Ariane Sylvain Salvador

HIV and AIDS Advisor

2010

Partner: REVS+ - Responsabilité – Espoir – Vie – Solidarité +

My Volunteer Experience

Ariane Sylvain Salvador is one very involved young woman.

“I’ve been volunteering for causes close to my heart for about ten years, from the Heart and Stroke Foundation to tutoring in schools. My involvement in international volunteering started when I organized fundraising for Children’s Care International, which looks after child labourers in India. This passion led me to take an Introduction to International Cooperation course at Montmorency CEGEP (junior college), which involved a final-year internship in Bolivia. This experience convinced me to do a BA in International Development Studies, which I am currently finishing up at the University of Montreal!”

“I got involved with Oxfam Québec on campus, organizing a panel discussion and photo exhibit with them on climate refugees. Then, in the summer of 2010, I went to Burkina Faso with World University Service of Canada (WUSC), through Uniterra. I was an HIV and AIDS advisor in Dano, a rural village located between Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso. Now I am the president (and founder!) of the WUSC Local Committee at the University and I am working with the members to set up the Student Refugee Program. This way, students from refugee camps in Malawi and Kenya can come to Canada to get specialized higher education and can go back home with more tools to improve the situations where they live.”

“My commitment really represents the values of cooperation. The WUSC Committee that I chair follows democratic principles. I actively promote equality and equity in my volunteer work, especially when working with solidarity groups on campus like Oxfam and WUSC, whose campaigns are closely tied to these issues. I also worked on gender equality issues during my internship in Burkina Faso.”