Due to page size limitations, the bios are now split into three pages: A to H, I to M and N to Z.
You can either use the index below to jump to a specific person's bio, or go now to Bios I to M or Bios N to Z.
You can either use the index below to jump to a specific person's bio, or go now to Bios I to M or Bios N to Z.
Add a Bio
Whether you are planning to attend the reunion or not, you are encouraged to submit a brief bio indicating when you were in Botswana, where you worked, what you did, and describing what you have been up to in the years since you left Botswana (350 words max).
Please email your bio to [email protected]
Send up to four scanned photos with it – with captions. Be sure and include your Then and Now photos.
Whether you are planning to attend the reunion or not, you are encouraged to submit a brief bio indicating when you were in Botswana, where you worked, what you did, and describing what you have been up to in the years since you left Botswana (350 words max).
Please email your bio to [email protected]
Send up to four scanned photos with it – with captions. Be sure and include your Then and Now photos.
INDEX TO BIOS
(click a name to jump to the person's bio)
JENNIFER BARR AND PHILLIP SAUNDERS
DAVID BEER
GEORGE BELL
SUSAN BELLAN
THEN
1974–76, Gaborone Economist, Department of Town and Regional Planning Buyer, Botswanacraft Economist, Botswana Development Corporation Traveling in Ghanzi district with Botswanacraft colleague Gaylord Kumbani and another colleague whose name I can’t remember
Susan trying on a Herero dress in Xnongwa, about 1976
NOW
Toronto’s Beaches area since 1981 DND, Agent for Canadian Armed Forces Conflict Management Service Email: [email protected]
Susan and John in Guatemala, 2014
|
THEN
Originally a Winnipegger, I worked in Botswana from September 1974 to August 1976. My initial job there was as the first economist for the Department of Town and Regional Planning. (Funny how when I got my Economics major at McGill, they never taught us what an economist actually does on a day-to-day basis and I hadn’t a clue when I started there!) While on a research trip in the Northwest, I helped out some CUSO handicraft projects in Ramotswe and Thamaga by marketing their products to Northern game lodges and was then hired by the Botswana Development Corporation to be a buyer for Botswanacraft and later an economist for the BDC itself. Based in Gaborone, I traveled to Lehututu in the Southwest, throughout the Kweneng, the Western Okavango and Ghanzi, buying traditional handicrafts. Towards the end of my contract, I put together an environmental economic development plan for the Southwest Kalahari region for the BDC. SINCE BOTSWANA I travelled across Asia for 6 months after CUSO, then worked in London, England, for two years as a consultant for Fund for Research and Investment for the Development of Africa (FRIDA), returning once to Botswana in 1977. Specializing in the creation of labour-intensive industries, I advised the World Bank, Commonwealth Secretariat and various international NGOs and governments in Rwanda, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Mauretania and Canada. In 1979, I set up a retail store called Frida Craft Store (later renamed Timbukutu) down the street from Toronto’s St. Lawrence market, importing hand-made things from Africa, Asia, and Latin America and ran it until 2014. For my first ten years, I imported masks, sculpture, jewelry, rugs, textiles and baskets from Mali, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Zaire, Ethiopia, Botswana and other African countries. Later I concentrated on textiles, clothing and furniture from India. Being in business was more of a contact sport than I ever anticipated. While my suppliers and customers were lovely and loyal, banks and commercial landlords could be ruthless. The economy became extremely unpredictable and unforgiving. During the 1990s, after my bank tried to call all my loans without cause, I became the Chair of the Banking Issues Committee for the Canadian Organization of Small Business and led a national campaign to make Canadian banks more accountable to their communities and to treat their small business customers more fairly. In 2002, I created Breaking Bread for Women in Afghanistan, the pot luck dinner project, which has raised more than $6 million to fund teachers’ salary to educate Afghan girls and women. As retail got worse, I decided to switch careers and studied mediation at York University from 2008 to 2010. For the past ten years I have worked as a mediator and am currently employed by DND as an Agent for the Canadian Armed Forces Conflict Management Service in Toronto’s Denison Armoury. On a personal note, I was married and then divorced, have been with my second husband, John, since 1996 and have three wonderful grown-up children, Adam, Melissa and Monica, and three darling granddaughters.
