Two Saskatchewan youth have been selected to take part in an Indigenous global development program.
Twenty-one-year-old Gavin Blondeau of Saskatoon and 27-year-old Prestin Fleming of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band will be heading overseas later this summer as part of the internship program.
Blondeau, who is Métis, will be going to the Rift Valley area of Kenya to do development work.
“I’ll help them dig some live water wells,” he says. “They have a well machine that they just purchased and they go around the community and help access to fresh water. And probably the most interesting one I will be doing, part of my tasks will be preservation of oral history and stories and knowledge from elders in the area.”
Blondeau is studying business at the University of Saskatchewan.
He says the program is a great and affordable way to supplement his studies with exposure to other cultures and countries.
“A lot of the issues we face now are influenced by global factors. Being able to establish a mindset where you can understand the world at a global level more and part of doing that is travelling, experiencing different cultures.”
Fleming is headed to Guyana to work with the Volunteer Youth Corps Inc.
Blondeau and Fleming leave for their respective countries in August and will be overseas for four months.
The internship program is a partnership between the Atlantic Council for International Cooperation, the Northern Council for Global Cooperation, the Confederation of Mainland Mi’kmaq, the Native Council of P.E.I. and GPI Atlantic.
A total of 20 Indigenous youth from across Canada will be taking part.
(PHOTO: Gavin Blondeau. Photo courtesy Gavin Blondeau Facebook page.)