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10 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday February 27, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com Living Oakville Beaver LIVING EDITOR: ANGELA BLACKBURN Phone: 905-845-3824, ext. 248 Fax: 905-337-5567 e-mail: angela@oakvillebeaver.com Kickin' for kids Business with a heart By Angela Blackburn OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF T DEREK WOOLLAM / OAKVILLE BEAVER IN MEMORY OF ERIK: Justin Young gives it his all at the second annual kick-a-thon for Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children Saturday morning at the Oakville Taekwondo Academy, which has operated since June 2006 at 364 Kerr St. Close to $2,000 was raised as young people did a total of 17,000 kicks in one hour. The fundraiser was held by 12-year-old Victor Lo, whose family operates the academy in memory of his brother Erik, who died two years before Victor's birth, of AML (acute myelogenous leukemia). Funds raised will go to the hospital through its Kids Believe in SickKids program. he bottom line: it's all about business -- notwithstanding the fact it helps people in developing countries. MBAs Without Borders is now headquartered in Oakville and its co-founder and president, Tal Dehtiar, says he's embarrassed to take too much credit for doing good. With family roots that have stretched from Israel to Siberia and Latvia, Dehtiar is a global citizen, and it's on that stage that MBAs Without Borders operates. Dehtiar came to Canada as a young child, when his parents, Emil, a cartographer, and Illana, an engineer who eventually worked at deHavilland upon settling here, had a last-minute change in their plans to emigrate to South Africa. The couple, while raising their family, operated a pawn shop on Queen Street and then a three-store furniture business. However, Dehtiar's parents, who he describes as having an Eastern European work ethic, now run their own home decor shop in western Ontario and have come to embrace their son's not-for-profit venture -- upon graduation from McMaster University's DeGroote School of Business. Armed with his MBA and a BA in com- Tal Dehtiar munications from the University of Western Ontario, Dehtiar has a diverse background which includes previous work in the healthcare and mining industry in Canada. He has worked on numerous international projects prior to starting MBAs Without Borders, including launching an agri-business to support rural communities in Belize, creating a small-scale volunteer program in Costa Rica and starting up and producing a radio show in Singapore. So the type of work that MBAs Without See Business page 16 Goal is to simply survive in Afghanistan By Krissie Rutherford OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Suicide bombers, evening curfews, kidnappings and extreme poverty. These were everyday realities for Sarah Bollozos over the last two years. The London School of Economics and Political Science graduate recently returned from Afghanistan, where she lived and worked in international development. "What is it like to live in Afghanistan? It's different, that's for sure," she told a crowd of 50 gathered at St. Aidan's Anglican Church. "We received introduction packages when we got there, including anti hijacking guidelines explaining what to do when you are hijacked. The minute you are in a car, you are a potential victim." There was also security advice on hostage survival in that introduction package. "Here, the only goal is to survive. Don't talk back, don't fight back," she said. "Then you'd see suicide bombs going off, or attacks on the Afghan Police." Bollozos was one of two guest speakers at the 21st Annual Oakville Peace Concert, which took care of the concert component with live performances from folk-rock group GCDC, composed of Ricky Joe Vella and Ronnie J. MacKay, and acoustic country-folk with Jay MICHAEL IVANIN / SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER MAKING PEACE: Board member of the International Peace Bureau Janis Alton speaks during the annual Oakville Peace festival at St. Aidan's Anglican Church. The theme of the festival was Books Not Bombs. Clowater. Hosted by the Oakville Community Centre for Peace, Ecology and Human Rights, the Concert for Peace was dubbed Books Not Bombs after a topic tackled by Janis Alton, a board member of the International Peace Bureau, the world's oldest international peace network. Alton spoke of her visit in November to the IPG's conference in Alexandria, Egypt, on the theme of `Books or Bombs.' She discussed the need to de-legitimize war, and stressed the inclusion of women in all decision-making processes. "Building hope and peace," she said, is what the IPG is devoted to. "This goes beyond saying no to war, but it certainly includes it." The Books or Bombs conference was held in a renowned library in Alexandria, which Alton said was "the perfect location," with "the assumption being that education is key" in order to bring about peace. Bollozos kicked off the evening, flanked by a slide show of photos she took during her two years in Afghanistan. She worked for an international development agency which developed programs, built schools, roads, hospitals, trained teachers, nurses and more. "The situation is pretty grim, it's pretty tense," she said. "Since I left, I know the situation has gotten worse." Bollozos said some everyday tasks like grocery shopping were possible while living in Afghanistan, but the challenges were many. "In my house, I didn't have electricity for 24 hours," she said. She might have it from 6 a.m.-9 a.m., and then from 7 p.m.-11 p.m. The other hours, she'd have to supplement with a generator ­ and the cost of gas isn't cheap. "For people who don't have money, they have nothing. They have to handle it. I was fortunate," she said. See Expectations page 15