Here and abroad

Students at Twitti School, Zambia.

For the past six years, Shelley O’Callaghan, Associate Counsel at Bull, Housser LLP, has been raising money to build a school in a rural farming community in Zambia. Shelley had taught in Zambia in the early 1970s with her husband, Patrick. In 2005, she learned that former Zambian colleagues were teaching up to 200 children, preschool to Grade 7, in shifts in their bungalow because the area had no school. Shelley formed the charity, Friends for Zambia Society, started visiting Zambia each year, and over the years, has raised the money to build 11 classrooms, a water well and tanks, three washroom buildings, and an administration/library building. The Official Opening of the Twitti School will take place in July of 2012.




The Honourable Terry Shupe in his home-based workshop.

After a 36-year career on the Bench, The Honourable Terry Shupe has retired. For years, he has been making handcrafted toys in his Kamloops home workshop, for needy children all around the world. Watch this video to see him in action: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X3CYKraNG4. He has also visited Tangalle, Sri Lanka six times to participate in the construction of houses and communities, and has been working to support construction of a trades training facility in that region. He also serves as Honorary Lieutenant Colonel of the Rocky Mountain Rangers reserve infantry Unit in Kamloops. They have distributed his wooden toys in Afghanistan.




Kathy Kendall, with her daughter Jessica, in Lao PDR.

In 2009, the CBA signed a funding agreement with CIDA for a two-year program: “Strengthening Access to Justice through Legal Sector Development.” One of the target countries was Lao PDR and in 2010 Kathy Kendall, a family lawyer from Kamloops with extensive experience delivering legal aid, travelled there to assist with a legal skills training program with the Lao Bar Association to improve access to justice, particularly for the poor and marginalized. She said it was humbling and an honour to work with such kind and gentle people. Kathy and Jessica developed a desire for international volunteerism in 2007 in Addis Ababa Ethiopia, where, during a five-week project at a home for HIV positive children, they delivered some of Judge Shupe’s beautiful wooden toys.




Samantha Hulme with a teacher and students in the Philippines.

Samantha Hulme, Crown Counsel, went to the Philippines with New Westminster-based HOPE International Development Agency (www.hope-international.com) on December 29. She travelled to remote, impoverished villages in Mindanao to help film the 2012 fundraising video focusing on Indigenous Peoples. She was following up on the sustainable development and social justice work her mom began there 30 years ago. Samantha and her friends at the Bar have assisted with fundraising events for HOPE following her previous trips to Cambodia and Ethiopia and she’s excited about travelling across Canada with HOPE this year to raise funds to support water, education, health and development projects for these communities.

This article was published in the June 2012 issue of BarTalk. © 2012 The Canadian Bar Association. All rights reserved.