The Canadian Race Relations Foundation Selects the Open Hearts - Closed Doors Web Site as an Award of Excellence Finalist
VANCOUVER March 5, 2003
Open Hearts - Closed Doors: The War Orphans Project, which chronicles the lives of a group of Jewish orphans who came to Canada from Europe after the Holocaust, has been short listed for a Canadian Race Relations Foundation (CRRF) Award of Excellence. The CRRF Award of Excellence program recognizes public, private, or voluntary organizations, which exhibit excellence and innovation in combating racism. Organizations will be honoured at the Award of Excellence Gala Dinner on March 27. The Gala kicks off a weekend symposium "Racism: Breaking through the Denial" where finalists will share their best practices with educators, activists, members of the public and private sectors, as well as NGO's.
Open Hearts - Closed Doors is a bilingual web site based on an exhibit created by the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre (VHEC). It uses artifacts and personal narratives to explore an important event in Canadian history, with resonance for contemporary Canada and its immigration policies. The compelling site provides students and teachers with a rich collection of primary documents that they would otherwise not have access to, and it offers supporting resources and lesson plans that are easy to integrate into the classroom.
"Creating this site allowed us to bring the stories of these orphans to a new online audience, and we look forward to sharing this project with the other distinguished finalists who are also working to foster awareness about racism and discrimination in our society. We are honoured for the recognition the site has already received and we look forward to the Gala," says Frieda Miller, Education Coordinator of the VHEC.
Open Hearts - Closed Doors was designed and produced by Simon Fraser University's 7th Floor Media in partnership with the VHEC, who developed the content of the site, as part of the Virtual Museum project of the Canadian Heritage Information Network. The VHEC is a teaching museum and educational resource centre devoted to Holocaust based anti-racism education. 7th Floor Media is Canada's leading educational and cultural new media group.
\n\n"We are overjoyed with the news that this site has been recognized by the Canadian Race Relations Foundation. This is a testament to the rich content on the site and the relevance that the orphans' experiences have to our understanding of institutionalized racism and discrimination," says 7th Floor Media Co-Director, Noni Maté.
\n\nThe Canadian Race Relations Foundation's mission is to shed light upon the causes and manifestations of racism, provide independent, outspoken national leadership, and act as a resource facilitator in the pursuit of equity, fairness and social justice for all Canadians.
\n\nOpen Hearts - Closed Doors: The War Orphans Project is available online at http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/Exhibitions/orphans/english/.