(Christine Gervais, a Stittsville resident and founder of ACCESO International is seen with some of the children who have benefitted from the work that ACCESO International performs to ensure children receive a solid education. Photo: provided)
ACCESO International is a Stittsville-based, Canadian incorporated, volunteer-operated, charitable organization that promotes and enables greater access to all levels of education for marginalized children, youth and women in Canada, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras and Peru. ACCESO also assists with health and human rights education for women and children.
ACCESO International was founded by Christine Gervais in 1996. Inspired by her travels as a high school student, Christine founded ACCESO to address the disparity between her educational opportunities and those of students in economically disadvantaged countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Along with a team of volunteers, this work has continued for over 25 years. ACCESO has provided bursaries, helped build preschools and a dormitory, provided school supplies and books and funded workshops in Latin America and the Caribbean. The students who are helped often stay in their communities and pay it forward.
Christine’s vision of educational equality has now spread to projects here in Ottawa where they have partnered with the South-East Ottawa Community Health Centre to provide backpacks and school supplies to low-income new Canadian families. ACCESO also supports Indigenous students from the Ottawa area through a post-secondary bursary program.
A trivia night fundraiser is being hosted by ACCESO and will be held at ALE in Amberwood on Friday, November 1st at 8:00pm. Tickets can be purchased on our website. In addition to a fun filled evening of trivia, there will be Fair Trade goods for sale as well as a silent auction.
More information about our organization is available at www.accesointernational.ca.
