A year ago, young, energetic Noorah Zafar Mohiuddin thought that there is no representation of Canadian Hyderabadis in South Asian community. Instead of waiting for anyone else to take up the challenge, she took it upon herself to gather the youth of Hyderabadi background. She, then, formed a youth organization called Toronto Hyderabadi Association.

 The idea was “to gather Hyderabadis because Hyderabadi culture is very beautiful and unique; we wanted to introduce Hyderabadi culture to other communities and also to network among ourselves,” says Noorah enthusiastically. Noorah is a freshman at George Brown College after being affected by the strike at York University. Prior to her community activism as the President of Toronto Hyderabadi Association, she was the President of Muslim Student Association at her high school. She is up and ready to revive MSA at George Brown College. Exasperatedly, she told me about MSA at George Brown that “there’s nothing going on here.”

Right now, Noorah and her executive team has pulled together almost 400 members on Facebook. They hold an event almost every month to raise awareness about their organization. The most recent event they put together was Eid formal that was attended by more than 300 people. In this event, clown entertained kids and youth presented comic acts.

Noorah encourages not only Hyderabadis but all South Asians and non-South Asians to join the group.

Author: Saniya Zahid

PSF? What is it and how did it form? Sitting down with Ali Abid, President PSF, Generation Next got an insight of how the Pakistani Student Federation at University of Toronto in Scarborough campus functions. Being the director of finance in the past for PSF, Ali wanted to make changes within PSF. “My goal is to take PSF to the next level, as compared to other campuses. We are not that recognized and I want to make that happen because I see that we have the potential to be big”. Youth organizations want to be recognized by other students as well as other universities. Ali tells us about himself and his team who are all motivated individuals and who share the same thoughts, so that they can be recognized one day as one of the biggest, most well known Pakistani student group.

The uniqueness about Ali’s Pakistani student group compared to student groups in other universities is in its name PSF. “Compared to other campuses this is what makes our group unique. Even though we started off as PSA, we had to change the name to PSF because of administrative troubles.” Though the management and the executive team keeps on changing on a yearly basis, Ali tells us how its core values still stay the same. “Even though we have a new president each year, we see to it that the core values remain same,” says Ali. Ali tells Generation Next “I have a different approach and I hope it will work, since I want our group to be recognised as one of the best Pakistani Student groups”.

“In Scarborough the Pakistani population is not that large, but still we are trying our best. In UofT we interview our candidates and on this basis we elect them. Most universities don’t have this interview session since it is considered an undemocratic place.

Being a small group, PSF currently holds eight members and hopes to grow in the future. “Right now we don’t have a complete member list, but two years back we did try to sell membership and unfortunately we just got twenty. One has to complete at least a year to grow. “In my case I have been a part of PSF for more than a year which is why I was able to get president’s position”. “

Ali and his team plan to host lot of on campus events so that many students can get involved. “This will allow us to market ourselves,” he says. “We are planning to host an event every month, and in September we are planning to host Iftar, in October we are going to plan Eid party but obliviously we have other plans like movie nights and antakshari with other student organizations,” he adds.

(from the left) Rehan Farooqi - Director of Marketing, Ali Abid - President, Atef Latif - Vice President, Shoaib Merchant - Director of Communications

Not only is PSF spreading the Pakistani culture, it also acting as a platform for socio-political issues. “I would say that PSF is a mix of both, and at same time we help people network too,” he says. 

Author :Kiran Takrani

Sitting down with Mabubha, we got an insight of how the Bengali Student Association works at Ryerson University. A Business major who had immigrated to Canada from Bangladesh, Mahbuba always took an interest in taking part at different school functions, clubs, and groups. “I was always a friendly person, I could never be quiet, I loved to talk to anyone since I believe that is just the person I am”. “In high school there were a lot of academic groups and not cultural groups but I was a part of most of them, since my group of friends would join it so I would join it as well”.

