PIRS (Pacific Immigrant Resources Society) has been working with immigrant and refugee women and their children for more than 40 years. We’ve helped thousands of women learn English and develop leadership skills. The importance of community and a trauma-informed approach is embedded in all we do. Breaking Ground is about celebrating the resilience and courage of these women.
• Four immigrant women from the Vancouver chapter of The Shoe Project tell their stories of arrival and adaptation—through a pair of shoes. The evening’s stories come from Eritrea, Tibet, Syria and Iraq. The Shoe Project was founded in 2011 by Canadian author Katherine Govier. They work with immigrant women across the country.
• Suzanne Ma is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in The Wall St. Journal, Bloomberg Business Week, Huffington Post and Salon. She’ll be reading from her book, “Meet Me in Venice”. It follows one young woman’s experience of migration from a barren mountain town in China to northern Italy. Weaving in research and history, the immigration experience becomes deeply personal in a global context.
• From Caitlin Press, three contributors to “Wherever I Find Myself”. Esmeralda Cabral is a writer and environmentalist who claims three landscapes as her own, BC, Alberta and the Azores; Abeer Yusuf, journalist and scholar, describes herself as TCK, a Third Culture Kid, and; Jianna Faner is a communication specialist and women’s advocate with an interest in rediscovering her history.
Filmmaker, actor, writer and psychologist Ana Carrizalles is the evening’s host.
Breaking Ground is presented by PIRS. We work with newcomer and refugee women and their young children. We connect women to the community through English language training, vocational and leadership programs. We support women by providing early childhood learning for their young ones. Our trauma-informed approach is embedded in all we do and has made PIRS a leader in the immigrant services sector.
Tuesday, September 25 7:30pm (doors at 7)
Emerald Room (555 Gore Street, Vancouver)
Tickets: $45 (includes appetizer buffet and one beverage)
