TLC Talks Isthmus (formerly Blessings in a Backpack)

Hi, everybody. My name is Sandy Boucher and welcome back to the Learning Curve. I have a surprise for you today, and I know you're going to be blown away by our next guest, but before I get into that, I really have to say a huge Chimaquich one more time. And that's a big thank you to all of those people that are reaching out, saying, saying they're watching the program, sending me their ideas for topics. I super appreciate that. So please keep it coming. If there's something out there that you don't understand that frustrates you, a topic that involves indigenous people and you just want more information, then please just send me an email, Sandy Boucher, ca or go to the Learning Curve Facebook page and just send me a message there. Either way, we do appreciate the feedback. Now, today, when I said I have something special for you, I wasn't kidding. One of the things that I've always been very adamant about is the fact that if you're going to stand up against racism, and we all know racism, discrimination, all of that, it's got to stop. We're all better than this. But if you're going to take that stance, you have to take that stance across the board. What I mean by that is as an indigenous person, I stand up against racism, but racism against anyone, not just when it's targeting an indigenous person. So one of the things I love the most about the Learning Curve is I get to hold space for people. I get to bring in an amazing guest and give them the opportunity to share their story or to educate us on a topic. And I allow them, because I'm supporting them, to get that information out to you because I know we all benefit from the information that our guests share. Well, today I'm going to introduce you to Aminah Abubakari. She's the coordinator of Blessings in a Backpack Thunder Bay Branch, and she is a Muslim woman. Now, recently, she did a presentation at Lakehead University to try to combat all the misinformation that's out there about her faith. And I thought that was incredibly important, so I wanted to have her on the show. So, as always, grab a coffee, get in your comfy chair and get ready to do some learning as you and I and Amina walk through the learning curve. See you soon. Hi, everybody. Once again, I'm Sandy Boucher and welcome back to the Learning Curve. And this is Amina Abub Bakari. Thanks for coming out today, Amina, and being so awesome and willing to join me on the TV show.

Oh, thanks for having Me, Sandy.

Awesome. So, as I mentioned in the intro, Amina did this most amazing presentation at lu, and it was called the Rights and Duties of Women in Islam. I had the chance to attend that presentation, and it was amazing. And I gotta admit, okay, I knew nothing. I walked in there owning the fact that I knew nothing about women in Islam. What warmed my heart was there were so many similarities, so many things I could understand as it related. Like, I'm coming from my Ojibwe culture, and it's like, I understand that or I understand that. So I really wanted to give you a chance to share a little bit about what that presentation was about. But before we get into that, that your background. So you're not originally from Thunder Bay?

No.

Where did you come from?

That's a long question. Yeah, I moved here from New Brunswick, but. And prior to that, we lived overseas, so my parents are from Nigeria. I was born in England.

Okay. Wow.

So that's my background.

I came from this little town. I don't have that kind of background, that's for sure. So you did this presentation on the rights and duties of women in Islam. Why? What inspired you to do that presentation?

I felt that I read two articles in the Chronicle Journal from a lady calling for Muslim women to be saved because they were going to pass a motion, and it had to do with Sharia law. And with all the things going on in our community and the country. I felt it was time we spoke up rather than just be silent and something else happens to a lady. Because there's a lot of misconceptions about women in Islam. And I felt, as a practicing Muslim and a Muslim woman, that I would. I was willing to go out there and answer the questions, if you had any questions. I'll tell you my rights and duties as a Muslim woman. And after that, if you still felt I was being oppressed or suppressed by the men in my religion, then I would answer your questions.

Yeah, exactly. And I know exactly what you mean. I mean, there's this feeling out there, this thought that if you're wearing the veil, that you're oppressed and you must be saved. And they don't have a voice. I've known you for a while now. I would never say that you don't have a voice. This is not a description that I would use to describe you. So oppressed doesn't come to mind either. But that night, I mean, what do you think the most common misunderstandings are?

One of the biggest misunderstandings is the hijab. Like, the way we Dress.

And that's the head covering. Right.

And that the fact that most of us don't wear tight clothes or tight fitting clothes when we have to understand, prior to Islam coming to the Arab peninsula, women were owned, men owned women. They literally thought women were property to be bought and sold. And then when Islam came, the Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alaihi wasallam. May the peace and blessings be upon him, which I have just said in Arabic, God said to him, let the women, Muslim women cover up so that they know they're giving the respect that they are not free women and they are not women to be bought and sold. So we have various verses from the Quran that tell us we should cover up because our body is our treasure and we are only allowed to show it to members of our family who are not going to be looking at us as if we're property to be bought and sold. And if as a Muslim woman, the religion says if you want to judge a woman, you should judge her for her beauty, which is her face, her acumen, business acumen, her wealth, her intelligence, but not her body. Like she's not a piece of property that you have to start trading or looking to buy. So that's why we wear the hijab. And in different cultures, the hijab is worn a different way. In Africa, most of us tie our head this way and we can have a wrap over our traditional clothes. And it's still the same thing. But the most important thing is we cover ourselves. And when you see a woman covered up, the tendency is to give her that respect, that this is not a woman for by, well, she's a respectable person. And that's the whole message behind it. When we were asked in the Quran to cover up so that the people, the men at that time would not think you are a free woman or a woman they could buy and trade, which was the norm at that time.

