I Have a Name Campaign

I Have a Name by Amy Van den Hooven

A couple of weeks ago I was assigned a project in my Environmental Design class at UBC, in which we had to create a campaign that would lead to a positive paradigm shift in Vancouver. This assignment is a lot more than just a “project” to me because I am creating a campaign that I am truly passionate about. It is called ihaveanamecampaign. My campaign’s goal is to shift the way many people view men and women that live in the Downtown Eastside. What inspired me are the amazing women that I have met through volunteering at Beauty Night. I started volunteering about five months ago, and since then I have realized that the Eastside is not “Canada’s worst neighbourhood.” It is full of women that have beautiful personalities and stories that impact me every time I volunteer. Through ihaveanamecampaign I want to share these powerful stories and help others change the way they view people that live in the Eastside. The way I would like to spread the word is by making bracelets with women in the Eastside and learning about their stories and dreams while making them. Each person will then write “Made with Love by ______ (the name of who ever made the bracelet) on a card that is attached to the bracelet that they made. Whoever buys their bracelet can learn about the life of the woman that made it by going to the ihaveanamecampaign website (in construction).

While volunteering on Monday two weeks ago with the help of two other volunteers, Kathrene and Heather, we gathered some ladies together to make bracelets for the campaign amidst the Beauty Night excitement. The 5 ladies gathered made not just beautiful bracelets, but bracelets with meaning. They each shared their stories and dreams with us, some had more to say than others but each story was powerful. Molly, a woman that came to Beauty Night for her first time, wrote some of her story out for us. When meeting her she was a bit shy, but when it came to sharing her story she really opened up. She told us about her many siblings and her children that she cherishes so much. When I read what her dream was I was overwhelmed with emotion. She wrote, “I ask for you to please pray for my daughter Angeline. She is still missing. My dream is to find my daughter.” I believe it is sharing these words with others that is so important to help Molly heal and feel support, and to help us understand and respect people in the Eastside. Despite the hardships that many of these women have lived through their personal dreams are to help other people. This greatly impacted me. One woman wrote that her dream is to “help homeless people,” and another shared that her dream was for “every woman and child to have affordable housing.”

As Beauty Night rolled to an end we had made many bracelets, but most importantly we learned about the stories that give these women their identity. It is these stories that I want to share through this campaign. It is my sincere desire for people to look beyond the stigma of he Eastside and to see the beautiful personalities that have been revealed to me through volunteering with Beauty Night at the DEWC. This campaign will send a message that we are all unique human beings with a name, a story, and a dream despite where we live and where we come from.