Dal student chosen to be Active 8 candidate

Kash Fida will begin to collect pledges during International Development Week

Katrina Pyne, Assistant News Editor

Activism is the name of her game. Kash Fida, 19, is one of eight Atlantic youths chosen to participate in the Active 8 campaign for 2011.

She will be part of a team that will attempt to collect as many pledges from the Active 8 online website as possible during the month of February, beginning with International Development Week, Feb. 6 to Feb. 12. At the end of the month, the candidate who has the most pledges will win $1,000.

The winner from last year, Jill MacPherson donated her entire winnings to the Haiti Relief efforts.

Fida first began volunteering when she was in first-year university with Even Wars Have Limits (EWHL). EWHL is a section of the Red Cross that uses International Humanitarian Law to protect civilians in war zones.

Fida’s group was one of many groups protesting the use of cluster munitions, which were finally banned in August of 2010.

To become an Active 8 candidate, applicants must define what it means to be a global citizen. Fida says they are someone who wants the same for themselves as they want for everybody else. Since she moved to Canada from Pakistan in July of 2008, Fida says she has completely redefined her role as a global citizen.

“It has really broadened my horizon. I used to think of only my city or my country, I was very constricted. But volunteering and meeting people instills in you that idea of being a citizen of the global community.”

“I’m also on Facebook. See, I’m a global citizen!”

Fida recalls her time in Pakistan where she said activism was much less common among the youth. She says that when she moved to Canada, she immediately noticed that teenagers were extremely involved in their communities.

“It became my inspiration,” she says.

Fida hopes to return to Pakistan once she finishes with her schooling. She wants to bring everything she has learned here to the youth there.

“I want to instil that sense of community involvement back in Pakistan. It’s going to be a hard job, but I really want to do that.”

The Active 8 campaign is geared around awareness and motivation, the candidates must get people to pledge to take action. To do this, you need know how to dream big.

This is Fida’s strong suit. “I’m hoping for a changed Halifax,” she says, “no wait that’s too big. Oh well, I think big.”

The International Development Week festivities begin at SMU on Feb. 7 where a CIDA speaker will talk about the education sector in Afghanistan. The lecture begins at 6 p.m. in the Scotiabank Theatre auditorium of the Sobey School of Business.