News.

Graduate shares plans for Uganda

By Dylan Hackett,
News Editor

ast Friday, Uganda

Project graduate
Priscilla Bartleman-Wolf
shared her plans to
develop a community
centre and school for
Ugandan children with a
small, captive audience.
Attending Bartleman-
Wolf’s talk were other
students who had experi-
enced the Uganda Project
with her, instructors and
organizers of the event,
community members,
and New Westminster
MLA Dawn Black.

“I want to start a
new project. How that
came about was when
I was hanging out with
some friends in Masaka,
and I said that ‘I would
really like to stay a while
longer.’ And I did. I
spent time with children
there, and that’s when
I better understood
what life was like for
some of these children,”
Bartleman shared,
explaining her extended
stay in the Ugandan
city after the formal
semester was finished.

“Everyone has a

A chat with Hector Bremner

oe NS

   

Hector Bremner | Photo courtesy of

www.bcliberals.com

Priscilla Bartleman-wolf with the children in Nyendo Photographer | Photo courtesy of Julius Lule

skill. If you highlight
those skills and abilities,
they still have a chance
of having success in

I really like to idea of
implementing life skills
into the school—that’s
something they’ve tried

  

to the dorms will have
free access to that school
and for the first year
they’re with guardians,”

Everyone has a skill. If you highlight those skills

ee

and abilities, they still have a chance of having
success in their life—whatever that may be...

they can become independent and self-sufficient.

their life—whatever
that may be... they can
become independent
and self-sufficient.
“There are two
reasons I want to build
a school. One is because

By Dylan Hackett,
News Editor

Last week I had a chance to

talk with Hector Bremner,

BC Liberal candidate for the

New Westminster riding,
and Allie Valiente, presi-

dent of the Douglas Young

Liberals club. Below is an
excerpt of our discussion.

Thank you for meeting
with me today. First I
would like to ask you,

to do in the curriculum:
having teachers who can
show that to students
and having the commu-
nity work on those life
skills. The other reason
is that the kids who go

for the sake of informing

our readers, your back-
ground and personal
history and how you
became the BC Liberal
candidate for the New
Westminster riding.

HB: I was originally born

in Alberta and I grew up
in Saskatchewan. I came
out here and finished
school in the late ‘90s.
About 10 years ago, we
moved here. We decided
New Westminster is

Bartleman-Wolf shared.

Speaking as an
Aboriginal Canadian,
Bartleman-Wolf related
the home-grown
experiences in poverty
on reserves to those

where we wanted to raise
our kids. It was through
activity with various
non-profits and local
organizations that made
me look at politics. I felt
there was a gap there in
terms of representation
and I got talking to some
folks who said, “Hey,
you should do that” so I
pursued it. It was a little
bit of a race to get to the
finish line and we came
across first and I ended
up being the candidate.

of Uganda’s poor.
“When you think
about the reserves we

. have here and where I

grew up, it’s very simi-
lar... I’m used to being
on a reserve where you
have to boil water, you
have to find food, and
you're under-housed.
There’s a similar experi-
ence across the world.”
Bartleman-Wolf
‘s brother, Vincent
Bartleman, also shared
his role in helping
design the logo for the
project, jesting about
how “over 20 different
were thrown at me.”
The Ugandan Project
is an annual field school
that has trained students
in social work in the
impoverished equato-
rial nation since 2006.
According to Janice
Spencer, instructor and
facilitator for the pro-
gram, a three-principle
approach is taken to
the trip. Students are to
go as learners, to make
sure all projects have a
sustainability (to combat
criticisms of “voluntour-
ism”), and that they do
no harm to the com-
munities that host them.

Do you think that
would've been different
perhaps if Dawn Black
hadn’t dropped out of
the NDP candidacy?

HB: Maybe. I think

that very well could

be true but I think that
people feel that New
Westminster is changing.
New Westminster is an
evolving city. It has had
an era and seems to be

verging onto a new one.
I think a lot of folks feel