At KPMG, our Community Leader Strategy encourages people to channel their enthusiasm and become engaged with communities and organizations. It’s about making a positive difference.

One of our summer interns, Salina Dharamsi from Vancouver, recently explored her passion in international development, while participating in KPMG’s Global Internship program in South Africa. She also invited Keitumetse Sekwele, a team member from KPMG’s Johannesburg office, to get involved in making a difference too.

In July 2011, Salina and Keitumese decided to get involved with UBC’s community-based program in South Africa called “ARC.” The ARC initiative brings together business people from Canada and South Africa, as well students, alumni and faculty from the University of British Columbia. Together, they facilitate a business conference for emerging entrepreneurs from Phalaborwa and nearby townships.

Conference delegates included Phalaborwa residents who owned a variety of businesses including companies involved in the construction, clothing, roof tiling, engineering, children’s entertainment and arts and crafts industries. Some delegates hoped to open businesses in the near future and shared their dreams of opening ecological centres, daycares, shoe repair facilities and other shops in Phalaborwa. Workshops focused on helping these emerging entrepreneurs gain a variety of marketing, finance, accounting, and strategy tools that could help them make business decisions and gain confidence.

Among the many activities was a live case where delegates were provided with background information on a handicraft store in Ethiopia that was thinking of opening a store in South Africa. As the owner of the store was present, delegates were able to interview her and ask questions that could help guide their analysis as to whether or not the expansion was in the best interest of the company. Keitumetse and Salina enjoyed helping delegates with the live case and were thoroughly impressed with the delegates’ ability to use the skills they had learned through the ARC initiative to unravel the case and present their findings.

At the end of the conference, participants were divided into groups and presented with a multi-page business case on a retail store that was experiencing some challenges. Groups worked together to tackle both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the case and ultimately presented their findings to a panel of judges.

Keitumetse and Salina had a lot of fun helping guide their groups through the case and were thoroughly impressed with not only how well the delegates worked together but also the camaraderie and energy that resonated throughout the room. The top three teams were recognized at the Gala dinner where each ARC participant received a certificate, class photo and encouragement to continue to passionately work together and follow their dreams.

“I enjoyed every moment of my stay in Phalaborwa; for me, the highlight was visiting Bornwise, a local fashion designer and conference delegate, at his home. It was so inspiring to see the beautiful garments he makes and to hear of how his participation with ARC has helped him gain new skills and build not only his business but also a good life for himself and his family,” Salina said. “I feel truly blessed to be interning with a company [KPMG] that is so committed to using its resources to reach out to the communities and countries in which it operates and am thankful for the incredible opportunity to be a part of the good work happening in Phalaborwa.”

Salina (2nd from the left) and Keitumetse (right) celebrating at the Gala dinner!

Professor Jeff Kroeker congratulates conference participants who won the Innovation Challenge!

The ARC team visits Kruger! (Salina and Keitumetse are on the bottom row, right hand side)

What a year! Salina, Arynn, Evan, Rosemary, Michelle and Jessica are winding down their term as World Vision’s Youth Ambassadors. In celebration, let’s take a look back and celebrate their incredible accomplishments.

2010-2011 has certainly been a year of impact! Thanks to their hard work and passion, our YAs have…

inspired more than 24,000 Canadians through over 130 events to raise more than 100,000 dollars for children living in poverty!

Congratulations YAs on a job well done! You’re an inspiration to us all and we know you will continue to accomplish great things! We look forward to continuing to work with you to make the world a better place.

YA Reflections

Salina Dharamsi, Vancouver B.C.

On Rwanda: “The ‘Rwandan Way’ of exhibiting compassion and warmth in their daily lives will serve as a precedent for my work with World Vision and other organizations that I am blessed to be a part of.”

The YA Experience: “I have really enjoyed being a Youth Ambassador and have learned so much from the World Vision team and YA family. I am so grateful that I was able to visit Rwanda and see firsthand the incredible work World Vision does.”

Advice for the new YAs: “Speak from your heart and really try and shape your presentation based on the audience you will be speaking to! Most importantly, have fun and stay connected to each other and the WV team!”

Original Source: http://worldvisionmedia.ca/connect/?p=2011

Salina Dharamsi, Vancouver, British Columbia

Bio highlights: Salina is a leader in the UBC Meal Exchange, is spending June 2010 with the Lil’wat nation in Mount Currie BC, received the BC Community Achievement Medallion and has sung before an audience of 20,000.

What I’m looking forward to in Rwanda: I am looking forward to witnessing first hand the strength Rwandans have epitomized since the genocide and the light World Vision brings with them in the global pursuit for a more just world.

Online: http://www.worldvision.ca/GetInvolved/Youth-Action-Zone/Pages/youth-ambassadors-2010.aspx

The Youth Ambassadors take one last picture before their flight to Rwanda!

Salina Dharamsi was one of six Canadian Youth Ambassadors who travelled to Rwanda this summer to see first hand the difference World Vision is making in the lives of the less fortunate. While in Rwanda, she visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial Museum and participated in the International Youth Forum involving youth leaders from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania and Canada. Inspired by her adventure abroad, she has shared with the mentorship network photos from her trip and diary entries from her time abroad. She hopes they will inspire other humanitarians to come together to bring further light into the lives of the Rwandese.

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Funded by World Vision, the well mentioned below is located in an Area Development Project in Gashora, Rwanda. Working in partnership with other organizations, World Vision plans to drill an additional 825 wells that will bring the gift of renewed health and clean water to nearly 500,000 Africans by 2016.