Me with my daughter Melissa and my granddaughter Naomi, Feb 2019
|
DEBORAH BONSER
BOB BRINK
THEN
1976–80, Gaborone Came with Peace Corps (honorary CUSO?), Brigades Accountant, working out of BRIDEC (Brigades Development Centre) I married Po Chun Lau in July 1982. 1982–87, Gaborone I tagged along as Po’s spouse, and worked at the local office of Coopers & Lybrand. Bob with trusty Honda, Gabane, 1977/78
NOW
Pouch Cove, Newfoundland & Labrador Retired, part time innkeeper, traveller Email: [email protected]
Bob on Chobe River in September 2011, posing in his Newfoundland garb for Downhome magazine shot (made the February 2012 issue)
|
SINCE BOTSWANA
Po and I have been wandering across Canada, first living in Calgary in 1988–98. I was the accountant for an architectural firm before setting up a small consulting business, selling and supporting a software program for architects and engineers. That precipitated a move to Toronto in 1998. A one-week vacation in 2006 led to us buying our current home in Pouch Cove. We lived here during the summers until becoming full-time residents in 2013. I retired in 2016. I did a little stint in local politics, serving on the Pouch Cove Town Council for four years, 2013–17. I am now the Treasurer of Atzin Canada. You can read Ken Shipley’s and Sue Smith’s bios for more information on Atzin. I keep busy with photography (website: www.brinklau.ca/) and travel: https://bob-brink.travellerspoint.com/ I have honed my cleaning skills while managing our vacation rental property, Bella’s Blue House, which is the house next door to us in Pouch Cove: http://bellas-blue-house.ca/ I am quite serious in offering the attendees of the CUSOBOT reunion a free stay. (You must book early, and conditions will apply.) Here is a short video about last years’ visitors (mini-CUSO reunion): https://youtu.be/ThJb3-OPxVA
Po & Bob on East Coast Trail on hill above Pouch Cove, June 2012
Bella’s Blue House – Vacation Rental – email for details
|
PATRICIA BRIX
CHRIS BROWN
THEN
1978–80, Molepolole District Officer (Development) Chris in Molepolole, 1979
NOW
Ottawa and Botswana Associate Professor of Political Science, Carleton University Email: [email protected] Family in Gaborone, 2010. Left to right: Rebecca, Jane, Gabriel, Chris, Nathaniel
|
SINCE BOTSWANA
In a way, I never left Botswana. The two years I spent living in Molepolole, grappling with development challenges in Kweneng District, and attending all those CUSOBOT meetings, have been a touchstone of my career ever since. After my CUSO experience, I went to graduate school at Cornell University, where I earned a Ph.D. in Political Science. I told myself that I went to graduate school because I had been a “development” planner for two years, but still had no idea what the word meant. I am not so sure that I ever learned, though I do now know that it is much easier to be the professor asking the question than the student trying to provide the answer. The field work for my doctoral thesis involved a return to Botswana for 18 months in 1982–83. While there, I met the love of my life, Jane, who was then a WUSC volunteer teaching at Matlala Junior Secondary School in Tlokweng. We married in 1984, shortly after our return to Canada. We have three children – Nathaniel Kagiso, Rebecca Jean Tebogo, and Gabriel John Moagi. In 1986 I accepted a position teaching development theory and African politics in the Political Science Department at Carleton, where I have worked ever since. In addition to teaching and research, I have been active in university administration, serving at different times as Chair of the Department of Political Science, Associate Dean in the Faculty, Director of Carleton’s Institute of African Studies, and founding Program Director of Carleton’s new degree, the Bachelor of Global and International Studies. I have taken two leaves of absence from Carleton to return to development work in Africa, in 1993–96 to work in the Ministry of Local Government and Lands in Botswana, and in 2006–07 to be Country Team Leader for a CIDA project supporting local government in northern Ghana. Currently I am spending a year on sabbatical in Botswana; the hoped-for result will be a book on contemporary politics in Botswana. Jane retired from a 35-year career in teaching in 2015. I am looking forward to retirement in two- or three-years time, after which Jane and I will indulge our travel bug and indulge the grandchildren that we hope will have arrived by that time. Chris and Jane, Tsodilo Hills, 2019
|
RICH CAROTHERS
THEN
1975–77, Serowe Math and Physics teacher, Swaneng Hill Secondary School 1977–80, Kanye Head of Extension Program, Rural Industries Innovation Centre Swaneng science club project
Medical aids for students involved in a school bus accident
Health seminar on nutritional related technologies
|
THEN
