Today, Tour for Humanity spent the day at Camp U of T providing workshops to different day camp groups. It was another great day of inspiring students!

The first group was an older group (ages 12-14) from a Leadership program, so they really appreciated the overview of antisemitism today along with the hate crime statistics. They knew quite a bit about the Holocaust and Canadian history, specifically Residential Schools and Japanese Internment. One camper even commented that he was surprised that hatred against Jewish people still happened not only in Canada but near his own neighbourhood. 

The second group of the day demonstrated true child-like curiosity and interest. It was a group of 10-11 year old girls, who are part of a “girls achieve” leadership program, so they had previous discussions surrounding equality and women’s rights. This allowed Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) Educator Daniella to also focus on the role of women both in the Holocaust and in Canadian history. Due to their young age, it turned into a discussion of how during conflict and war, women often had to take on traditional men’s roles while also taking care of the household. Some of the girls were quite knowledgeable on the suffrage movement, with many making the connection that women received the right to vote in part due to their actions in recent Canadian history. The group was also quite interested in gender equality today, with many girls sharing stories of times they had been discriminated against at school. This also allowed Daniella to re-focus the conversation on how they could be heroes in their own communities and to always be themselves and speak up for someone who is being victimized.