This UPEI student knows what hunger feels like. Now he's helping fight global hunger
CBC
Jean-Grace Kifwabala opens the door to his apartment in Brown Court, a complex in Charlottetown.
Machines line the room. A sewing machine sits next to a mannequin. There's a label printer and a vinyl cutter machine, along with boxes of merchandise like hoodies, shirts and sweaters.
This is where the third-year UPEI student operates his online clothing shop, Truly Motivated. It brands itself as a clothing and lifestyle company specializing in "streetwear inspirational apparel."
Kifwabala, 23, has always been passionate about fashion, but his real mission with Truly Motivated is to make clothing with a message — like the black sweater he's wearing.
"It's one of my favourite designs. The front says, 'Spread love.' Love is something that we need to be giving to one another, especially because of COVID right now," he said.
"The back says, 'Don't let anyone turn your sky into a ceiling,' which means don't let anyone put a cap into your dreams."
Kifwabala moved to P.E.I. from Vancouver in the fall of 2019. With no financial support from his family back home in South Africa, he needed to find a more affordable place to call home. So he landed on UPEI, where he's studying business.
He found an unfurnished apartment in Charlottetown. But on his first day on the Island, after paying rent and picking up groceries, he had just $24 left in his bank account.
"What am I going to do?" he asked himself.
That night, Kifwabala took all the clothes from his suitcase, covered himself up, and slept on the floor.
Those first few weeks, he ate a lot of canned beans, which he bought in bulk. He spent most of his time studying at the UPEI library, where he often napped in a bean bag chair instead of coming home to sleep on the floor. He remembers crying himself to sleep one night when he couldn't buy a textbook he needed for a class because his credit card was maxed out.
He eventually found a part-time job at Best Buy, which enabled him to buy some furniture — including a bed.
Kifwabala was able to set aside some savings, and in April he used those savings to launch Truly Motivated.
He acknowledges that it's not easy juggling being a full-time international student, having a part-time job and running Truly Motivated.
A suspended Moncton structural engineer faces more lawsuits alleging design flaws in buildings that require repair.
Sajjade Tugano has come a long way since he first set foot in Chibougamau, six hours north of Quebec City, in the depths of winter in November 2021.
A national mentor-based hockey organization that helps marginalized youth through the sport is paying tribute to one of its members and youngest coaches.
After months of asking the City of Saskatoon to do more to solve its homelessness crisis, advocate David Fineday took to the stand at city council Tuesday.
A community organization wants to breathe new life into a historic building in Regina.
Some Prince County residents are walking away with more answers after attending Tuesday night's public information session in Albany, P.E.I., on the Wejipek Wind Project.
After just a few months of using vape detectors in a couple of bathrooms, a B.C. high school principal says it's reduced vape use in those areas to basically zero.
Burlington MP Karina Gould gets boost from local young people after entering Liberal leadership race
A day after entering the Liberal leadership race, Burlington, Ont., MP and government House leader Karina Gould was cheered at a campaign launch party by local residents — including young people expressing hope the 37-year-old politician will represent their voices.
Anold Mulaisho was born intersex and wonders where they fit in, in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's executive order for the United States to recognize only two sexes, male and female.
WARNING: This story contains references to suicide.
Subway service is down on Line 1 between Sheppard West and Lawrence West due to a broken power rail, the TTC said Wednesday morning.
A long-term care home in Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood has cleared one more hurdle to add desperately needed beds to its property, a move that's been praised by housing advocates but opposed by locals concerned about the impact on the neighbourhood.
A Charlottetown resident is calling on the P.E.I. government to do more to protect homeowners after reading about a recent oil spill very similar to one on his Montague property 20 years ago, which he says ruined him financially.
WARNING: This story includes details of abuse.
Two years after Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly declared she was taking the unprecedented step of moving to confiscate millions of dollars from a sanctioned Russian oligarch with assets in Canada, the government has not actually begun the court process to forfeit the money, let alone to hand it over to Ukrainian reconstruction — and it may never happen.
Alberta business and oilpatch leaders are returning home from Washington this week after the U.S. presidential inauguration festivities — and gritting their teeth after a roller-coaster of emotions.
Youth workers in Toronto's Jane and Finch area are flipping the script on negative stereotypes about their communities with a new fundraising campaign that offers anti-bias training in exchange for donations to bolster their programming.
In a sudden move that came late Tuesday evening, city officials rolled out cots and temporarily opened a warm building in east London as frigid temperatures continued.