I arrived in Botswana in January 1975 via an indirect route through India and Tanzania where I had spent two years on a previous CUSO assignment. I taught math and physics at Swaneng Hill Secondary School in Serowe for two years (1975–77) and helped out at the brigades. Students in our science club became involved with a variety of wind, solar and biogas projects, but we also made crutches and a wheelchair when some of the students were injured in a serious accident during a school trip. In 1977 I moved to the Rural Industries Innovation Centre (RIIC) in Kanye where I headed the extension program until 1980. The extension program helped identify and prioritize the types of technical services that could be provided through the RIIC. We worked with the Southern District Council to carry out a participatory survey across the district, and this led to work on water supplies, food processing, health services, employment creation and a range of related training programs. NOW
St Agatha, ON Retired, but help coordinate academic / practitioner group on child labour policy Email address: [email protected] SINCE BOTSWANA
After leaving Botswana, Melanie and I married and soon headed off to Niger in West Africa where we worked on an integrated development program. That led to more work on wind-powered water supplies, originally in Niger, but eventually across the Sahel. When I found that the wind pump–garden units actually worked better (i.e., were maintained and repaired) when women operated the gardens as small businesses … I became more involved in the promotion of micro and small businesses. In the early 1990s I began work in Upper Egypt to help low-income women and their families start and expand micro and small businesses. We were able to set up local institutions to sustain and expand the programs, but we then found that children were working in many of the businesses we were supporting. Through subsequent discussions with children, their families and employers we realized that many of the children needed to work, and so together with working children we created a program to ensure that children were not harmed and had access to formal or non-formal education. I have now retired and settled in St Agatha, Ontario (near Kitchener – Waterloo), but am still involved with a group of practitioners and academics interested in children’s rights and well-being. Along the way Melanie and I have raised our family, with Mary married to Shawn and George married to Ai, and grandchildren Jude and Fearn. Our family in 2019
|
KATHY COWBROUGH
THEN
1972–75, Mochudi Domestic Science teacher, Molefi Secondary School My first CUSO posting as a Domestic Science teacher was in Zambia, 1969–71, at Mbereshi Secondary Girls School, near Kwambwa, Luapula Province. Though I returned to Canada briefly, I found our extravagant lifestyle hard to deal with, so escaped and took another CUSO posting, again teaching Domestic Science, at Molefi Secondary School in Mochudi, Botswana, from 1972 to 1975. Chris in Molepolole, 1979
NOW
I live in Retford, Nottinghamshire, UK Work freelance as Nutrition Consultant for private companies and government institutions Email: [email protected]
Morris Dancing to bring in May Day, 2019 (Kathy in fluorescent green, front row)
With daughter Amy and granddaughter Anna
|
SINCE BOTSWANA
Unfortunately, I found teaching a British Home Economics course pretty irrelevant for Botswana girls. This experience made me consider the importance of preventing illness, so I completed a Masters in Public Health Nutrition at University of Toronto, 1976–77. Nova Scotia Department of Health paid my way and offered me a post in Yarmouth, NS, 1978–82. In 1982 I was persuaded to move to Scotland to get to know Graeme Law (a Scottish lad whom I met in Botswana). Graeme and I were blessed with twins – William and Amy in 1984. My work in Scotland was varied: The importance of Public Health Nutrition in Scotland was only being recognised there when I arrived, so I was privileged to do nutrition needs assessment at a national level. This led to interesting nutrition and health promotion work in central Scotland, low income areas in Glasgow and Edinburgh; and nutrition lecturer at Glasgow University. Moving to England in 1996 meant opportunities to work as a Sure Start Dietitian with young families in low income areas (Mansfield and Doncaster), and a variety of projects within public and private sector organisations as a freelance dietitian. From 2006 on, I worked totally freelance. This includes needs assessment and programme planning, nutrition education using a community development approach with groups and individuals, training health professionals and lay personnel to deliver Cook and Eat courses; resource development, writing for professional and lay press, consultant to food companies, speaker for different settings, and recently (2018–19) workplace health. My passion is the importance of healthy eating and activity to prevent long-term health problems. When away from work, another passion is promoting Fairtrade so that producers in developing countries get a fair price for their produce. I have done this by selling Fairtrade products in my community and Chairing our local Fairtrade District. I love dancing, so enjoy ceilidhs and dance regularly with our local Morris dancing team. I cycle at least 20 miles once a week. Our grown-up twins, Amy and William have their own partners, and our daughter has a lovely 18-month-old little girl.
