McGill University
EN-10: Community Partnerships

Kibale Health and Conservation Centre provides basic health care, vaccinations, family planning, and HIV/AIDS detection, treatment and counselling. Supported by a mobile clinic, the service delivers care to thousands of people living in and around the 795 km² Kibale National Park. Established in 2008 through the efforts of former McGill faculty member, ecologist Colin Chapman, and supported by ongoing fundraising by the McGill community, the centre links health care with ecology, recognizing that the wellbeing of local people is crucial to long-term efforts to protect and preserve the extraordinary biodiversity of the tropical forests of Kibale. The centre is a destination for McGill’s Africa Field Study Semester (AFSS) program, through which science and humanities students gain first-hand exposure to the goals, circumstances, challenges and opportunities of the people living in the area – invaluable experience for graduates seeking to make a meaningful contribution to sustainable development in Africa.

The centre operates, in part, under the assumption that "providing health care to communities adjacent to protected areas may be an efficient and effective way to reduce the disease burden while also improving local perceptions about protected areas, potentially reducing illegal extraction." (Chapman et. al, p. 636. See article in the "additional information section")

Material and financial support: The Faculty of Science fundraises donations in order to support the Centre. It also sends McGill students participating in the Africa Field Study Semester to learn from and support work at the Centre.
Donations page: https://www.alumni.mcgill.ca/give/index.php?allocations=04427&new=1

Economic dimension: the Centre provides medical support for a rural and economically disadvantaged community

Social dimension: the Centre provides health care, vaccinations, family planning, HIV/AIDS detection, treatment and counselling to the local people

Ecological dimension: the Centre recognizes that the wellbeing of the local people is crucial to the long-term efforts to protect the environment.

Inclusive and participatory: vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners: a local Ugandan nurse runs the Centre's operations, sits on its Board of Governors, and is a liaison with the Ugandan government.

http://kibale-health-conservation.mcgill.ca/ourplan.html

The Bachelor of Education (B. Ed.) First Nations and Inuit Education (FNIE) program is offered in partnership by the Kahnawà:ke Education Centre (KEC) and McGill University's Office of First Nations and Inuit Education (OFNIE) in the Faculty of Education. The program is the first of its kind to be given in the community of Kahnawà:ke.

The program allows local Indigenous teachers to achieve certification and a path to professionalization.It also offers members of the Kahnawà:ke community the opportunity to pursue a post-secondary education that is culturally relevant and community-centred. The program plays an active role in reconciliation and relationship building between McGill and Indigenous communities. Certified teachers are also able to pass down Indigenous culture and languages to the next generation of students, benefitting both Indigenous and non-Indigenous pupils.

Material support: many core courses are taught by McGill instructors.

Sustainability-focused: this partnership addresses the major sustainability challenges of Indigenous access to education and promotion of Indigenous cutural and teaching practices.

Inclusive and participatory: members of a local Indigenous community, a population under-represented in higher education, are equal partners in the planning, decision-making, and implementation of the program. Classes are held in partnering schools in Kahnawà:ke and several are taught by Indigenous instructors.

https://www.mcgill.ca/dise/ofnie

McGill runs the Indigenous Stewardship of Environment and Alternative Development (INSTEAD) project, "a multidisciplinary research program , in collaboration with indigenous partner communities from across the Americas... The research focuses on indigenous peoples’ attempts to implement their own visions of environmental and cultural heritage protection. INSTEAD partners and collaborators believe that indigenous views of socio-ecological community represent a vital base of political creativity, a ‘place to stand’ that favours the reproduction of diversity in human relationships to environment." INSTEAD partners with several NGOs, including Canadian Boreal Initiative, Canadian Parks & Wilderness Society, and Société pour la nature et les parcs.

Material support: the research program is housed at McGill and overseen by Prof. Colin Scott, a faculty member in the Department of Anthropology.

Sustainability-focused: INSTEAD tackles key conceptual and practical challenges faced by indigenous peoples and communities in the stewardship of their environmental and cultural heritage.

Inclusive and participatory: INSTEAD collaborates with indigenous partner communities from across the Americas.

https://www.mcgill.ca/instead/research-team/community-and-ngo-collaborators

Attached is a 2014 article from Fauna & Flora International which details the work performed at the Kibale Health and Conservation Centre.