Manitoba Council on International Cooperation

Global Citizens in Manitoba

  • Vera Goussaert

    Vera Goussaert from Winnipeg, Manitoba, is the Executive Director of the Manitoba Cooperative Association. She has worked with credit unions in Ghana, which encourage women to save money to start their own businesses and send their children to school. Vera is very pleased that the United Nations has declared 2012 the International Year of Cooperatives as she believes that cooperatives represent gender equality and allow women to support themselves and their families financially.

    Click here to watch a video profile of Vera.

  • Corina Lepp

    Corina Lepp from Rivers, Manitoba works with the Canadian Agricultural Rural Extension Society (CARES) who partners with organizations in Tanzania to promote micro-enterprise development, particularly for women. Through a recent project, CARES was able to improve the stoves that women used, and this resulted in less time collecting wood allowing girls to go to school, and increased the income of the whole family. Corina cannot even express what it feels like to make such a difference in the lives of these women, and encourages all Manitobans to get involved, in any way they can.

    Click here to watch a video profile of Corina.

  • Lieketseng (Keke) Phooko

    Lieketseng (Keke) Phooko from Lesotho, is working as a Public Engagement Intern at the Canadian Foodgrains Bank in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Keke gives presentations to schools and community groups on Conservation Agriculture, a farming method that disturbs the soil as little as possible which is particularly important in Lesotho where the soil is easily eroded. In Lesotho, Keke trains farmers and thinks it is a shame that there are not more women farmers, because she has proven that they are just as capable as men. According to Keke, successful Conservation Agriculture will increase food security in her country, so that everyone has enough to eat.

    Click here to watch a video profile of Keke.

  • Krista Fraser-Kruck

    Krista Fraser-Kruck from Winnipeg, Manitoba works for IDE Canada, a member agency of MCIC. In 2010, thanks in part to a contribution from the MCIC Theme Fund, IDE Canada focused on implementing affordable water technology for farmers in the Upper East Region of Ghana. Farmers could purchase a treadle pump for $82, making it easier to pump water and relieving the burden on women. With increased yields, and less time spent irrigating, the girls could afford to go to school and learned to sell their produce. Krista says that women development workers excel and have the social networks and work ethic to ensure the success of IDE’s projects.

    Click here to watch a video profile of Krista.

  • Nathalie Piquemal

    Nathalie Piquemal from Winnipeg, Manitoba, is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education of the University of Manitoba. In partnership with Canadian Humanitarian, an MCIC member agency, Nathalie developed a course which trained Ethiopian teachers in student-centered pedagogy. Nathalie then conducted a study to see the effect of the course on the lives of the Ethiopian students, and her preliminary results demonstrate that the work of Canadian Humanitarian is allowing vulnerable children to go to school, eat three times a day and experience a sense of family and community.

    Click here to watch a video profile of Nathalie in English.

    Click here to watch a video profile of Nathalie in French.