Supporting March for UK to stay in European Union (2019), Kathy and husband Graeme Law
|
DOUG CREBA
THEN
1976–78, Tutume Agricultural Science teacher, McConnell Community College 1978–80, Kanye Farm Manager, Kanye Brigades Development Trust THEN I joined Marcel Zollinger at Tutume McConnell Community College in January 1976. For a year of overlap we taught Form 1,2,3 Agricultural Science, raised broiler chickens, managed student garden plots and looked after the system of well points in the river that supplied fresh drinking water to the rural boarding school. When the rains came and the river flooded, Marcel and I took the school tractor to the river crossing. When the water was high, vehicles had to cross navigating the submerged concrete pad. Those who were not careful slipped off. We got good at hooking up with chains to effect the rescue and had fun all day. For the second year, 1977, I taught Forms 1,2,3 and added Forms 4 and 5. We didn't have a syllabus to work from but had samples of previous years “O” levels and “A” levels examinations. We extrapolated from the exams what had to be included in the daily teachings. In 1977, I attended a teacher conference in Gaborone, and having comprehensive teaching notes, wrote the first draft of the Agriculture curriculum guide for the country. |
In 1978, Sue and I moved to Kanye to work with Kanye Brigades Development Trust along with Allan Culham. At Bathoen Reservoir, which was built by the British to lessen dependence during WW2, the land below Mmakgodumo was farmed for years by Taiwanese expatriates. They left abruptly when Botswana recognized the People's Republic of China. The irrigated lands were amongst the few (6) farms in the country growing mixed vegetables for the local market. We had great parties. One memorable weekend we invited many friends who fabricated all manner of kites to fly above the irrigated gardens.
NOW
Nanaimo, B.C. Manager of Property Operations, Nanaimo Affordable Housing Society Email: [email protected] SINCE BOTSWANA
In 1980, Sue and I travelled in Africa, Europe, and then across Canada, to land in Nanaimo, where we bought a house and began to raise a family. I had a variety of jobs working in the social service sector. With Sue, I became active in the NDP, having decided while overseas that the answer to so many development issues lay with those making decisions at the provincial and federal level. In 1989, after a successful by-election, I started working for the newly elected MLA. Until 2001, when the government changed, I worked as Executive Assistant to Provincial cabinet ministers, notably in 2000 for the Minister of Women's Equality. Continuing to work in community development circles, I work to this day for Nanaimo Affordable Housing Society as Manager of Property Operations. In 2019, NAHS manages 14 buildings and 420 tenants who receive various levels of support to have meaningful lives. We own a 28-ft sailboat and enjoy weekends in the Gulf Islands. I am a fiddler (since 2010), playing Irish Scottish French Canadian jigs and reels for all age audiences. With a musical partner, I manage Harbour City Concerts, bringing singer-songwriters to local audience. For years I have volunteered at Vancouver Island Musicfest (Comox Valley) and Island Folk Festival (Duncan), making the backstage area secure for performers and VIPs. |
SUE CREBA
ALLAN CULHAM
THEN
1974–77, Molepolole District Officer (Development) 1977–81, Kanye Secretary, Kanye Brigades Development Trust On the steps of the District Commissioner’s Office, Molepolole, February 1977
Left to right: Jim Houston, Mike Herman, Allan Culham and Lars Hansen
NOW
Ottawa since 2014 Still working at Global Affairs Canada as a Special Advisor on Venezuela Email: [email protected] |
SINCE BOTSWANA
Upon my return to Canada, I began my career as a civil servant with CIDA and later moved to Foreign Affairs. Mira and I married in 1983 and we lived a series of marvellous adventures overseas with the foreign service – Tanzania, Indonesia, Mexico, Guatemala, Venezuela, Washington DC, and more recently Colombia. Our two children, Katherine and Andrew, were born in Ottawa between our first two postings. They are adults now, living in Vancouver and Smiths Falls respectively. I retired from the foreign service in 2015 but have been more or less busy working since then. I am currently serving as a special advisor on Venezuela. At least this way, I get to look forward to retiring a second time! Mira and I had the joy and the privilege of returning to Botswana for two weeks in February, 2015. We went back to my old haunts in Molepolole and Kanye. We also drove the country with stops in Kang, Ghanzi (for my birthday), Maun, Kasane, Francistown and Gaborone. It was a trip of a lifetime for many reasons.