Campus Caravan Ryerson just started a Bangladeshi Student Association (BSA) not too long ago, it was formed in 2003. Was it very necessary to have a Bengali Student Association, why not just collaborate with other cultural groups on campus? Mahbuba says that BSA was formed in order to bring together Beganli youth community, and to introduce Bengalis to seniors and the alumnus and to help them network. Among other goals was to showcase the Bengali culture to students and different school bodies.With 200 members, BSA has gained momentum and strength in Ryerson University. “Other universities have a lot of international students but I feel that we are strong according to our schools population,” says Mahbuba. Executive Team

Aside from keeping Bengali culture alive, BSA also helps Bengali students who are new to Ryerson to get them comfortable on campus.

The most famous BSA event on annual basis is the Alpona Contest. It is an art contest where we draw on the floor to create a path, but we do it on paper. We, then, have an artist come evaluate the art work. 

Like every other university, the BSA is funded by their student union. “We are given a certain amount at the start of the year and if we need extra funds then we have to go to the community.” BSA holds a lot of charity events to help out the community which is why Mahbubha feels that the community is more open to their group when it is in need of funding. Aside from that BSA is also involved in raising money for schools in Bangladesh.

Inter Uni Soccer Tournament

Being a non-profit organization, Mabubha and her team uses their funds wisely. “We hold a formal every year and that is where most of our money goes to, so whatever we make from other events that are not tied to charities; we use it towards our formal.”

Aside from the cultural ties and values, BSA is there to help you out as a student. “We are there to help students out if they are experiencing problems, we try to hold seminars like the life of a teenager growing up in Canada, we know that it can be hard since our parents are trying to hold on to our culture and pass it on to us.  Being citizens of two countries it is hard for most students,” says Mahbuba.  Balancing everything out so that you do not disappoint your parents and peers is the solution to the problem.

 Author:Hamesh Singh

Ever feel that you want to get in touch with other South Asians and make a difference? Want to get involved within the community as well as on university/college campus? Are you the outgoing type of person who likes to take part in events as well as go to formals and cultural shows? Then you should consider joining South Asian Alliance. SAA started 10 years ago and has focused on providing South Asian events not only for South Asian people but for others as well. At their events you will hear different types of music and will get the vibe of different cultures. Sitting down with Naveet Nanwa, Generation Next got the insight of how SAA works at McMaster University, “What SAA really is, is an umbrella of University organizations which started off with just three universities; York University, University of Toronto – Scarborough Campus, and University of Toronto – Mississauga campus” .  Even though the name of this organization includes the words “South Asian”, there is more to it than those two words, “South Asian Alliance is presented in a broader scale, our model is “be the change”, we want to make sure there is no discrimination being experienced by anyone”, says Naveet. With SAA expanding over the years, it now includes over 7 universities.

Every SAA has their own way of expressing their values, at McMaster they are done through events. On an annual basis, all seven universities get together for the yearly SAA culture show, as well as for formals that occur throughout the year with all SAA universities participating, “The amount of events varies amongst campuses, at McMaster we try to do two a month so that ends up being sixteen in a school year”.

McMaster holds a charity poker night where the students are gambling for charity, as Naveet tells us “if you are gambling for charity the concept is different, we hold a huge poker tournament at the university pub and the university throws in a prize as well so it works out evenly, for the charity as well as the students”.  Last year, Naveet and his team chose ASAAP as their charity since they feel that “people are not educated and sex is a taboo topic that no one is going to be open about it”. Another successful event is ‘Sambosas and success,’ “At this event we get past students who are upper year students or who are pursuing their MBAS or other professions and we get them to come and give academic advice to the students”. “A lot of South Asian students feel that they need to be Doctors and Lawyers only in order to be successful but with our Sambosas and success event we called individuals who were pursuing individuals to go to med school but then saw other options and took that route instead. We took this approach because we wanted to show students that there are more things that you can do with your degree and Doctors and Lawyers are not the only professions out there”. Other than the events that SAA holds at McMaster itself, Naveet tells us how “what SAA is original known for are the two big formals which we hold every year one is in November and one is in February”.

