Institute for Cross-cultural Exchange - Produits, offres, nouvelles

We’ve posted three new Youtube videos below featuring author Tahir Shah who was in Toronto last spring for the storytelling festival. Tahir discusses the unique qualities and uses of stories collected by his father, Idries Shah and how they can help develop Afghan children and their country.
Tahir Shah 1 Children’s stories as instruction manuals to the world - https://youtu.be/ds4plSKulSo
Tahir Shah 2 Repatriating Afghan Stories to Afghan Children - https://youtu.be/Tmq-FN1RkZ0
Tahir Shah 3 Stories as an ancient psychological framework - https://youtu.be/brMOxl6Ksd4

In January 2017, we delivered 12,500 copies of The Farmers Wife by Idries Shah to 27 literacy organizations serving children across Canada. HUGE THANK YOU’S to Key Food Equipment Services for generously donating their warehouse space & to volunteers Stephanie Bogaert, Anthony Fuller, Ben Fuller, Tess Fuller & Shawn Fuller who stickered and labelled all those books for shipping. “When I saw the smiles on their faces, I realized that the books made a real difference to the children, their families & educators.” Elsa Ngan, Family Literacy & Adult Learning Program Coordinator, ASSIST Community Services Centre Edmonton Alberta.

By Matthew Hoekstra

Hundreds of low-income families come each year—each taking a turn to browse a room meant to put smiles on the faces of local children this Christmas.

The toy room of the Richmond Christmas Fund is stuffed with new, unwrapped toys. Each child of the fund’s registered Richmond families will get some, thanks to generous donations from the community.

But the Christmas fund also helps make sure each child is given the gift of reading by stocking toy room shelves with everything from toddler board books and Frozen readers to Harry Potter novels and Hunger Games stories.

A fundraising campaign—ending Monday—aims to keep those book shelves full.

“An important aspect of our program is giving the gift of literacy,” said Elizabeth Specht, executive director of Volunteer Richmond, which administers the Christmas fund. “We want to make sure that every child and teenager we serve through the Christmas fund leaves with at least one book.”

The Christmas fund helps nearly 2,000 Richmond residents each Christmas, including more than 800 children 15 years and younger. Each family receives toys, games and grocery vouchers, and each child also receives at least one book.

This year fund organizers are also aiming to distribute books to teenagers of registered families—as long as there’s enough books to go around.

Cash donations that will help stock the Richmond Christmas Fund toy room with books are being collected through the crowdfunding platform BlackPress4Good, a website developed by Black Press, parent company of The Richmond Review.

To donate, visit fnd.us/c/cszB8. All donors will be issued an electronic tax receipt.