Cultivating compassion

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This article was published 12/03/2021 (1863 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Grade 10 student in The Maples hopes to cultivate a “mindset of compassion and empathy” in her upcoming book that explores poverty in Winnipeg.

Rory Ramos, who attends Maples Met School, has been working on her book, Angles of Reality: Winnipeg Voices of Resilience and Stories of Courage, since she was in Grade 9.

She’s always been intrigued by issues of poverty, but a previous internship at Oak Table — an Osborne Village-based charitable organization that provides meals, hygiene items and other care to people from all walks of life — was the catalyst for the project.

The 100-page book, which is expected to be published this spring, features the stories of 11 Winnipeg residents who frequent Oak Table and have experienced income and/or housing insecurity. “The whole idea of creating this book was to provide a platform for these individuals who are living in poverty to voice their experiences,” Ramos said.

“I want to be able to cultivate the mindset of compassion and empathy, and through that compassion and empathy, we start looking at ways we can further support these individuals.”

Ramos was born in the Philippines and immigrated to Canada with her family at a young age. Trips back to the country exposed Ramos to levels of poverty she hadn’t witnessed before.

“My parents just always talked about the hardships that they faced, with people not having support and not having money and not having food. And when I visited back a couple of years ago, it was so common to see kids in the street, without any supervision, without any parents, without anything.

“It was so heartbreaking.”

Ramos is young, and she knows that, but she doesn’t let that hinder her passion. She realizes that it’s up to her and her peers to be role models for the next generation.

“You get stuck in this cycle of thinking that I can’t do it because I’m young, but really, being young is the only way that you can, because … people tend to listen more when you’re young because they’re curious, they’re interested. So we really have to use that to our advantage,” she said.

Ramos is donating 100 per cent of the profits from book sales back to Oak Table, where her project started.

Internships are a required component of the education curriculum at Maples Met. Ramos is currently interning at North Forge, where her mentor, Scott Angus, is helping her with the marketing and business side of the project.

“It’s just amazing to think what someone can do with the support of the community. We can do so much more together than what someone can do on their own, and that shows not only through the book, but … through my process of creating the book, as well.”

Follow Ramos on Instagram (@angles.ofreality) to learn more about Angles of Reality: Winnipeg Voices of Resilience and Stories of Courage.