Comfort vs Change

The underlying concept of ‘Up With Hope’ is best deciphered through the story of a twenty-year-old Kenya resident named Kaka (which is Swahili for brother). He is the leader of the Mathare Environmental Youth Group. 

Kaka was seventeen when he decided that the mountain of garbage in the middle of his community needed to be moved. The toxicity of the garbage in his slum was killing one in five children due to garbage-born diseases. Kaka gathered support and pushed Nairobi’s politicians to move the garbage.

After a relentless battle, the garbage was taken away. However, Kaka knew that the garbage would return, because there was no infrastructure for garbage collection in his slum. At night, Kaka guarded the space that had been cleared of waste. During the day, he began collecting garbage for a small fee. He didn’t force people to use his service, but he refused to allow people to dump garbage in the community. Kaka had a vision to use the empty space for a community centre, so he began building.

The Power of Women (POW) created Tent Village on February 15^th, 2010 at 58 West Hastings, to demonstrate our city’s urgent need for more safe, affordable housing. Many people who are living in Tent Village prefer it over a shelter. My friend Ivo is shooting a documentary about Tent Village, so I asked him to give me a tour of this community and discuss his perspective.

Ivo is a seventeen-year old aboriginal poet/ designer/ activist, who many describe as an old soul. The richness of his kindness and comedy are contagious. He has experienced homelessness in his past, and he wants to support the numerous homeless youth, who live in Tent Village and on our city’s streets. According to Ivo, there are at least ten youth residing in Tent Village.

On Wednesday, January 13^th, Mayor Gregor Robertson cut the ribbon on the new media room at Directions Youth Services, funded by EA Sports, an award winning developer of sports video games including Madden, FIFA, EA SPORTS Active, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR, NBA LIVE, NHL, Grand Slam Tennis, Fight Night.

After the ribbon cutting, the crowd was entertained by youth playing folk music and blues.

Directions Youth Services provides a safe place to run to. It is the only 24-hour, multi-service centre in Vancouver that provides young people at loose ends access to laundry, food, jobs, education, housing and community.

Lee Matasi was killed on December 3^rd of 2005, outside the Red Room Nightclub in Downtown Vancouver. He was killed because Dennis White decided to get wasted and go to the club with a gun. Lee had never met White, but when White was flaunting his gun, Lee told him that it wasn’t cool. The execution style murder occured shortly after Lee made this comment.

Despite fingerprints, over a dozen witnesses, and security camera footage, White received house arrest and didn’t get his full sixteen-year sentence until 2007.

December 27^th 2009 would have been Lee Matasi’s 28^th birthday. His friends gathered at the Astoria in East Vancouver to dance, listen to Wu-tang and eat birthday cake. It was a party that Lee would have loved. 

My most prominent memories of Lee consist of his hugs and his comedy. He would pick me up and spin me around until I was laughing. If a party was boring, he made it fun. If a party was fun, he multiplied the fun. The light he represented also translated into actions that made Vancouver better.