By Tayvie Van Eeuwen
@tayvieeee
Take a seat, put your feet up, and get cozy with the latest happy news. Check out December’s line-up of feel good stories here.
Local
B.c. Women’s Hospital launches groundbreaking endometriosis educational program
As actress Susan Sarandon once said, “When all you know is pain you don’t know that that is not normal. It is not a woman’s lot to suffer, even if we’ve been raised that way.”
To combat the lack of awareness surrounding endometriosis, B.C. Women’s Hospital has recently launched a pilot educational program at a New Westminster school. The six-class series is modelled after Endometriosis New Zealand– a clinic’s school curriculum that has illustrated positive detection and treatment rates.
Now, BC Women’s Hospital is hoping to do the same here.
“A lot of stories from women that we hear are that [their] symptoms are dismissed either because of taboos around discussing menstruation or sometimes their pain is dismissed by their family members, maybe their mothers said it was normal because they experienced it as well,” explained Dr. Catherine Allaire, medical director of the B.C. Centre for Pelvic Pain and Endometriosis at B.C. Women’s Hospital.
Endometriosis is not as rare as many believe, with ten percent of women at a reproductive age having the condition. As the most common symptom is debilitating menstrual cramps, which are believed to be ‘normal’ of periods, many girls are rendered unheard.
As Dr. Allaire explained to the Vancouver Sun, treatment is usually delayed by eight years due to a lack of education and proper medical diagnosis. The pilot program by B.C. Women’s hopes to educate teenagers about normal menstruation and when to seek help.
Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research has funded the program, with the project starting in New Westminster– the first school district to offer free menstrual products to students.
“We thought this is a progressive school board that is open and willing to discuss menstruation and so we approached them as a partner in this project and they were very enthusiastic,” explained Allaire.
Here’s hoping the program expands across British Columbia!
Vancouver school board officially passes anti-racism and discrimination policy
It’s been an emotional process leading up to the Vancouver School Board’s official decision, but it’s here.
On December 16, several motions to combat educational racism and discrimination were announced. Of the motions, the most prominent was a promise by trustees to build an effective framework “with actions to address racism and discrimination.”
Within the plan are short, medium, and long-term goals that will be accomplished over one, three, and five-year agendas. Each of these goals will include student of colour opinion and input.
A subsequent motion was passed that was defined by a Policy Manual for Vancouver schools. The seven point commitment outlined promises of human, material, and finacial resources, employment equity, and changes to individual schools’ Codes of Conducts.
Broadly, the motions are meant to “[eliminate] ethnocentrism, prejudice, stereotyping, discrimination and racism in any form.”
Find the latest updates on VSB’s racism and discrimination plans on their Twitter.
Worldwide
Young man gives up first-class seat to 88-year-old woman
For 88-year-old Violet, a first-class seat was once a distant dream. However, on a flight from New York, the kindness of a stranger made her greatest wish come true.
Violet makes usual trips to New York to visit her daughter, but up until recently she was not able to fly due to a knee replacement. While waiting for her flight back home, she struck up a conversation with Jack– a young man who had booked first-class tickets with his family.
Once the passengers boarded the plane, Jack did the unthinkable: he switched his first-class deluxe seat for an economy one next to the toilets. The result? Violet’s life-long dream fulfilled.
Amy, a flight attendant, shared the special moment on her Facebook page. The post has now attracted the attention of over 16 thousand people.
She wrote, “You should of seen her face, when I tucked her in her bed after supper.
She said her daughter won’t believe her, and wanted a ‘selfie’ to prove it, but didn’t have a phone or an email address. These photos are getting sent in the post tomorrow.”
Now, the picture of Violet enjoying her prestigious seat is melting heart’s everywhere.
Who wouldn’t love this?
For the full Facebook post by Amy click here.
A december history of Greta thunberg’s greatest twitter hits
If you ever need to LOVE yourself, just channel some Greta energy. 👏 Gimme some of that confidence. 👏
Que Greta going head to head with Brazil’s President, Jair Bolsonaro, in three, two, one.
In a press conference on December 10, Bolsonaro called Thunberg a ‘pirralha,’ a Portugeuse word meaning brat or pest. The name calling came in response to Thunberg’s defence of the Amazon’s Indigenous peoples that are continually killed in defence of deforestation.
So, Thunberg took it to Twitter.
The Twitter bio was short and sweet, saying “Pirralha.”
The next day Trump took to Twitter to announce his frustrations regarding Time’s announcement of Thunberg as Person of the Year, . The tweet read, “So ridiculous. Greta must work on her anger management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!”
Of course, Thunberg did what any person would: respond mockingly to the most infamous figure today.
The changed Twitter bio read, “A teenager working on her anger management problem. Currently chilling and watching a good old fashioned movie with a friend.”
Other than political bio changes, Thunberg published some equally powerful tweets this month. Check them out below!
First same-sex couple wins denmark’s “Dancing with the stars”
Let’s be honest, Nordic countries are always one-upping themselves.
At the beginning of December, Jakob Fauerby and Silas Holst made Danish TV history by winning Vild med Dans— the Nordic version of Dancing With the Stars. While simply competing as a same-sex couple was radical, the two managed to steal the show’s prize, too.
Fauerby, a Danish actor, advocated for the inclusion of a same-sex couple before the season even began filming. When asked to appear on the show, Fauerby told Vild med Dans producers that he would only participate with a male partner. The result? Groundbreaking representation.
“I had already thought that if they called me, I would ask if it was possible to dance with a man,” Fauerby told LGBTQ Nation. “So, when they called and I asked, they said it was probably something they could talk about.”
“For me, in my living room, when I dance at home, I dance with a man. When I was a child, I never saw representation. We’re just one couple out of 160 in 16 years. So for me if a young boy, girl, or trans person has the opportunity to see that positive representation as part of a TV show that is empowering in itself.”
First black marie debuts in New York city Ballet’s ‘Nutcracker’
Arguably, the best part of this story is the meet-up between Misty Copeland (the American Ballet Theatre’s first Black principal dancer) and 11-year-old Charlotte Nebres (the newest Marie).
Don’t worry, I’ve got lots of pictures coming.
Nebres is one of two dancer’s playing Marie in the 2019 season of the ‘Nutcracker’– child parts are typically double cast. She attends the School of American Ballet in New York City and recently made history within both the American and worldwide Ballet scene.
Joining her onstage is an equally diverse cast. The other pair of child dancer’s and Nebres prince, Tanner Quirk, all share Asian descent.
“It’s pretty amazing to be not only representing [the School of American Ballet] but also representing all of our cultures,” Nebres recounted to The New York Times. “There might be a little boy or girl in the audience seeing that and saying, ‘Hey, I can do that, too.’”
As for the world’s reaction to Nebres’ casting? It is pretty much the same as Misty Copeland’s. Watch the video of Nebres and Copeland meeting here!
Tayvie is a Métis/Anihšināpē and Irish/Scottish student and writer. Her circle is small, but her joy is large. She splits her time between over-thinking and visiting Disneyland. Read her articles to take a peek inside the world of mental illness and happy news, because it’s all about balance, right?
