As part of the YMCA World Peace Week, two Chatham-Kent residents were awarded the Peace Medallion for their efforts in building community and acting for peace recently.
For the past 30 years, the YMCA has been recognizing people in the community who put their own time and money into projects that make a positive difference in the world.
At a ceremony at the Chatham-Kent YMCA last week, Emily Hime, founder of Hime for Help; and Elaaf Siddiqui, McMaster University student and Chatham-Kent Secondary School graduate were awarded their medals. Hime couldn’t be there in person but sent a video, and her father, Phil Hime, accepted on her behalf.
As the youth category recipient, Siddiqui has a long history of advocating for social justice locally and now in university, crediting her high school teacher, Stephanie Kennedy, with making her aware of what she could do to make a difference.
“In Grade 9, 10, 11, I always had all these ideas but I never know to execute them, but in Grade 12, I took a course in equity and the entire moral of the course was to get out of the classroom and make a difference,” Siddiqui explained. “It wasn’t even a class to me anymore. It was, ‘Think of an idea and how can we help anybody in our community,’ and just getting out and doing it. That was my only motivation – who can we help and what can we do to make a difference because there is so much we can do every single day.”
Last year Siddiqui did a fundraiser for the Syrian refugees at William St. Café and raised about $1,300 in donations. She said her entire year was structured around helping that Syrian family adjust and move into the community.
The student also organized a multicultural day at CKSS, a day for people to wear their traditional clothes, and help others understand and respect diversity.
For Hime, the 24-year-old began her dedication to community service at age 17 during a trip to Ghana, Africa where she volunteered at an orphanage, and then in 2011, she traveled to Haiti to help after the hurricane destroyed the island.
By 2012, she had founded Hime for Help, a not-for-profit corporation supporting projects in Third World countries. She currently runs an orphanage in Port au Prince, Haiti, where she supports children and families living in poverty and teaching English to the community at no charge.
Hime’s father, Phil, said he couldn’t be prouder of his daughter and all she has accomplished.