Exactly. And from what I read, because yes, I went on Google before this interview, I was like, okay, I'm going to pretend I know something about this. Right. But what I read was it stuck very much an individual choice that some people wear the veil in more modern clothing. Some people are more traditional with the loose robes. Right. And some wear the veil on their face as well, right?

Yeah. 99.9% or 99% of women that wear hijab wait because they want to. Right? There is that little one amount that some families will force you to wait. Some sometimes it's to protect the woman. And I will tell you that I lived in the Gulf, and it is very intimidating to have men staring at you. I have had people stare at me, and I'm so uncomfortable that I wish I was probably completely covered up. Because you have to realize in some cultures, looking at somebody, it's invasive, okay? And then they know that it's rude, so they do it. But in other cultures, it's, oh, this is God's person, and this there and there. And it's. It's really. It makes you want to cover yourself up. So. But most times the women, it's their choice. There is a few that are being abused. And my message to people who say, okay, those women have to be safe is this. If that's the only way the woman can leave home, the only way she'll be allowed to leave the house is because she's wearing a hijab. Are you doing her any justice by saying she should take it off? Because the man who is probably abusing her that way, using that as a way to control her, is probably an abusive husband or abusive brother or something. So you are not helping her by telling her not to wear the hijab because then she won't be able to ask for help if she needs it.

Exactly. And if I remember correctly, at the presentation that you did at lu, the Qur' an very much frowns on abusive men, that you're not supposed to be treating women that way.

Yes, it's true. Exactly. Prior to Islam, if you had a daughter, it was norm to bury her life because they wanted boys, they didn't want girls. And then when Islam came, they were told that if you. If you treat two girls, if you had two daughters, and you treat them with respect and dignity and you didn't discriminate against them, heaven is your reward. So that was a way to tell them that, you know, a woman's life is important. And even when in the last message of the Prophet, when his last message to the world, he said the same thing. Remember to treat your women with respect and dignity. And he said, only somebody who is not okay mentally or who is really like a horrible person would treat a woman in the way some cultures are treating women.

Exactly. And that's our traditional teachings, too. Now, as in your culture, we have people that have strayed from that, but that is the teaching that respect for women. The other thing I noticed on the. When I was googling was they were talking about that you cover everything but your face, your hands. Right. And I don't know about your feet. I don't remember. But when I was reading that that was my original teachings when I got my jingle dress that, you know, you're supposed to have your hair done and your face can show, but we were supposed to have the scarf. You're not supposed to have this low cut dress on or whatever. And, and in that case that the dress, like we don't wear mini skirts with our jingle dresses. Right. It's the long respectful dresses. Because what I noticed was very much a teaching of modesty with everything I read. And for us in the jingle dresses, it's not supposed to be about how attractive you look because then you're thinking about the wrong things. It's about the responsibility of that dress and who you're praying for and the ceremonies and the drum and everything that's sacred around you. This is not supposed to be a fashion show. Right. So I saw that similarity as well. Yeah.

Our dressing is. We're supposed to cover up our body. Because if you want to, if you meet a woman and her face is enough for you to judge her or her brains or her wealth, her body is not something you should use to judge her. And you know it's not. When we are talking about dressing for women, the men have, they have a dress code as well. In Islam, they cannot wear. There are certain things they are not allowed to do. Their clothes have to be to a certain level of their body. So it's not just women, it's men have the same thing. The same thing. When I was talking in the university about lowering our gaze and you remember the guy said it applies to men too. Yes. A lot of the things that apply to us, the men have their own. It's just that in some cultures, oppressive cultures, a lot of the people see just what is done to the women, but not the men. If you look at the men when they're shown on tv, like if you look at men in Saudi Arabia, they're wearing a tub and they have their headgear and the women are wearing their bias. So every culture and then if you go to Pakistan, the women are wearing their knit out sharwakamis and the men have their own. And the same thing in Nigeria. When I go back home to visit my mom, I dress in my traditional outfit and the men are wearing theirs too. So it's not a one sided thing. It's not.

And I think the important thing to remember, and I know my very first guest, Jana Rae Yerxa talked about it, if it empowers you. And I know when I wear my jingle dress or even when I'm wearing my long skirt to ceremony. I'm not doing it because I have to. There's an honor and a tradition and it is very empowering.

So.

And that's definitely what comes to mind when I think of you.

