said they've added a staff member to stay for half an hour after closing and walk the streets around the building to ensure everyone is being respectful. The shelter's funding will allow the partners to operate year-round for two years, said Bo Masterson, vice-president with the Calgary Homeless Foundation. "The idea is we learn and we grow through those two years and look at what else is needed. … Where else in the city is this needed?" said Masterson. 'It's something the city needs' At the shelter, CBC News asked each person who was awake if they would like to share their thoughts on the space. Kevin Arthur kicked his shoes off and put his feet up on a plastic chair. He's been in Calgary 25 years, and had his first brush with homelessness 10 years ago when the Mustard Seed and Drop-In Centre were the only options. But the Journey Church's drop-in shelter has always felt more welcoming, he said. "I've never experienced this in the city," Arthur said. "You come and just get to be yourself without all this bullshit, and it's great. It's something the city needs." Michelle Auger picked up something to drink, then sorted through a rack of clothes. She's in a period of relapse in her drug addiction and she said she comes here to sleep because she's terrified to close her eyes anywhere else at night. "You don't know if you're going to get robbed, or someone's going to come and just start kicking you in the head," Auger said. Auger said she's a mother of five, a grandmother and someone who has achieved her dreams. While seeking treatment in 2020, she was inspired by one of the counselors, a man who had been an alcoholic and was now helping others recover. "I finished the program and luckily I was able to find my higher power. I was sober for three and a half years and I went back to college. I got a diploma in addictions and community services, then I got a job as a frontline crisis worker at the homeless shelter in Peace River," Auger said. "That was the goal, to become one of those people who helped others and I did it," Auger continued. "I feel like even people that don't have addiction aren't able to say that they accomplished their life goal." Auger is on the street after a relapse, but she hangs on to that story of hope. "There's so much relapse," she said. "It's part of it and sadly, it's a necessary part, you know? But I still don't like it. Because when I relapse I do it for a long time." Building out Calgary's shelter system Other work is also underway to improve Calgary's shelter system. The Drop-In Centre recently opened a smaller, quieter shelter space for couples and all genders beside its existing shelter downtown. President Sandra Clarkson said people who use that space have access to double the storage lockers for their belongings, in an attempt to address theft. The Mustard Seed recently received two-year operating funding to run a daytime shelter similar to the Journey Church drop-in, but downtown. It plans to renovate both the main floor and second floor to create space for showers, laundry and programs with other agencies to offer activities. "As we get to know the new folks that might be coming in, we'll be designing programming. We want to make it a welcoming place," said Mustard Seed CEO James Gardiner. But the renovations are not yet fully funded. The Mustard Seed has half of the $2.8 million budget covered with a grant from the province, the federal government and donations. Gardiner said they'll launch a new fundraising campaign soon to cover the rest. Kay Choi, the City of Calgary's corporate lead for safety, said the city knows it has more work to do to ensure residents feel safe downtown and on transit. They've already increased transit security and cracked down on loitering. The new move to create welcoming day shelters is the other piece of the puzzle, she said, to improve the wellbeing of people who are struggling and give them welcoming alternatives. In turn, Choi believes that should improve the general public's feeling of safety in public spaces. "We've seen such an increase when it comes to mental health and addictions," Choi said. "And it takes one interaction with somebody who is unwell that makes us feel uncomfortable and has an impact on the perceptions of safety."
