The Martlet

With Clubs and Course Union Days now two weeks behind us, there’s still plenty of time to get involved with a club that fits your interests and impacts your community.

Over 100 clubs represented at the clubs days event — and many weren’t just promoting hobbies.

“The student body is a pool of potential activists,” said Celine Trojand, organizer for the UVic branch of the Dogwood Initiative.

“Because our lives are already so changeable, students are able to envision and then willing to change.”

Advocacy and activism clubs range from the UVic Red Cross to UVic Students for Literacy. To see the full list, visit uvss.uvic.ca and click on “Clubs and Course Unions.”

“Every year there’s quite a number of political or activist clubs,” said UVSS Chairperson Veronica Harrison. “There have definitely been more environmental clubs in the last few years.”

With all the options, here are a few club profiles to get your activism juices flowing.

The Dogwood Initiative

A social justice and environmental non-profit, the Dogwood Initiative helps people organize and network around ownership of their land and resources.

“It’s about us helping communities be stronger and find a unified voice,” said Trojand.

As an example of their work, the group helped jumpstart communication between First Nations groups on the Island whose communities will be affected by the implementation of an oil pipeline.

The Initiative also works on projects that directly affect the UVic community. They’re currently trying to implement a project called the Divestment Coalition, as an answer to the university’s controversial investments in the Alberta tar sands and cigarette companies.

The money gained from these investments becomes scholarships for students, but the Divestment Coalition’s goal is to set up a framework for more ethical investments.

“It is personally fulfilling to actually do something — you meet great people and feed off of and tap into their energy,” said Trojand.

For more info, contact Trojand at celine@dogwoodinitiative.org.

Breakthrough for Africa

Breakthrough for Africa is also new on UVic’s activism scene. Originally a Women’s Studies practicum project for UVic student Calais Caswell, the local chapter of this group is trying to raise money for the community Lundazi in Zambia, who they were paired with via a twinning project.

“The real benefit of this partnership is the bottom-up approach to development — we can directly see the change as it happens,” said Caswell.

Breakthrough for Africa is planning a fundraiser for March this year in order to purchase bicycles for orphans. The bikes will aid the Lundazi orphans in their long trek to school each day and conserve their energy for learning.

Caswell can be reached for more information at ccaswell@uvic.ca.

Students for a Free Tibet

Students for a Free Tibet is yet another club that is actively engaged in promoting its cause around the community.

On March 10, the anniversary of the Tibetan uprising, they plan to organize a large protest in Centennial Square, complete with posters, speeches and megaphones.

The Dalai Lama was forced to flee Tibet and travel to India in the Tibetan uprising of 1959. To this day, the Tibetan people who remain in their own country are still under the control of the Chinese government.

“It hurts to think that stuff like that is happening — it is good to touch people emotionally and realize that we shouldn’t take our freedoms for granted, such as the freedom of speech or the freedom of religion,” said Tasha Sadoway, an active member.

In October 2008, Sadoway and a fellow member made friends with Tibetans in a large settlement of expatriates in India.

“To actually see it firsthand was amazing,” said Sadoway about working in a daycare at the Tibetan settlement.

Her passion wasn’t always matched by clubs day browsers, however.

“I wish there was a stronger reaction,” she said. “It seems like people always assume someone else is going to take care of it.”