Artistic voices - painters, musicians and more - will speak their creations to Prince George to help amplify 27 million silent voices in Africa.
The locally invented and Prince George-based 27 Million Voices development agency has been raising money and awareness for about five years to help the victims of child slavery and human trafficking in the consumer commodity industries of West Africa. The chocolate industry is the main culprit, according to 27MV founders. The world became more aware about the similarly operated "blood diamond" trade thanks to the movie of that name, but there are other products as well that Western consumers buy that have their roots in brutal conditions in the 27MV area of focus.
An art exhibit and concert on Saturday night is the next step in their push-back efforts.
"The art is all by local students, primarily from Duchess Park Secondary School, and all of it is inspired by the work of 27 Million Voices," said 27MV chair Christos Vardacostas. "There was discussion in the school about our work, what is going on in our support region, and from that the students were inspired to create these pieces of art."
Local artistic photographer Rob Dyson volunteered to frame the pieces at his home workshop.
Also joining the effort are drummer / storyteller Granville Johnson and Persian-Canadian jazz group Navaz. They will add musical entertainment to the evening, also exuding the principles of thinking globally while acting locally.
This was the foundation of the 27MV group. It founded by Allison Fedorkiw while she was still a university student. She spent time in West Africa doing developmental work for education and personal growth purposes and saw the need for a Western-based non-governmental organization to link to the organizations doing the heavy work in places like Ivory Coast, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso and other African countries. She came back to her hometown of Prince George and started the group she envisioned. She still spends significant time in Africa each year to build relationships, seek out key needs, and apply 27MV resources.
"There are two solid partnerships we have been able to develop," said Vardacostas. One is with a group called Challenging Heights based in Ghana, the other is the Burkina Faso chapter of the Red Cross.
The Red Cross partnership involved a contribution of about $5,000 to put solar-powered flashlights (they double as room lights) into the hands of about 400 girls who need them for school.
"They have all escaped or are in the process of escaping some kind of forced labour," said Vardacostas. "This is a rural area with zero electricity infrastructure. To participate in education programs of any kind, it has to be done at night. That means seeing their way to the school and it means safety issues. They need the lights to see their way, and to light the classroom, but nobody can afford batteries so the lights had to be solar-powered."
The Challenging Heights initiative is focused on thousands of children who have been kidnapped or family-extorted into slave labour on the massive Lake Volta for the seafood industry.
"We are talking about kids forced into fishing operations, some who grow up in those conditions never knowing where they truly come from or who their real parents are," said Vardacostas. "Challenging Heights is a lead organization in identifying these children, recruiting them out of those conditions, getting them into education programs, and we have earmarked $7,000 to help them acquire desks, chairs, school supplies, uniforms, tuition, etc.," he said. "It gives them opportunities to develop skill sets that reroute them from an industry preying on people. It fosters their abilities to self-sustain without turning to those violence-based alternatives."
Tickets are $40 to see the exhibition, enjoy the music, partake in the light refreshments, and get in on the auction of donated items. The event happens at the Ramada Hotel starting at 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are available in advance at Nancy O's or through Vardacostas ([email protected] or 250-981-1635) who also hopes to hear from anyone with donations to the silent auction or interested in joining the volunteers of 27MV.