Family reunion in the Dominican Republic, January 2018, from left to right:
Andrew, Mira, Allan and Katherine |
WAYNE AND PHYLLIS DIGBY
THEN: Wayne
1977–79, Gaborone Agricultural Information Service, Ministry of Agriculture THEN: Phyllis 1977–79, Gaborone Teacher, Thornhill International School THEN: Wayne and Phyllis, Shauna and Todd
In the fall of 1977 the Manitoba Department of Agriculture granted me a leave of absence and Phyllis and I accepted work with CUSO in Botswana. We arrived in November of 1977. Following orientation and the village live-in, I started work for the Ministry of Agriculture in their Agricultural Information Service and Phyllis taught at Thornhill International School. Shauna (7) and Todd (5) attended the same school that Phyllis taught at. Shauna and Todd adjusted very well and became real little international travelers. While in Botswana we made many good friends and became much more aware of the plight of the third world. Living in that part of Africa at that time, we also experienced first-hand the injustices in the Republic of South Africa. Working for the Ag. Information Service, I travelled extensively throughout Botswana developing and assessing the effectiveness of Information Services. A major emphasis was the development of non-formal education to improve farming practices. One example was the travelling puppet show which was a big hit in rural areas. Ag. Information Mobile Puppetry Show, 1979
Phyllis's School Class, Gaborone
NOW: Wayne and Phyllis
Brandon, MB Travelling, volunteering and enjoying retirement Email: [email protected]
|
SINCE BOTSWANA: Wayne and Phyllis
Following two years in Botswana, we returned to Manitoba where I was Agricultural Representative in Killarney, a position I held for five years. During this time I embarked on a program of self-directed study towards a Master of Adult Education from St. Francis Xavier University which I completed in 1989. During our time in Killarney, Phyllis was employed with the Royal Bank. In 1984 I became Acting Regional Director in Brandon for the Southwest Region with Manitoba Agriculture, later moving into the position as Director. I held this position until December 2001. During much of our time in Brandon, Phyllis worked in the educational system for the Brandon School Division in addition to completing her Bachelor of Education degree. Taking early retirement in 2001, I was able to become more involved in International Development work and at the same time do more consulting. In January 2002, I set up my own company, Digby Consulting, providing consulting assistance in community facilitation, renewable energy and extension program development. Much of this work was with Prairie Practitioners Group, based in Southwest Manitoba. At the same time I became increasingly involved in international programming aimed at assisting Ukraine in its transition away from the former Soviet Union. In 2003 this interest led to accepting work in Ukraine as the Extension Program Manager for the Canada–Ukraine FARM Program. Living in Kiev for three years and travelling extensively in the country, we made many family connections with Phyllis’s distant relatives from western Ukraine. Returning from Ukraine, in April 2008 I became the Executive Director of the Manitoba Forage Council, which led to my taking a leadership role in setting up the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association. Retirement has been good for both of us as we are very involved in a number of volunteer activities, such as promoting sustainable energy development in Manitoba in my role as Secretary Treasurer of the Manitoba Sustainable Energy Association. As well, our Church community is a very important part of our lives. Although we do not have Shauna and Todd and their families close to us, it is a good excuse to travel. During the summer we thoroughly enjoy our time at the Lake: kayaking, fishing and visiting with our extended family. Shauna and Todd survived all of the family moves and completed their first degrees at Brandon University. Shauna then took her Masters in Psychology from Carleton University in Ottawa and Todd, a Masters in Library Science and Information Studies at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Shauna, Darryll and Alex live in Kanata. After graduation Todd worked for a year in Brandon and then headed south. Following work with a number of American Universities, he is now with the University of Florida in the digital technology division of their library system. Todd, Cynthia and Jace live in Gainesville, Florida.
