Editor
Good morning all
As I write, I am somewhat disheartened that all the African teams made an early exit from the on-going FIFA women’s World Cup, with some of the games played right here in Ottawa. As an avid follower and analyst of beautiful game of soccer, I had hopes that Nigeria, perennial African Champions, would at least make it into the knockout stages. Regrettably, they found themselves in the “group of death” with former world champions USA, powerhouse Sweden and OCEANIA champions Australia. However in retrospect, Cameroon’s coach analysis of the cause of our perpetual failure at this level of competition says it all. Read all about it under: Cameroon coach blames lack of funding for failure.
Lack of funding rears its ugly head once more in the report of the rally on Parliament Hill by health care professionals, protesting cutbacks to refugee health programs in Canada. Long time community advocate Nessa Sherwood is featured as our Top Story, with the launch of her very first book: The Intrepid Soul, as reported by our reporter Annette Ejiofor. Annette follows this with her report on the “Ask her” talks at Carleton University, a seminar in which women discuss and engage in conversations about HIV, the prime focus of the Stephen Lewis foundation.
The Black Canadian Scholarship Fund annual walk-a-thon fund-raiser brings attention to this amazing group of selfless community leaders who extend themselves to provide post-secondary scholarships to young black men and women who would otherwise miss the chance of a worthwhile career as a result of their low economic situation. Our report includes an interview with their chair, Elizabeth December. Speaking of interviews, our conversation this month is with esteemed parish priest, Rev.Fr. Ibodimma Titus Egbue, in charge of St Eucharist in Manotick. We are truly blessed to have this man of God as one of our own. We move on to the important subject of innovation, with our featured article about young Nigerian-born entrepreneur Frank Akujobi, who has provided a virtual internet platform to assist small businesses in promoting their goods and services.
A wealth of information is in our Special features series. We highlight Statistics Canada’s report that re-affirms that blacks are the most targeted when it comes to hate crimes. We follow this with English and French versions of the ground-breaking project by Black History Ottawa, Managing Your Money through the golden years, a primer to assist seniors and those approaching retirement in planning for those when their income drops to well below what it was when they were in full-time employment.
We continue our Diaspora news with Ethiopian Olympic hero Haile Gebrselassie’s retirement from competitive running at the age of 42. What a humble, down to earth man he is, in spite of his fame and fortune. Africa certainly could do with more role models like him! Speaking of role models, we feature a piece about Angolan-born Rosita Vanancio who came to Canada as refugee, spent most of her young years in foster care, and now has earned the Queen’s Young Leaders’ award and is off to university to pursue her dreams. Finally, don’t forget to take part in our monthly survey.
All these and more in the July edition. Enjoy!
Godwin Ifedi
Editor