Best First Day – school supplies drive – United Way Elgin Middlesex
http://unitedwayem.ca/best-first-day/
The drive runs until Sept 8th and our local has donated 20 backpacks. Thu Trinh and Sara volunteered to pack some of the bags, along with other labour reps.
“This year to address the need in the community while ensuring the health and safety of participants, we have added a digital shopping experience. We will continue to accept donations of physical backpacks and supplies through our workplace collections and at our drop off locations but will be wrapping up the collection on September 8 to ensure time for proper sanitization of materials prior to getting them out to the students”
Beirut explosion
The following is from a fellow local PSAC union member.
Please think about helping if you can
You may or may not be aware that on the fourth of August a massive explosion rocked my home town Beirut. The explosion destroyed everything within a 3-5 km radius in a heavily populated part of the city, resulting in 300,000 homeless, and many deaths and injuries, with numbers increasing as the rubble is removed. The silos that usually store the grain and wheat reserves for the whole country were destroyed in the blast, raising concerns of flour shortage in the near future. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Beirut_explosions. Lebanon was already undergoing an extreme economic crisis, with a currency devalued about 78% in 9 months, and restrictions on cash withdrawals (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/lebanon-currency-economy-crisis/2020/06/26/9e2c62ea-b712-11ea-9a1d-d3db1cbe07ce_story.html). The above situation is catastrophic, and I am imploring to help if you can. You can donate to the Canadian matching fund or directly to the organizations I listed below. Government of Canada Lebanon matching fund https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/issues_development-enjeux_developpement/response_conflict-reponse_conflits/crisis-crises/lebanon-liban.aspx?lang=eng Impact Lebanon: https://www.impactlebanon.org/initiatives/disaster-relief-after-explosion-in-beirut Lebanese Food Bank:https://lebanesefoodbank.org/ Lebanese Red Cross:http://www.redcross.org.lb/index.aspx?pageid=907#panel-1 Unicef Canada: https://secure.unicef.ca/page/65357/donate/1?ea.tracking.id=20DIEM30LBE&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI0LCF4KiW6wIVGaSzCh3ltABJEAAYAyAAEgKknvD_BwE Thank you, Rima
Environmental Racism Potential Films Inc-1 on Vimeo
ACW, CBTU, and ACLA hosted a webinar and invited union and community activists to take action against environmental racism. In this moment of tremendous social change unions are asking themselves: how best can we act to stop racism in all its forms and ensure that the transition to a “new normal” does not reproduce the inequities of the old normal.
UN International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples: COVID-19 and indigenous peoples’ resilience – UNESCO World Heritage Centre
http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/2146
“With the current COVID-19 pandemic, the link between environmental damage and pandemics has again been established. Many indigenous peoples have warned over decades about increasing threats to natural heritage so important for their survival. Through their traditional knowledge and their relationship to nature, they have long known that environmental dilapidation can trigger disease.”
ceiu581.com 