This fall, I received a call from my alma mater - Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific, the school that changed the course of my life and opened the door to Canada when I was a teenager. From Refugee to Scholar At the time, I was living in Burundi as a political refugee. Refugee children like me had almost no access to secondary education. To change that, our parents - with the help of the Catholic Church,  founded Collège Saint Albert, a school built out of necessity and

Modern wellness culture often celebrates fasting — praising it as both an art and a science. I have always admired Muslims for their discipline during Eid al-Fitr , fasting from sunrise to sunset. The idea that one can consciously choose not to eat for six, twelve, or even twenty-four hours fascinates me. It’s a testament to the power of the mind over bodily desire. Yet for those of us who grew up in the shadow of hunger, fasting triggers a deep, unspoken fear — a reminder of

By Lama Mugabo September 13, 2025 Introduction Colonialism did more than redraw maps — it planted seeds of division that have continued...

The process: How Nora Hendrix Place Landscape Garden came to be Jacquie Lowe: When the project started, the land was looked at by the...

Building community and helping people is the goal for Cross Fitness Trainer, Tafadzwa Mushandu [Taf], as he works with people at Dynasty...

Lama Mugabo Welcome to the Baraza Blog—a space for weekly reflections on three pillars of my community development practice: nutrition, wellness, and community . I often ask myself: Why are we here? What’s our calling? What’s our purpose in life?  One thing I know for sure: diversity is wealth.   We are rich not only in the color of our skin, our gender, or our social and economic backgrounds, but also in our creativity, perspectives, and ways of being—whether introvert or ex