Oh, thank you.

Like I said, oppressed never comes to mind.

But yeah, well, yeah, I've had that. There was a Ramadan in Tondabi I remember vividly at the university, and I had my hijab on and a lady crossed the class to say to me, are you wearing that because your husband oppresses you? And I thought, oh, boy, poor man. I don't think you will ever oppress a woman. But I just. When I got home and I told him, he thought, oh.

Yeah. And that's not very nice from his perspective. Right. Like, let's not assume he's that kind of man. I met your husband. Yes.

I don't think he'll know where to start because my daughters are. Well, you've met my daughters. So outspoken. So I don't think he'll do it.

I have met your daughters and I don't think so either. Thank you so much for that. When we come back after the break, we're going to talk about Blessings in a Backpack, which is a program Amina's been running in Thunder Bay. And it's definitely worth learning about. So take a few minutes and we'll be right back. Welcome back to the Learning Curve, everyone. We're here with Amina Boubacari. Totally destroy your name. Sorry about that. And now we're going to hear about Blessings in a Backpack, which is honestly, I can say I've heard the title. I know you're involved and that's about the end of my knowledge. So I'm right here with the audience. Everything you say is going to be new to me. So what is this program all about?

It's a program that gives food to kids on the weekends to take home.

Wow.

Canada is one of few. Well, it's One of the G8 countries that have no national meal program. So our kids are fed by volunteers. 17 years ago when we came, we moved from New Brunswick to Thunder Bay. I put my daughter to volunteer at the breakfast club at Agnew Johnston School. They were the only school at that time that had a breakfast club. And she would come home and say, mom, that's the only food they get to eat. And I said, what do you mean that's the only food they get to eat? She said, yes. And as they went through the school system and I became the school council chairs in their various schools and started volunteering. I found out that, yes, a lot of our kids were coming to school hungry with no food. So you challenge your kids, they challenge you back. And the little ones say to me once, mom, what are you going to do about it? So it's been something I was thinking about for years, and then finally I was watching, I think, a program on TV or something, and I saw Blessings in a Backpack. And I thought, wow, that's something we'll need in Turner Bay. And like me, I went online trying to research, find out how I could bring it to Canada because it was not a Canadian program. I was watching, and I found that we already had it in Canada. So I called them and I said, how can I bring this program to Thunder Bay? Because we do have issues. We have kids going to school with no food, and that's how we started. But it was originally started in the US By a boy who grew up in a city system. He said though he was fed at school, the weekends were the hardest because he grew up in a group home. And he said the adults would eat the food and the kids would go hungry. Yeah. So in 2003, he started Blessings in a Backpack. And what the program is, these kids are identified by the school. We don't know who they are, and we're not supposed to know. The school would call us and tell us. They have this number of kids who we fundraise to go into a school. I have to fundraise for three years, and I go into the school. And what we do is we take backpacks of food to the kids. And if you notice, the backpacks are not numbered. They're numbered but not labeled. So this is what they get. And we take it to the schools. The kids are given a backpack of food to take home for the weekend, and they bring the empty backpacks back on Monday, ready to study. I started with three schools. Ogden, Sherbrooke and Mackellar. And we had like 100 kids. Now we're in nine schools, feeding 253 kids every week. And we have other schools on the waiting list. In order for me to go into a school, I have to fundraise. And the way the program runs is $120 per child pest school year. That's from September to June. Okay, so do the maths. It's $3 a week.

I was gonna say. I was.

It's $3 a week, right?

Yeah. I was poor raising my kids. I don't think I could pull that off.

So yeah, so it's really difficult because for $3 I have to give them food for Saturday and Sunday.

Okay.

So there isn't. When I looked around and I had to partner with somebody, there was no way I could pull it off on $3. So what I did was I approached our kids Count and they offered to be giving me two fruits per child. And then I approached the regional food distribution association to see because they get donations of food and things and they've been really helpful. Sometimes they do have to buy food when they don't have it to give to me. Like every other week they try to give me probably a can of pasta, a can of soup. Soup. And then they look at their warehouse. I go into the warehouse and they give me things like granola bars. And we were lucky to get cheese sticks the other day. And the kids were ecstatic. They sometimes, you know, little things that we take for granted and these kids don't get any. So on an average, in a backpack a week you have maybe a can of pasta, a can of soup, two sachets of oatmeal, a fruit cup, two fruits and two granola bars. That's what they get to eat for Saturday and Sunday. And the response has been amazing. Some of the kids will tell you they wrote thank you notes to me. They say the best part about getting a backpack is I get to bring lunch to school. And that's the part that really breaks my heart. Like what do you get to bring to school? Is it the one granola bar or the fruit cup? Or do you break the pasta into two? Wow. Yeah. And yeah. I met a lady who self identified herself to me the other day and she said my son is one of those who get the backpacks, thank you very much. And she said some of his friends, that's the best thing that happens to them on the weekend.

