Burnaby's Mohammed Jawara will be reading from his self-published memoir on Tuesday, July 2 at the Tommy Douglas library branch.
Jawara, 26, wrote Tears of the Innocent and the Bloodshed, a short book about his experiences escaping Liberia as a young boy.
As civil war erupted in his home country, Jawara fled to a refugee camp in Sierra Leone, but when Charles Taylor's infamous soldiers, many of them children, attacked the camp, Jawara was forced to flee again, this time to Guinea. He was eventually brought to Canada as a refugee and has settled in Burnaby, but the trauma he endured prompted him to write his book, available on Amazon.ca.
Jawara's story is a painful one. I was shocked to learn just how young he was when all of this strife and war was erupting around him. He saw things no child should ever see. In his book, he also touches on freedom, Liberian history and the need for peace. The reading starts at 6 p.m. The Tommy Douglas branch is at 7311 Kingsway.
Greek fest on
The annual Greek Summer Festival is fast approaching. The
festival, which runs from Thursday, June 27 to Sunday, July 7, will be held at the Greek Orthodox church at 4641 Boundary Rd., on the border between Burnaby and Vancouver.
Each year, tens of thousands of people attend the festival to take in Greek culture, cuisine and entertainment.
Festival times are Monday to Thursday, from noon to 10 p.m., and Friday to Sunday, from noon to 11 p.m.
"The food is amazing. We do roast lamb on stick, we have souvlaki, . we have dance groups performing," said Vivean Ready, one of the main organizers.
"The music is awesome. When the performances are over, everyone is invited to come dance and party with us for 11 days."
Ready is expecting 35,000 people will attend the 11-day festival, which started as a three-day event in 1987 and has been going strong ever since.
Proceeds go to registered Canadian charities that advance Greek culture and support services for Canadians of Greek heritage. For more information on the festival, go to van couvergreeksummerfest. com.
Fundraiser for the animals
Local residents Rosann Youck and Jeff Giesbrecht are hoping animal lovers will donate to the Burnaby SPCA branch, and they've earmarked $20,000 to match contributions.
"Through several years of volunteering and fostering animals, we have seen how much the Burnaby SPCA does with so little," Youck said in a press release. "We hope this gift will encourage others to help animals in need."
According to Burnaby branch manager Ryan Voutilainen, the SPCA will care for more than 1,200 abused, injured or abandoned animals from Burnaby and New Westminster this year.
"They all get medical checks, most require fol-lowup care, and a few need extensive surgery," he said.
"We hope that local animal lovers will sign up to fundraise for their B.C. SPCA branch. If everybody reaches out to their family and friends, I know we can raise $20,000, which will be matched dollar for dollar."
People can donate until July 15. Visit spca.bc.ca/ branches/Burnaby and click on Watch Your Gift Double.
Support for Down syndrome
Burnaby's Down Syndrome Research Foundation wants to thank the Vancouver Sun Children's Fund for a $5,000 donation via the Vancouver Foundation.
The money will help pay for the foundation's summer school programs.
The Burnaby-based
Down Syndrome Research Foundation runs a variety of programs that help people with Down syndrome.
The foundation also has a state-of the-art MEG brain scanner, and researchers can monitor how the brain is responding to programs to better understand how people with Down syndrome learn and process information.
For more on the foundation, go to www.dsrf.org.
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