Stories
Welcome to our Stories Blog. You can view stories by category from our Staff, Interns, Board of Directors, or Volunteers & Partners.
Here are some of our recently posted stories.
G02 Board of Director volunteers
Volunteers of all ages and backgrounds are welcome!
Nigeria Reflections
Reflections on the Leading from Within leadership project in Nigeria, and how integral social change is emerging and forming in the context of this African nation. 
Striving for Equity in Nigeria
Watch this thought-provoking YouTube video featuring our Energetic Olympics guest speakers, Godwin Ugah and Juliet Olory.
Solar Panels 101
Interested in solar energy for your residential energy needs? Check out this primer on solar panels by One Sky’s Executive Director, Mike Simpson.
Smithers Anti-Idling Campaign Gets Local Media Coverage
With recent coverage in the local Interior News as well as radio, print and television ads, citizens of the Bulkley Valley are getting engaged.
Christine Vanderwill blogs from Peru
Private intern, Christine Vanderwill is volunteering with One Sky in Cusco, Peru, applying her adaptation training and a participatory approach to REDD to improve the local-level stewardship to the Mapacho River Watershed Environmental Capacity Development Project.
Michelle Villeneuve blogs from Sierra Leone
Private intern, Michelle Villeneuve is currently working with One Sky in Sierra Leone funded by a scholarship through Accelerate BC. Visit her blog at http://www.isatou.org/index.html, click on Blog or at http://michelleinthegamb.blogspot.com/.
You can call me Al
Preaching the Inconvenient Truth in Cameroon
Zooming Between Worlds…
Working toward a vision; SUSTAIN: Sierra Leone Eco-Travel Network
The Migwani Children’s Project of Smithers
Building a dormitory for 50 handicapped children of Kenya.
Mi lill padi’s come
Sometimes when the children are hissing or calling me I find myself resisting the urge to ignore them like a good
private Canadian…
Smithers residents donate generously to support school children in Sierra Leone
Smithers residents donate generously for the third year to support children and youth in Sierra Leone to go to school.
Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
Yes, you! In March 2009, One Sky is offering the opportunity of a lifetime to join us for a tour of diamond mines and development projects in Sierra Leone.
Synergizing Carbon Finance and Biodiversity in Cameroon
Some people are born into interesting work, some people strive for interesting work, and some people have interesting work thrust upon them.
For me, most recently, it has been the latter.
First Impressions
With a deep breath, I stepped out of the plane and onto the tarmac. Sierra Leone-I had arrived. The night air greeted me like a dogs tongue - warm and moist and was so dark that it came as a shock when the plane touched down - we hadn’t seen the runway!
Field to Stream - Celebrating the Local Harvest
Friends and neighbours from throughout the Bulkley Valley gathered at the beautiful Logpile Log last Sunday evening to enjoy a gala dinner, celebrating our local harvest.
One Sky Promotes Local Producers and Partners with the Northwest Premium Meat Cooperative
We are proud to partner with the Northwest Premium Meat Co-op to promote local producers and sustainable farming.
Sowing Seeds in Sierra Leone
An update on the Sowing a Seed literacy project in Sierra Leone by Ibrahim Benji Bureh Kamara.
Better Late Then Never- First Impressions of Sierra Leone
Our first stop: Freetown’s main lorry station. A crowded, teeming mass of random youths grabbing at our bags, demanding to know where we are going; grubby urchins clutching at sticky, sand covered lollipops; women vendors carrying their plastic bucket loads of shoes, soap, bread or plantain atop their heads;(grease covered mechanics sprawled out under dilapatated vehicles (guaranteed to break down once or twice along the route!)
Earth at the Crossroads
A thoughtful Earth Day discussion with Mike Monkman
Patience - A Prerequisite For Gardeners
First time, and even seasoned gardeners, who have moved here from “banana belts”, may take a few hard-knocks if not forewarned of limitations of a short growing season. Don’t let that diminish the urge to grow something. Rewarding success is still attainable with the right approach to gardening practises for our area.
Comfort in the Trenches
Every job description, in its list of tasks and responsibilities, normally ends with a very subtle phrase like “other related duties” or “other various tasks”. In my case, these duties have covered the spectrum, from fabricating 4 Danish flags in less that 24 hours, to making small brush fires as part of a cleaning job.
Positive Action in Sierra Leone and Canada
“Greetings! I would like to share some stories from my trip to Sierra Leone in November 2007 and what is happening now....”
Benji Kamara writes about some of the memories that keep him motivated to carry out the Sowing a Seed project - and the wonderful support that the project has received from volunteers in Canada and Sierra Leone.
Reflections on Pachamama, Peru’s Mother Earth.
Collaboration in Peru offers valuable lessons.
A Sheep and Mango Christmas
“Did you realize there was a live sheep in the trunk?” That’s a question I never, in my right mind, thought I would ever ask someone but alas, the man sharing a taxi with me and another MFC intern proved me wrong. There are sheep everywhere.
Projet Yèrè Yiriwa
Projet Yèrè Yiriwa looks to act as a catalyst for sustainable development from the ground up through training and education of people in rural communes on the decentralization process in Mali. Local governments, with 80% of tax revenues distributed directly to them, now have a much greater responsibility to assure a sustainable economic, political and social development.
Ibrahim Benoît Traoré au Mali
It was like hitting a wall. I stepped out from the air-conditioned Air France jet as my neighbour from the flight remarked with glee: “Ça sent l’Afrique!” (Smells like Africa).
Cooperative Composting
Jessie and Billy are cleaning up Main Street one pound of compost at a time.
Pablo in Peru
Pablo Alvarez is a One Sky intern (sponsored by the Canadian International Development Agency) to work in Peru with our partner organization the Association for the Conservation of the Amazon Watershed (ACCA). This is the first of a series of blogs by Pablo
One Sky and Greenheart
One Sky will be working in partnership with Greenheart Conservation Company to develop community economic planning and integration for a new canopy walkway being built in the cloudforest of Peru...see a video of Greenheart and their zipline.
Musings on Interns
In 2005/06 four interns joined us in our fifth round of interns. Intern coordinator Kristin Patten writes about mountain climbing and internship coordinating in this short story…
A Board Member in Peru.
Here I am in Peru. Gail and I are madly preparing our workshop for tomorrow on participatory methodologies as a part of our One Sky work. Right now I am having fun preparing a participatory game to help people take on other perspectives. So we are creating various characters that are involved in a community meeting.
Historic Letters from 2000
Well, here I am in Sierra Leone, West Africa. My goal to research the war affected child for a documentary and to establish contact with Friends of the Earth – Sierra Leone. The road leading me here partly fate, partly political and partly personal.
2nd letter, June 2000
Yesterday, Sunday, was the Day of the African Child. Actually it was Friday but since the one kid broke a bottle over the other kids head they postponed things until Sunday. Everyone was dressed in “fine clothes” and there was a big dance in the courtyard.
3rd letter, June 24 2000
Curfew here is eleven p.m. and is taken quite seriously. Last night I found myself walking up to a military checkpoint at midnight trying to get home. We were trying to fetch “Black Mosquito” who is fifteen.
4th letter, July 2000
I have been promoted to an inept cultural director of West African dancers and drummers while still holding down my job as an inept basketball coach.