Our family today
|
Wayne, Phyllis, Shauna, Todd and Families
SHIRLEY (BENDER) DUNFORD
KEN ELLIOTT
ELVIRA FINNIGAN
THEN
1972–75 Art teacher, Francistown Teacher Training College My Grade 10 yearbook caption read, “Elvira plans to be an interior designer. Fate: teaching art in Africa.” Whoever wrote that must have been a psychic. In 1972, Harry and I, as newly weds, went with CUSO to Botswana where I taught art at the Francistown Teacher Training College. Elvira with newborn Shaun at Jubilee hospital with her students from the Francistown TTC
NOW
Winnipeg Retired art educator, currently a sculptor and installation artist, exhibiting in various galleries in Western Canada Email: [email protected]
Finnigan family, 2018. Shaun Finnigan and Kelly Kuryk with Charlie (the dog), their sons Maxwell and Ivan, Elvira and Harry, Gene Muller and Elise Finnigan with daughters Neev and Sana
|
SINCE BOTSWANA
Returning home to Canada in 1975, I went back to university to complete my Bachelor of Fine Arts and then became an art educator at the Winnipeg Art Gallery and in various schools in Winnipeg for the next 19 years. Our son Shaun was born in Africa in 1974 and our daughter Elise arrived in Winnipeg in 1978. After periods of living abroad, they are now both living in Winnipeg with their families. We are happy to have them here and lucky to be able to see our 4 grandchildren on a weekly basis. My life has been interesting – full of changes and surprises. One of the biggest changes we made was moving to Pittsburgh in 1997. Harry became the executive director of a large downtown organization and I was able to devote time to becoming an artist. I had my first solo art exhibition in 1997, began studying video production and worked part-time at the Mattress Factory an art gallery dedicated to producing cutting edge installation art. It was a mind-expanding time, and we still go back quite regularly to visit our friends there. After 9/11, when the climate in America changed, we moved back to Winnipeg where I continued to create new installation and video art works; many focused on the crystallization of salt brine. My art focuses on the ideas of change and the passage of time. Images of my work can be seen on my website www.saltwatch.ca. Both Harry and I love living in Winnipeg. We are involved on various boards and committees, enjoy travelling and most of all enjoy our time with family and friends. Harry and I recently spent 3 full weeks in a dramatically changed Botswana, staying and travelling with our old friends, Ross and Puseletso Kidd and visiting our old haunts. It was a trip of a lifetime.