In order to be a part of SAA schools have to take their own approach like Naveet and his school did. “If interested the University students have to approach SAA and say that their school can represent SAA and then we put them on a one year grace period, what this includes is we put them on our event flyers and if we feel that school pulls in a large amount of people to our events then we know that they are worth joining the club”. “A lot of South Asians tend to stay in their own circle and not see the world outside, but what they do not realize is that it takes nothing to be a part of SAA and be a member if you are interested then you purchase a membership card and you are an automatic member”. The membership only costs $5 and it gives you discount to many SAA events even including the formal. There are rules and aspects that you have to abide as being an SAA member, you have to make sure to not be involved with promoters but you must be there for your students and your members and there are many more aspects involved with the constitution.

Author: Kiran Takrani

Are parents being as aware and cautious towards children, as they should be? Why is it that most kids want to get involved with gangs or are doing drugs or taking part in violent acts? Has our society failed to teach our younger generation as well as future generations how to be civil still? Generation Next sat down with Jasdev Singh to get a better understanding of how the Sikh community is today. Being a part of Canadian organization of Sikh students he is highly active within the organization. Being the vice president, he tells us how “It is an umbrella organization of all Sikh student associations in all universities and campuses; it is a national organization which has members all over Canada”. The main focus of this organization is to get Sikh children and their focus away from drugs, gangs, and violence. “We want to get in touch with the culture and the roots that are there as well as religion so these children have a sense of understanding the Sikh religion”. Are youth these days not paying the attention they should towards religion and cultural aspects? “Children these days are getting more involved with drugs, gangs, and violence, we feel as an organization if we have different community events set up for them they will feel that they have other things that they can divide their time and attention towards”.

What made Jasdev get involved within the Sikh community were many different reasons. “I look at it as God’s blessing that I am in this religion, because I grew up in areas where there was much gang violence and if I didn’t get the chance that I had to get into the Sikh religion and be involved within the community, I would have been a different person”. Change is able to occur within any youth, it’s just the youth has to take the initiative. These children are going to be our future generation and we would want nothing but the best for them. With any youth these days the topics of drugs, gangs, and violence seem to be a huge growing issue. “Kids from any South Asian community in high school experience a lot of exposure towards gangs, drugs, and violence, I feel that there needs to be more support groups for youth where you can get these kids off drugs.”

These classes are now being spread everywhere because Jasdev wants to see change within the South Asian community not only among Sikh youth. His words were very inspiring and he is very serious about the different negative aspects that these youngsters are being involved with. Jasdev holds classes every Monday and Wednesday at a Gurdwara in Brampton, he teaches Sikh martial arts during these days and they are being set up in all areas across the GTA region. Other ways for children to be involved are with camps which are held every year during march break as well as summer holidays where children are taught not only about religion but also issues they come across in schools. The children are taught different leadership roles and how to prevent from being involved with drugs, gangs and violence. Not to forget, these children are also taught about their cultural background, their mother tongue, Punjabi, as well as they try to get the children to read and write Punjabi. “We try to teach the children everything we possibly can so they can have a better understanding of Sikhism, we also teach them the Sikh philosophy so that they can have a better understanding of Sikhism in more depth.”

It is very important that youth get involved with these types of activities since the rate of youth doing negative things are skyrocketing. As Jasdev tells Generation Next, “Abortion rates within young girls are around 85% now, which is such a horrible thing since these children are young and should be focusing their time and efforts towards something else”. South Asian children need to be more involved within the community so that they can stay on the right track. “Every community should be aware of what is going on, we want our kids the “new generation” to be very educated and on the right path”. Lets work together to make this community a better place for these youth to grow up in.

Author: Kiran Takrani