CBC in partnership with the Ottawa Public Library (OPL) are once again hosting the Human Library on Saturday, February 27th. The Human Library provides unique opportunities for people curious about a particular life experience to have a chat with a human "book". Several Ottawa Muslims will be on loan this year as "books" at libraries across the city.
Transplant: Patient and Donors Stories took place on April 1st to mark the beginning of Ontario’s Organ Donation Month. During this month, the Trillium Gift of Life Network, (a non-profit agency of the Government of Ontario) responsible for facilitating organ and tissue donation and transplantation across Ontario, tries to raise public awareness about the urgent need for people to register to be organ donors. The event was spearheaded by Erica Bregman, a volunteer with the Trillium Gift of Life Network and supported by the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA), whose VP, Maher Jebara, hosted the event. Several religious leaders such as Reverend Anthony Bailey, Imam Mohamad Jebara, and Rabbi Reuben Bulka, as well as leaders within Ottawa’s Sikh community, spoke out in order to dispel myths that might exist within their respective faith communities that organ donation is not religiously permitted. But those in attendance were most moved by the presentations of organ donors and transplant recipients like Somali-Canadian Hiba Yusuf.