Thursday Jul 30, 2015

Lauryn Oates

Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan

About the Speaker
- Lauryn Oates is a Canadian aid worker and human rights activist who has gained prominence as a global expert on education in conflict zones and on women’s rights, and as a fierce public proponent of internationalism, gender equality and the universalism of human rights. She has worked throughout the developing world but particularly in Afghanistan, advocating for the empowerment of women. It was in 1996 that, at age 14, Lauryn read a newspaper article describing the new regime in Afghanistan called the Taliban, and their treatment of women and girls. She wrote up a petition demanding that the world respond to the Taliban’s misogynist policies, and has continued this work ever since. She bridges the world we know, and the worlds we sometimes struggle to understand—countries at war, communities living amidst unimaginable poverty, and places where women in particular are seeking to gain a foothold.
  
  Lauryn speaks to themes of global citizenship, how we respond to pain and suffering in the world, and the power of education to change young lives in ways that can transform societies. Whether it’s surviving a motorcycle crash in Uganda, malaria in Rwanda, Russian techno music on bad roads in Tajikistan, or working to get classrooms opened in rural Afghanistan, Lauryn can often be found in the dicey spots of the world, stubbornly insisting that access to quality education is a basic human right for everyone, everywhere.
  
  Lauryn works in close partnership with a variety of Afghan women’s organizations and international charities, from UNICEF, Global Rights, medica mondiale, the Afghan Research and Evaluation Unit, the Women and Children’s Legal Research Foundation, USAID, and Womankind Worldwide, among others.
  
  She has been involved in leading charity work with Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan, founded in 1996, and founded the Vancouver (1999) and Montreal (2001) chapters of the organization, before joining the board of directors in 2005, until 2008 when she became the organization’s Projects Director, managing their education projects in the field.
  
  Lauryn has led projects in Afghanistan such as a teacher training program that has so far trained over 4,000 teachers, a network of village libraries, and basic literacy classes for girls and women who missed out on their educations under the Taliban. She’s worked to make educational materials accessible to teachers in their own language through several translation projects, and the creation of the first online library for teachers in Afghanistan. These projects have ensured access to schooling for thousands of Afghan girls and women.
  
  Lauryn is a frequent commentator in the Canadian media, writing regularly for The Calgary Herald, The Huffington Post, Troy Media, The Propagandist, and occasionally for other publications ranging from The Globe & Mail to the blog, Butterflies & Wheels. In 2008, The Globe & Mail named her as the first of Ten Canadians to Watch in 2009, and in 2013 she was awarded a Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal by the province of British Columbia. Coverage of her work in Afghanistan has been featured in Elle, Ms., Trek, Vancouver Magazine, The National Post, 24 Hours, Chatelaine, Canadian Living, The Calgary Herald, Edmonton Sun, The Times Colonist, The Province, among others.
  
  Lauryn holds a BA Honours in International Development Studies from McGill University, a MA in Human Security and Peace building from Royal Roads University, and a PhD in Language and Literacy Education at the University of British Columbia. Her doctoral research focused on the development of mother tongue teaching resources using information communications technologies (ICT) for primary teachers in northern Uganda. She has twice been awarded a Social Science & Humanities Research Council award for her scholarship. In 2013, Lauryn won the Leadership Award from her Alma Mater, Royal Roads University.
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Lauryn Oates

Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan

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