Using Digital Stories to explore community and mental health with the South Etobicoke Youth Assembly

Mental health and community are reinforcing concepts; thus, investing in one leads to an investment in the other. InterChange Toronto partnered with the LAMP Community Health Centre to run a pilot workshop series on digital storytelling with youth aged 14-18 from the South Etobicoke Youth Assembly in order to explore ideas around mental health and […]

Disconnected Love

Submitted by Pamela Snell The way that I understand peace in my life changes from day to day and from moment to moment. Today I am thinking about how personal violence is perpetrated by moments of disconnection. Specifically, disconnection in our relationships with others. I am currently the age where I go to a lot […]

Vukovar and Transmission of Trauma and Negative Narratives

TRANSMISSION OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAUMA AND NEGATIVE NARRATIVES 12 JUNE 2013 CHARLES DAVID TAUBER, M.D. In this posting, I will highlight an issue that is a substantial one in all of the areas in which InterChange is working and discuss a little of what we in Vukovar are attempting to do about it. First, we need […]

Building Positive Relationships – It’s In Our Nature

Submitted by Carolyn Webb I’ve come to the conclusion that what makes us thrive as humans is the connections we have and foster. Our relationships with others, as well as our relationships with ourselves, are what give meaning to our lives. I’ve been coming to this realization for awhile now, but this idea has become […]

Romero House – creating a culture of welcome in Toronto

Submitted by Anthea Darychuk “In our culture we have a family place where we all go for big events. Romero House is like our family place in Canada” – Naman Thamir, from Iraq “People can’t really feel at peace until they know they are safe and accepted into Canada. Until they know their status. Romero House […]

International Women’s Day, March 8, 2013

Submitted by Malik Rashid To observe International Women’s Day, InterChange invites you to share your story of resilience in the face of violence and oppression against women and how your efforts or the efforts of those around you are breaking the cycle of trauma. Of Losing and regaining love and humanity Story of my efforts to […]

A discussion with Physicians for Human Rights Israel

“We are a human rights organization focusing on the right to health” said Kifah el Halim, as she began our interview about the organization she works with, Physicians for Human Rights- Israel (PHR-I), in Jaffa, Israel. Physicians for Human Rights is an international network that uses “science and medicine to stop mass atrocities and human […]

Organizational Highlight: OneVoice Palestine

To begin this column, I will be presenting a peacebuilding organization working with youth in the Middle East. Here is the interview with the local director of OneVoice, Samer Mahlouf. OneVoice is an “international grassroots movement that amplifies the voice of young mainstream Israelis and Palestinians, empowering them to propel their elected representative towards the […]

Cerasse Tea

Submitted by Joan McKnight My interest in natural/herbal tea stems from my own upbringing. As a child growing up in Jamaica, I have had a tremendous opportunity to learn the importance of medicinal herbs from my own grandfather. He was an herbalist; he has successfully grown a number of Jamaica’s Indigenous plants and roots in […]

What does it look like to build peace and health?

How can peace and health be promoted at the same time? Does it help to have one united holistic initiative, or it is better to have parallel projects taking care of individual areas? The connections between peace and health are not new. There has long been consensus within academia and the community on the need […]