Wow. That's a reality check.

That is what is happening to our kids. And these are our future leaders. They're going to be making decisions for you and I when we grow old. Like what kind of what are we doing?

Yeah. How can this be happening? We take pride in the fact that we're this modern country and 235 kids in three schools, in nine schools don't have food.

We have other schools on the waiting list. But I can only go into a school if I fundraise. So if a school calls and say we have 50 kids, I have to fundraise for 50 kids. We've had great help. There's a family feeding 52 kids in St. James School.

Wow.

The Kiwanis Club has taken on St. Anne School. They're feeding 23 kids. A reverend Father. Reverend Father Dan just took on St. Vincent's grand and he's feeding 18 kids.

Wow.

So the people have stepped up, the community have stepped up. They've been donating money. We have lots of people donating. Halfway Motors has come on board. They help us, help us deliver the bags. Because no matter what storm we get, those bags have to go to. They have to be in school Friday morning for them to take home. And if there is a PD day on a Friday, we make sure we park on a Wednesday and we deliver the bags on a Thursday. So we've never missed the first bags were packed February 2014. And since then, we've been packing every week. We pack every week. I've had teams come on. The six and seven kids from Ogden, they've chosen to be coming the third Thursday of every month to help pack the bags. Oh, wow. Yeah. The program should really be in the school. And come September, we're moving it into a school because it's supposed to. The reason they want it in a school is they want the kids involved, the older kids who pack. So, like one of the schools in Toronto, I saw they have 200 kids. So the older kids pack the backpacks and then they distribute them to the rest of the class. Because of the logistics in Thunder Bay, we started out at our Kids count and they give us room to. But we're growing and so we're going to move into Ogden come September. Okay, excellent. Yeah. We'll be using their community hall, and with that much space, we're hoping we can take on the rest of the schools. The Parents association at Woodcrest, they're sponsoring 12 kids in their school. So a lot of people have come on board. There's fundraising, banks, offices, TB tel, finance department. They're the other ones that just blew me away. They gave up their Christmas party, gave up their awards party, and they raised enough money to give to Blessings.

Wow. And I know people would ask, so I'm going to ask the question. You said you have no idea who gets the backpack, so I'm going to assume that means that racism can't possibly play into this. It's not all indigenous kids. It's not non indigenous kids. It's a kid in need.

Yes. The teachers would identify the kids in need. I haven't asked and I'm not going to ask because we're not supposed to identify the kids. So the teachers know who these kids are. And it's just right across Thunder Bay. And it's not just in turn the bay. We're feeding 3,500 kids every week right across Canada. So it's not just Thunder Bay, it's right across Canada.

So you have a team of people. I'm trying to think of the logistics here. How do you put that many backpacks together? Where'd the backpacks come from?

Did you find those? The backpacks are donated to Blessings in a backpack Canada and when we need them, we get them. Last year the teachers suggested we use grocery bags because halfway by December, a lot of the backpacks don't come back. So we started using grocery bags. But if you do the maths, we're going through tons and tons of grocery bags. Renko through our kids count has been really good. They've been donating backpacks. Neva's, the restaurant on Algoma, through one of our volunteers. But no, I am not doing this alone. I have an amazing team of volunteers behind me. They come every week. They dedicate their time. We should be packing right now and they are there. I'm not there. So we have. I have a great team behind me who have made this possible.

Thank you so much for sharing that. Now if people want to find out more about Blessings in a backpack, how do they do that? How do they get hold of you?

You can call. We have a Facebook page, Blessings in a Backpack, Thunder Bay. You can go on the Blessings in a Backpack Canada. That's Blessings in a Backpack C. That's the Canadian site.com is the US site and you can donate online you every money donated above $20. You get a tax receipt. If you choose to send in a check, the address is online. The website is very user friendly and everything is listed. Or you can call me. My 807-626-2923. Excellent. And yeah, and if you see me.

Anywhere, just, just say hi.

Hi.

She's very friendly that way. So thank you so much for coming out today, Amina. The information about women in Islam was phenomenal and I had no idea about Blessings in the backpack, but that's the kind of stuff that gives me hope. So to everyone at home, this is an amazing example of some positive things that are happening in our city and the kind of projects that we need to support. So check out Amina's Facebook page. Leave comments on the learning curve page if you have some topics that you want to see in the future. And please take the information, use it in your conversations like I always encourage you. Let's bring down those walls and let's build some positive bridges for the future. Our kids are counting on it.

100% of the money donated is for food. We are all volunteers. We don't get paid.

Excellent. Excellent. So thank you so much for joining us again today as Amina and I and you walk through the learning curve. Thanks so much. See you next time.

Thank you, Sandy, for having me.

Thank you.