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The Douglas College Newsletter | New Westminster Campus, David Lam Campus, Surrey Training Centre

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Douglas College

Programs join forces to open a childcare centre in Uganda

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Early Childhood Education Coordinator and instructor Dr. Lynda Phillips, centre, already misses the people she

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met during her five-week stay in Uganda.

Early Childhood Education
(ECE) instructor Lynda
Phillips admits she is having a
hard time getting used to life
back in Canada after spending
five weeks in Uganda.

“Returning home was very
hard. I have found it difficult
to stop thinking about the
people I met and the work
that needs to be done,” says

Phillips.

Phillips, the ECE Program
Coordinator, went to
Masaka, Uganda to supervise
practicum student Katie
Kump and to open up

the possibility of future
partnerships for the ECE
department with Action

for Children, a non-profit
organization.

She and Kump were the first
ECE team from Douglas

 

College to travel to Uganda.
Phillips received Scholarly
Activity dollars to determine

the needs of ECE students
placed in Uganda.

Douglas Community Sociai
Service Worker (CSSW)
students have been completing
practica in Masaka since 2006.
This was the first time that the
two departments joined forces
to create a team of students

Crim instructor wowed in New York

After a field study trip to
New York City, Criminology
instructor Heidi Currie is
cautiously optimistic that a
community court system can
succeed in Vancouver.

Currie took 25 students to the
Big Apple to see an established
community court system

in action. While she was
impressed with what she saw,
it left her with many questions
about how Vancouver's
under-funded rehabilitation
facilities will handle the needs
of the Vancouver Community

Court, expected to open this
Fall.

“For years, I haven't been able
to say to students “There’s
something meaningful being
done in the justice system.’
What they saw on this trip
was so hopeful and something
that works. But what they've
seen takes billions of dollars.
In Canada, funding to the
system is so piecemeal,” says
Currie.

She and 25 students from

her Comparative Criminal
Justice Systems course

visited community courts

in Midtown and Red

Hook, which handle lower-
level offences like drugs,
prostitution, theft and
vandalism. Offenders are
offered help with the problems
that are often at the root of
their behaviour — and if they
refuse to comply, they can face
jail time.

Currie and her students were
particularly impressed with
their visit to Red Hook, where
one judge has made a huge
difference by becoming an
activist within the community,
even visiting offenders in their
homes. And in Midtown, they
noted that local businesses
help fund the community

court system.

Currie wonders how this will
translate in Canada. “How
will an overloaded medical
system secure addictions

treatment for offenders when
there are already waitlists
here?” she wonders.

Then there's the local
bureaucracy to navigate.
Already, Currie has heard
murmurs that the local drug
court is concerned the new
system will infringe on its
territory.

However, Currie is hopeful
the local community court
system can work.

During class presentations
reviewing their trip, her
students cited statistics
showing New York’s crime
rate has decreased significantly
since the introduction of the
community court system.

“What really hit in me in New
York was that people feel safe
in this huge city. So why can’t
we do it if they can do it?”
says Currie.

to work together on one
practicum experience.

“T was so very proud of Katie
and all the work she did. It
was amazing to see how she
slowly made sense of her
experience and started to use
what she had learned in the
ECE Program in Uganda,”
says Phillips.

During the trip, Phillips

says she got a hard and

fast lesson in poverty and
politics, namely how political
structures can help build
relationships within and
outside of Uganda to create
jobs and better opportunities
for health and education.

One of their major
accomplishments was setting
up a childcare centre at the
Masaka Referral Hospital’s
Uganda CARES clinic. This
clinic provides care for adults,
infants and children living
with HIV and AIDS.

Prior to their journey, the
hospital administration
contacted John Fox in the
CSSW Program. They
wanted to know if the

ECE department would

be interested in having a
practicum student help them

open their childcare centre.
Kump worked with CSSW
student Tara Derby on the

project.

The centre is now being
operated by a local early
childhood educator, who is
also trained as a counselor to

work with young children
living with HIV/AIDS.

Phillips says it was particularly
rewarding watching Kump
make sense of her experience.

“It was interesting to see how
easily Katie adjusted to life in
Masaka. One of my favorite
memories of her is seeing her
arriving at the students’ house
on a boda-boda (motorbike
taxi) carrying a wok that

she had bartered for in the
market. She was so proud of
herself!” recalls Phillips, who
hopes that more ECE students
will go to Uganda.

“Experiences like this really
cement the students’ learning
and force them to think about
and utilize what they have
learned in the classroom. It
enables them to learn how to
use their new knowledge in
diverse situations and critically
appraise what they have
learned.”

 

Flavours
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©

a
3

weeks of ESL studies at Douglas.

 

of Sonora

  

Gabriela Garcia Cuevas (left) and Helga Helene Inscoe Montafia
showcased the gastronomical pleasures of Sonora at a presentation
hosted by 30 students from the Centro de Estudios Superiores del
Estado de Sonora (CESUES). The university students completed five