Who says you can't make a difference from a kayak?

By Dr. Monique Dubé
Canada Research Chair, University of Saskatchewan
Perhaps the magnitude of the problem was a challenge I could not resist. Perhaps the fact that internationally women and their daughters are disadvantaged by water through their defined role to collect it for the survival of their family and community. Pretty tough to gain an education when you are walking miles to collect water; to avoid disease when you are the primary contact with contaminated water supplies. Perhaps the overwhelming feeling I get of purpose when I fly over the Nahanni River, paddle the South Saskatchewan River, collect samples of water and fish in the Saint John River, or fly over the Athabasca River and Alberta’s oil sands. Regardless, I am sunk, hook, line and sinker on a water mission.

Monique Dubé (c) Todd Pugsley
The mission is this: you cannot understand unless you experience. I cannot tell you the number of hours I have spent in a classroom learning, listening, teaching; the number of hours in books and papers. The educational foundation is a gift and necessity and yet the real learning has happened when I have taken myself and my students to the water, when I have watched girls the age of my daughter struggle with 20 litre jugs of water on their heads, when I have listened to elders. I have learned more about the life, role and needs of a river and those that depend upon them from my kayak.
This learning has led me to my latest adventure: Paddling the Yukon River (1600 km) in Support of Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan!
On July 18, I embark on a 1600 km kayak race from Whitehorse, Yukon to the Dalton Highway Crossing in Alaska. It is the longest race in the world. Women rarely compete and I will be the first of either gender to attempt it solo and unsupported (with a safety boat).  I intend to paddle 18 hrs/day for 7 to 8 days. You can track my progress (Team Name: If at First…).
Why? For the love of the Yukon River; a river I thought was pristine in Canada’s north that I have come to find is not pristine. To remind myself that boundaries for women are unlimited. To raise funds to develop educational opportunities for Afghan women through Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, 22.1 million people live in poverty and substandard conditions; 309,000 children under five years of age die each year; the education of girls is banned in over 90 percent of the country; only 17% of the population has access to safe water and only 10% of people have access to adequate sanitation.
Please follow my journey on this blog and support my Giving Page.