A former student at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) is looking to use the proceeds from a Fun Run to help fund a bursary to encourage more Black and Indigenous people to study emergency management. Chaka Zinyemba, a rapid response manager for the Canadian Red Cross in Edmonton, looks to model the run based off one he participated in over the summer for a US post-secondary institution. “Having a wider representation would allow for a better and more effective response and strengthen communities overall,” says Zinyemba, who was in the Geographic Information Systems Technology program at NAIT, of the importance of the bursary,
Josh Bowen, an instructor in the Disaster and Emergency Management program at NAIT and the director of NAIT’s COVID relaunch team, says, “There is nowhere near enough diversity of opinions and perspectives in most fields. I would say that in emergency management that’s also true.”
Says Zinyemba, “We need more people from these communities, from the community I’m a part of to be present in this field and helping to make decisions bringing in the context and understanding that they have of their communities.”
Sources:
https://www.techlifetoday.ca/articles/2020/nait-bursary-diversity-emergency-management
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/more-diversity-emergency-management-needed-1.5754507
