May, 2023

Aidez nous a Aider – May, 2023

Hey Friends,

Lots of exciting updates! We have been working on many new wonderful things! We have such an amazing team of people working together and it has really inspired us in new ways to create positive change.
First off, our Cameroonian team has been working hard at creating paper beads and making recycled jewelry. They are doing a phenomenal job and have produced some pretty amazing statement pieces. Check out some of the pieces on our partner site:

Wolou Wear – Jewelry Store, Cultural Gift Shop

If you would like to purchase a necklace, please send us an email. All the proceeds go towards the artists who made the jewelry.

We will be working on learning new techniques in the near future and discovering new styles to create from recycled materials.

We will also have the jewelry featured in several outdoor markets in Canada this summer, so if you are in Saskatchewan, send us a message.

We have also begun teaching and learning online jobs. Some of our crew has been working on data entry. They have been collecting sites and emails of boutiques and shops that may want to display our jewelry.
We have also partnered with a good friend of ours in Saskatoon, Matt Hricz. Matt started his own clothing line ‘Rude Vogue’ and has been very successful at what he does. Matt has agreed to work with us once a week where we set up a video chat on zoom and he gives us guidance, advice, and mentorship on how to be successful online and how to grow a brand. We have been learning a lot and are very grateful for Matt’s contribution.
Check out his clothing line:

RUDE VOGUE

We have decided to change our logo (see image below). Our logo is symbolic to the migration crisis along the Mediterranean: a family holding hands while wearing life jackets walking into the distance hoping for a better life before they get on boats to cross the Mediterranean.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), an estimated 24,078 migrants have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean since 2014 as of the end of 2021. It is an extremely dangerous route to take to Europe and people are still dying at sea to this day.
We also want our logo to be symbolic towards those who lost their lives at sea.  We hope that our symbol can help commemorate each individual who lost their lives along this journey.

And we put our logo on a t-shirt and gave all of our crew a shirt to wear. 
We will eventually have them for sale on our website, where proceeds will go towards supporting future projects.

In March we had the honors of meeting with Abdelmajid who works for the United Nations Youth Council in Tetouan, Morocco. Abdelmajid organized a United Nations Youth Conference in his city and invited his team to present at the conference. The main subject of the event was Gender Equality, so we spoke about Migrant Women in Northern Africa.

April 25th, 2023, Abdelmajid organized another collaborative day where our team at Aidez nous a Aider and youth from a local school worked together and painted our mural in Tetouan. Abdelmajid brought the media and we were able to give more exposure to what we are doing. 
Our future plan is to connect with street and graffiti artists in different countries who will paint/tag our symbol in their country. The plan is to get more people to engage in discussion about migration. Public art can draw attention to social and political issues that may not receive much coverage in mainstream media. By creating art that focuses on a particular issue or topic, artists can raise awareness and encourage people to engage in discussions about important issues.