Françoise Trudeau-Reeves
Summer 1989. Vacation at last! With the school year over, Christine Gervais is packing her bags for the Dominican Republic. During this trip, unlike any other, this teenager is getting to know the real Dominican Republic, and notices that not everyone has the opportunity to study. Some families have to make considerable sacrifices to send their children to school. She decides to do something.
The young woman, who returns to the Dominican Republic in 1995, is organized this time. Her luggage is full of didactic material for post-secondary students. In the field of education, most international aid programs concentrate on primary education, but Christine Gervais believes it is important to invest in post-secondary education.
After earning a master's in criminology from the University of Ottawa and a PhD in sociology from Carleton University, Christine Gervais is now an assistant professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa. She says without financial aid, it would have been more difficult to complete her higher education.
“I always had bursaries,” she says, “and they were an important source of motivation for me.”
This is the philosophy on which depends the work of Acceso International, the non-profit organization founded by Christine and her husband Grant Perry in 1996. Acceso's mission is to bring educational aid to poor countries in the Americas, for example Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras and Peru. The type of aid and the clientele served vary from one country to another, but the way of operating remains the same: strictly a non-governmental organization, Acceso International supports local NGOs that are in direct contact with populations. This method is motivated as much by a desire to better direct the aid as it is by a wish to not impose the Canadian vision of education, explains Christine.
In Peru, seven Acceso International scholarship recipients have just obtained their university degrees in fields ranging from engineering to education. In the Bahamas, the organization offers scholarships to Haitian refugees to enrol in university. The selection is based on the candidates' financial need, as well as their academic record.
“Students must have the intellectual ability to succeed in their university studies,” the founder clarifies. A sum of $1,000 defrays the costs of the student's tuition fees, supplies, housing, transportation and food for one year.
Acceso also supports programs in primary schools and even preschool, in Antigua and Guatemala, for example.
Christine Gervais explains that in many countries, education is risky. Armies and paramilitary groups often target schools. From the age of five, children run the risk of running into socialization problems if they find themselves immersed in the middle of a war, she says. And in many countries, corrupt governments often play the role of aggressor with civilians. This is a subject that Christine tackles in the criminology course she teaches to fourth-year students. In Honduras, a project supported by Acceso International honours the memory of a civil rights militant reported missing for 20 years.
About 20 volunteers help the founder and her husband. Every year, donations worth $50,000 are poured into the organization's aid fund. All administrative expenses are taken care of by Christine and her husband. Every year, Acceso International receives donations from more than 500 people, as well as support from institutional sponsors, including Pirie Foundation of Alberta, Scotiabank, Alcatel and the Alumni Association of the University of Ottawa.
Wherever Acceso goes, it urges local companies to donate to the projects it sponsors and favours the purchase of school materials locally. Now that's a lot to co-ordinate for a young woman of 33, who is a professor, a researcher and a mother. Her secret? The organization.
“I also have the power to motivate others,” she emphasizes. And her quality of life?
“I don't sleep much, but I wouldn't be able to sleep knowing there are so many unfilled needs,” she confides.
