Raquel Ariada takes three fabrics from a woman who has appeared at the door, holds them to the light and offers thoughts. The woman, who has brought the fabrics to Changing Together with hopes to sew them, eventually walks into the room and sits at one of the machines. Nearby, five other women, all originally from different parts of the world, sit, quietly sewing. Ariada periodically checks in on them as she, too, sews. “They want to learn to how to improve their [sewing] knowledge,” she says. “When you arrive new to a new place, normally you are very lost. With this program you feel you are a part of the community, the city.
The program is Sewing Peace. And the place is Changing Together, a downtown Edmonton organization that offers services to immigrants, especially women.

As of December 31, 2018 there were 572,415 international students in Canada. This number from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)* represents a 16% increase over 2017 in which international student numbers grew by 20%.
 “The new data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada clearly demonstrate the continuing attractiveness of Canada as a study destination,” said Larissa Bezo, President and CEO of CBIE.

Sergio Serrano, the 33-year-old Edmonton visual artist who has already become a talent people know, if not by name, with works on display in several public spaces, recently took his friend to see Roma, the first Netflix film to spill over into Hollywood’s turf with its Academy Award nomination for best picture. The film, by Mexican writer and director Alfonso Cuaron, is set in 1970s Mexico and is effectively a semi-autobiographical exploration of Cuaron’s own nostalgia and memory.  Afterward, as he and his friend discussed the movie, Serrano says he translated the many small details that required a lived memory to understand. 

Global Affairs Canada Call for Proposals: Women as agents of change in the Americas

Global Affairs Canada has launched a call for preliminary proposals to enhance gender equality and empowerment of women and girls in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region. This call will seek projects that focus on up to three areas targeting gender equality by: (i) enhancing women and girls’ participation in public life; (ii) preventing and responding to sexual and gender-based violence; and (iii) promoting women’s economic empowerment.