Mother of three receives Rosie McGroarty Award.
Ruth Ruth Stackhouse, left, Peggy-Gail DeHal-Ramson, Saffa Hamid and Peggy Nash at the Annual International Women's Day Lunch at Masaryk Cowan Community Centre. (Monday, March 8, 2010)
Staff photo/ERIN HATFIELD
Clutching a bouquet of fresh flowers in one hand and a framed certificate in the other Saffa Hamid proudly raised her arms in the air in front of about 400 of her female friends.
Even more than the pride she feels in being named this year's recipient of the Rosie McGroarty Award, Hamid said she is overjoyed by how far she has come in the past 13 years.
"Since I came here I have been involved in many programs and it has really made me a different person," Hamid said. "I have more confidence and I (am stronger). I couldn't have imagined that I would be handling three kids in a different country by myself."
A fitting sentiment for an award meant for women who are working to better their lives, handed out at the Parkdale Anti-Violence Education Working Group (PAVE) Annual International Women's Day Lunch at Masaryk-Cowan Community Centre.
Hamid moved to Parkdale from Sudan 13 years ago. She is a single mother of three, ages 13 and nine-year-old twins.
She is currently doing academic upgrading through George Brown College and plans to continue her education in order to work with abused women and children.
The annual Rosie McGroarty Award is a $500 award, which is funded by Peggy Nash, the former NDP MP for Parkdale-High Park. It is handed out in the memory of Rosie McGroarty who was murdered in 2005.
"Rosie was a very poor woman, she had suffered abuse and violence for many years," Nash said. "In spite of all the challenges she faced she gave back to the community."
McGroarty, a bright, energetic woman, volunteered at the Parkdale Activity-Recreation Centre (PARC) in the kitchen and tried to help other people any way she could. Nash recalls the entire community was devastated by her gruesome murder.
On Nov. 5, McGroarty, 46, was bludgeoned to death at her Dunn Avenue apartment. Her torso was discovered in a Parkdale alley, her legs at a garbage transfer station three weeks before her common-law husband, Robert Wiszniowski, 50, was charged with second-degree murder.
In October of 2006, Wiszniowski was sentenced to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter.
"Why should her life be defined by her death?" Nash asked. "Why not let it be defined by what she did with her life, which was to try to improve herself and better the community."
To that end, Nash, with the help of PAVE, initiated the scholarship, given annually for the past four years to a Parkdale woman who is working to get her life on track.
"I am the beneficiary of the work of so many women who went before me in terms of opening doors and making it possible for women to achieve in our society," Nash said. "I think that women who are successful owe it to their sisters to reach out a hand and help them get their lives on track."
The recipient also gets educational planning and counselling through PAVE.
PAVE was formed in 2006 as a direct result of McGroarty's murder. It is comprised of staff from organizations in Parkdale that either work with women who have experienced violence or are concerned about issues of violence against women.
"We are hoping to expand this and to get other women involved in donating the funds, and making this more well known so that more women will apply," Nash said.