Dear Diary,

My heart is heavy and my hands are dripping in sweat. I am halfway back from a water pump slouched over you with a canteen of water beside me and a child tucked under my arm. She must be wondering why my body is crumbling under the weight of a single canteen.
As I stare off into the distance I see pails twice the size of mine balanced effortlessly on the heads of children half my stature. I stop to thank God this water is clean but buckle under the reality that every day 900 million people will walk considerable distances for water that is further mobilizing the degradation of their malnourished and poverty affected bodies. I feel a tear drop rush down my face but will put it off as sweat if anyone asks. I promise you, dear diary, to remain courageous and empowered by what I see and feel here in Rwanda. There is no time for tears, this is the time for change.

Murabeho,
Salina Dharamsi

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Well-rooted in Rwanda, World Vision has been working hand in hand with the Rwandese, since the initial catastrophe of 1994, to support child-headed households, women widowed by the genocide, those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS and the peace building, reconciliation and healing process at large.

Dear Diary,

I am on the floor holding my knees tight against the frame of my body feverishly trying to keep my heart from plunging into the crucible of my stomach; filled with sorrow and anger my heart is too restless to remain firmly rooted in my chest. Diary, I am in the Kigali Genocide Memorial Center in an exhibit filled with hundreds of pictures of men, women and children who represent but a tiny fraction of the one million Rwandans who were murdered mercilessly 16 years ago here in the country of a thousand hills.

My eyes, filled with tides of tears, have settled on a picture of a young woman in a wedding dress. I can’t help but swell with pain with the thought of future milestones the genocide stripped her of. The wedding anniversaries and baby births her life had in store, whisked away as the world waited. The weight of the world’s inaction sits heavily on my shoulders, and my heart now filled with shame, gives way.

Diary I pray that any present day apathy for the wellbeing of the Rwandese, is out shadowed by a global pursuit to move this nation, humble in size but large in spirit, towards a future worthy of such courageous citizens.

Yours,
Salina Dharamsi

Online: http://www.youthcanada.ca/article/making-difference-rwanda

After five inspiring years volunteering for World Vision, Salina recently returned from an international aid trip as one of six youth ambassadors from Canada. Along with development work, she visited Widows’ Cooperatives, the Kigali Genocide Memorial Museum and was part of an “eye-opening” Youth Forum with young leaders from Rwanda, Tanzania, the Congo and Canada.

Salina Dharamsi of Vancouver was selected as a World Vision Youth Ambassador along with 5 other Canadian youth, travelling to Rwanda at the end of July for two weeks. The Youth Ambassadors participated in a Youth Forum with African youth leaders and visited World Vision development programs. We caught up with Salina a few days after she returned to capture her impressions.

Connect: What is the one thing that you will remember most from your time in Rwanda?
Salina: The International Youth Forum in Gashora, Rwanda contributed greatly to my view of Africa as an entity with a future filled with much promise. The calibre of leadership emulated by our fellow Tanzanian, Rwandan and Congolese delegates, built within me a deeply rooted sense of faith in the youth of these countries and their ability to make positive, sustainable differences for their communities and our global village at large.

C: What surprised you most upon arrival or during your stay?
S: I imagined Rwanda to be much warmer, a lot drier and more topographically consistent than it is in actuality. From rolling hills of lush vegetation to flat, arid savannahs, the diversity of the land and the flexibility of the Rwandans who cultivate it truly amazed me.

C: How has your perspective changed?
S: Even before my adventure in Rwanda, I recognized how each gift catalogue item can make a difference; I didn’t however fully grasp how life changing this difference often is. Whilst in Rwanda, I met a man who had been blessed with a cow. He explained to me how his cow provided nourishment through its milk, a source of income when milk in excess of what his family consumed was sold, fertilization for his crops, and future income when his cow conceives calves. The gift of a cow, in short, can ultimately sustain and provide life.

C: What’s the biggest lifestyle change you plan on making?
S: Inspired by the resourcefulness of the Rwandese, I have returned home with a renewed understanding of the importance of living more parsimoniously.  Closing the widening gap between the financial well-being of the developed and developing world is ultimately a responsibility we, as global citizens, all share.

C: What’s one thing you want everyone to know about Rwanda?
S: With the help of World Vision, a progressive government and citizens committed to the future of their nation, Rwanda has progressed greatly since the genocide of 1994. Rich with ambition and compassion, we as a global community can expect great feats from the Rwandese.

Continue the conversation with Salina and ask her questions about the trip on our Facebook Fan Page—she’ll be the guest moderator for the month of September!

Online: http://worldvisionmedia.ca/connect/?p=96

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – A Vancouver teen has returned from Africa with a heart for helping the dire situation in Rwanda.

Salina Dharamsi was one of the six World Vision Youth Ambassadors to travel there with World Vision Canada. She says it was a trip that not only changed the lives of others, but also her own.

Dharamsi, 19, has always been a huge supporter of the gift catalogue, which lets you sponsor a goat or a cow for a village in a struggling country. But she never imagined it can make such a difference. “I was able to meet a man who has received a cow, and he was just so moved by it, just so grateful and I could not really understand, because it’s a really small amount of money for us, but it was just such a life-changing difference for him.”

They got to see a nutrition program for malnourished children and Salina says the results were astounding. “Over 12 days, because of the program, we actually were able to see a huge difference in how much the children weigh and how the children are acting, because of the food that they are now being provided with.”

Their team also visited a group of women who lost their husbands in the genocide of 1994. Salina says the most amazing part is their hope. “These women have come together and learned a skill, which was basket weaving. And they are able to really perfect the skill, and make marketable products for not only the people who are living in Rwanda, but also those abroad.”

She says some of those baskets were brought home as gifts for friends and family.

Online: http://www.news1130.com/news/local/article/97735–local-teen-helps-genocide-survivors-in-rwanda

Salina enjoys her afternoon with women from a Rwandan, widows' cooperative.