Less than thirty years ago, it seemed unlikely that black and white South Africans could avoid a cataclysmic struggle. How did they manage to turn back from the precipice and join one another in the long walk to a non-racial system of governance?
Similarly the residential schools, which are accused of a crime as serious as genocide under international law, were up and running until 1996. However, elected officials are now calling the government to unanimously recognize that genocide occurred at residential schools, and now they wants to take the issue a step further by drafting legislation to outlaw attempts to deny that genocide and make false assertions about residential schools.
These examples give us a message of hope for those who are facing poverty, injustice and discrimination due to systemic barriers and covert racism today.
Things don’t remain mismanaged forever. Crime and injustice meet their fate sooner or later. Covert racism, microaggressions and barriers to addressing inequity are the most pressing moral issues of our time. In these conditions, the oneness of human beings is the basic ethical thread that holds us together. This blog is dedicated to exploring equity, social justice and community safety issues with a humanistic lens.
About the Author
Abid Jan has extensive experience in Canadian and international development work. As an experienced nonprofit management executive, Abid has more than 22 years of experience in poverty alleviation, community economic development, project management, capacity building, and organizational development.
Abid Jan has 15 years of experience in executive leadership and senior management roles which involves working with local and international funding agencies. Abid has a successful record of leading organizational and community change initiatives and capacity building programs.
Abid’s work experience includes being CD consultant to the City of Ottawa, a former Executive Director of Integrated Regional Support Program in Pakistan, as an advisor with GTZ-German and as a consultant with UNDP, Unicef and World Bank. His extensive project management and non-profit capacity building experience enabled him to work with more than 200 organizations and various levels of government in Canada, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Abid Jan has been working with United Way East Ontario as Director of Capacity Building since 2010. He has more than 20 years of experience with developing place-based approaches to community development, Collective Impact initiatives, and building cross-sector collaborative solutions to make Ottawa a safer and welcoming City for all.
Abid Jan has an MS in Environmental Management University of London and a Master in Applied Chemistry from the University of Peshawar. He has attended several training courses – recently completed a train the trainers’ course from Fiscal Institute Santa Fe in Result Based Accountability. Abid is AMPG Licensed project management specialist.
See detailed profile here.