Thompson Rivers University hosts the Global Learning Symposium, Thursday, Nov. 19 in Room 130 of the Campus Activity Centre. The event is one of three Global Learning Symposiums’, public engagement initiatives of the BC Council for International Cooperation and funded by CIDA. Besides Kamloops, the program takes place in Courtenay, and Prince George.

“Our objective with this program is to bring together development practitioners from the South to communities in BC and to bridge issues of local and global concern,”said Dr. Julie Drolet, Assistant Professor of the School of Social Work at TRU.

Sponsored by the Kamloops Women’s Resource Group Society and the British Columbia Council for International Cooperation (BCCIC) the symposium’s program includes sharing realities around specific Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the North and South; fostering cross-cultural learning and building awareness around international development issues. Part of the three hour symposium hopes to provide Southern partners with a platform to share their lived experience of global issues and together with host communities, to apply this learning to the challenges of today.

The key speaker, Miriam Samuel of the School of Social Work at Madras Christian College in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Miriam is also President of the Centre for International Social Work and has been working in the field of social work for the last 22 years. She brings with her extensive knowledge of community mental health practice, gender and development, expertise in the field of gender analysis and is very involved in the post-tsunami reconstruction efforts in Tamil Nadu.

Susan Forseille, Student Employment Centre Coordinator for the TRU Career Education Department presents “Going Global” along with panel presentations by Shams Alibhai, BCCIC Executive Director, Duane Seibel, Faculty Member in School of Social Work and Human Service at TRU and Chair of AIDS Society of Kamloops, Nicole Bachynski, TRU Student, and Alixandria Stupich, TRU Student.