About me
Vanessa started her career when she arrived in Bangladesh in 1998, to witness the devastating floods that severely affected children living and working on the streets. Finding a passion for learning from other cultures, religions and ways of life, Vanessa accepted a position with a local organization, CSKS, working with street kids, undertook a UNDP research project on non-formal education and wrote on key child rights issues for the national newspaper.
Returning to Canada she began working at the Canadian Mental Health Association, providing support as people rebuilt their lives after long illnesses. Then working for Free the Children, a youth-led organization, Vanessa led programs for children affected by war, poverty and exploitive labour. Becoming more active in the international youth movement, Vanessa started work with an innovative new youth-led organization, TakingITGlobal, and began creating and supporting young people’s capacity to implement positive social change within their local and global communities.
As Director of International Programs with War Child Canada, Vanessa implemented education, health, skills training and psychosocial rehabilitation programs. Vanessa travelled to project locations to conduct assessments, establish partnerships and programs, monitor programs, as well as provide emergency relief in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Jordan, Iraq, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ghana. Vanessa’s experiences solidified her commitment to culturally-appropriate child rights programs that engage and invest in the capacity of children and their communities.
Combining her passion for youth-to-youth programming and psychosocial rehabilitation, Vanessa started an international network of youth affected by war and developed the online platform (www.nowarzone.org). Young people from various war affected areas are connected, sharing experiences and working together to implement community development projects that address the problems they see in their communities.
Vanessa then took on a position with the International Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD) at the University of Victoria implementing participatory psychosocial rehabilitation programming for children and their families who experienced the tsunami in Southern India.
After a Masters in International Child Welfare at the University of East Anglia in England she is back to work with IICRD- focused on child protection issues for Iraqi families and building new culturally appropriate systems of governance with Aboriginal communities in BC.
Vanessa started her career when she arrived in Bangladesh in 1998, to witness the devastating floods that severely affected children living and working on the streets. Finding a passion for learning from other cultures, religions and ways of life,...
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