SCIC Annual Report 2020

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
Supporting Canadians along a continuum toward sustained, active engagement for a more just and
sustainable world requires a variety of targeted public engagement approaches. By maintaining much
of our programming focus on educators and youth during the 2019/2020 program year, SCIC was able
to support a deepening of engagement through in-person, and on-line events, resource sharing and
communications based initiatives.
MAKING GLOBAL TO
LOCAL CONNECTIONS
In partnership with SCIC, Regina’s Cuernavaca Project brought the powerful voice and experience of
Carmen Bahena Bahena into classrooms and public fora in Saskatchewan in the fall of 2019.
As Director of the Centre for Encounters and Dialogues in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico, Carmen is a
strong voice for women’s rights, self-determination, social justice and food security. As an innovator and
leader, Carmen combines her passion for social justice and ecological sustainability with her passion for
social enterprise. Some of her initiatives include the production of healthy and safe organic food to both
promote jobs and food sovereignty. She leads workshops on eco-technologies including natural building
and dry ecological sanitation. Her development of greenhouses and local market gardens facilitate the
production of cash crops and a regular source of income for rural women. In addition, the development
and distribution of ecologically sound stoves has led to improved respiratory health of local women.
Carmen’s initiatives serve to promote environmental protection as well as improve health and well-being
for women, youth and communities, both in Mexico and Canada.
In recognition of World Food Day, Carmen gave a highly engaging presentation that highlighted
connections between ecology and economy, and the role of citizen advocacy in pursuit of systematic
change. These messages and calls to action were echoed in the numerous high school classrooms in
Regina that welcomed Carmen in for presentations.
12