Image of Feast and Aftermath, an exhibition at the Franco Manitoban Cultural Centre, 2013. Photo: William Eakin
|
HARRY H. MCKAY FINNIGAN
THEN
1972-75, Francistown District Office (Development), North East District Summer, 1972: Elvira and me just outside of State College Pennsylvania where we visited friends on our way to CUSO’s orientation program which was held in London, Ontario
January, 2019: Elvira and me in Kasane, Botswana
February, 2019: Elvira and me with Kgosi Obuile Mambo in Mambo Village (North East District)
|
SINCE BOTSWANA
In many ways my career followed the mantra: “think globally, act locally.” When it comes to jobs, Elvira has commented that she thinks I suffer from A.D.D. as I tend to get bored after 4 or 5 years and decide to make a change. Most people shy away from change. I’ve been fortunate that she’s been supportive over the years when I concluded it was time move on to something else. On my return to Canada I enrolled in the Master of City Planning program at the University of Manitoba. My first job after graduating was Manager of the City of Winnipeg’s Brooklands Neighbourhood Improvement Program; the part of Winnipeg’s inner city where I spent my formative years. At a very young age then I had the broad range of experience as a planner from being in a position in a foreign country where I couldn’t speak the language and was a visible minority to being a leader in the neighbourhood where I grew up. While working in Brooklands I served on CUSO’s Board of Directors. It was also at this time that I discovered that the reason that my third name was McKay was because my biological father was a McKay from Grand Rapids, Manitoba (Misipawistik First Nation). The more I learned about the McKay family, the more it all seemed to make sense. While I never did meet my father, I did become friends with a younger sister, Roberta. I’ve since met numerous McKay relatives and without exception it’s been a positive experience. Incidentally, a second cousin of mine, Nora Murdock, who was in Nigeria with CUSO in the early 80s, currently serves on the Cuso International Board. Here’s a link to a story that I wrote in honour of Roberta – it can be found on the Manitoba Museum’s web site: https://manitobamuseum.ca/main/harry-finnigan/ I have been fortunate in being able to serve in a number of community leadership positions including:
Working as a consultant is something that I have most enjoyed over the years. Andy Hamilton got me started in this area when in 1982, while working with WUSC, he called me and convinced me to head up a small project team which led to the establishment of the Canada-Botswana Rural Development Fund. In 2007 I re-established my consulting practice, McKay Finnigan and Associates. Much of our work has been devoted to community development, working with First Nations communities, improving the lives of urban Indigenous people, and addressing issues around poverty. We have a website which hasn’t been updated in a while: http://www.mckayfinnigan.ca/#. I am now quasi-retired, working on a few small consulting projects, volunteering, and writing a memoir. Elvira and I made it through those 3 years and the next 44+ together. Earlier this year we took our “bucket list trip” back to Botswana. What an experience! We are fortunate to have our two children and their families living in Winnipeg. Our son Shaun, who was born in Francistown, is an artist and landscape architect who works with me on various consulting assignments. He and his wife, Kelly Kuryk, worked with CUSO in Santiago Chile from 2002 to 2004. They have two sons: Ivan (11) and Maxwell (8). Kelly heads up a social enterprise providing composting services. Our daughter, Elise, is an urban planner. She and her husband, Gene Muller, moved to Winnipeg from Dublin Ireland in 2012. Gene, who grew up in Bloemfontein South Africa, is Director of Recreation and Sports at the University of Manitoba. Elise is a planner with the City of Winnipeg. They have two daughters: Neev (8) and Sana (6). |
DIANA GIBBS
SUE GODT
IRA GREENBLATT
TIM GREENHOW
THEN
1974–77 District Officer /Land, Francistown, Serowe 1978–79 Regional Planner, DTRP, Gaborone, Francistown 1982–84 Senior Planner North, DTRP, Francistown 1988–89 UNEP Consultant, Gaborone, and Okavango Regions Field work - this and changing flat tires
NOW
Tullinge, Sweden (just south of Stockholm) Mostly retired, occasional assignments, annual lectures at a local university Email: [email protected]
|
SINCE BOTSWANA (1979)
In 1980/81 I worked with Steve Balderston and Marcel Zollinger in PNG, making a quick trip to Botswana to marry Lena (a Swedish volunteer physiotherapist at Jubilee Hospital) in late 1980. After a few months in northern Sweden we returned to Francistown for 2 years, then took 3 years in Lesotho with a Swedish consulting firm. Returned a third time to Botswana, with a Swedish government organization, to do two UNEP projects. This led to a temporary stay in Sweden that became a permanent career working with international assistance. Examples of assignments include:
|
BERT GROENENBERG
ANITA HAMILTON (HUTCHINGS)
DREW HENDERSON