Faculty of Community Services

Faculty International Projects and Initiatives Spotlights

Building Capacity in Food Security in Brazil and Angola

Funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the six-year project “Building Capacity in Food Security in Brazil and Angola” was completed at the end of 2010. Led by Cecilia Rocha, director of the School of Nutrition and an associate researcher at the Centre for Studies in Food Security, this $1.6 million project was praised by Margaux Béland, director of partnership programs at the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada for its significant accomplishments.

The project provided four online food security courses to more than 200 students, and offered 25 workshops to more than 300 non-governmental organizations’ staff, government employees, community agents and others in Brazil and Angola. It partnered with an Indigenous community in helping its members develop a sustainable agricultural plan, and supported a small town in Brazil to incorporate food security into the city’s official plan. Project partners in Brazil were active participants in the successful campaign to add the Right to Food in the country’s constitution, while partners in Angola worked closely with the Angolan Ministry of Agriculture on the development of their 2009 National Strategy for Food and Nutrition Security. The project also received special mention for its “gender strategy,” led by Iara Lessa from Ryerson’s School of Social Work, which through the use of inclusive language and equitable participation, called attention to the need for change.

At Ryerson, the project employed 13 research assistants, and eight students experienced a six-week internship in Brazil. The project also sponsored a number of seminars, including a 2008 lecture by Patrus Ananias, the then Brazilian Minister for Social Development and Fight Against Hunger. New projects developed as a result of the collaboration among Canadian, Brazilian and African colleagues are ongoing. A collection of papers based on project activities is being published as a book in Portuguese, later to be translated into English.

International Collaboration

In February 2010, Hollie Hix-Small of Child and Youth Care spent more than two weeks in India as part of her work to study the quality of foster care and orphanage care systems in India. She is currently focused on improving the level of care that children receive by documenting and modelling high-quality foster- and orphanage-care programs and by becoming involved in collaborative, community-based projects. Hix-Small also provides training and professional development workshops to caregivers in order to expand their knowledge and skills in working with young children. In addition to her ongoing initiatives in India, Hix-Small is an active member of the Zero to Three Working group of the Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and Development, an international consortium that advocates for and supports programs and policy development for young children.

Student International Projects and Initiatives