On Thursday, February 1, 2018 Barka Canada hosted a meeting for the Polish-Canadian community featuring presentations by a delegation from the Barka Foundation. We had someone representing Barka Foundation in Poland (Tomek Flinik), a representative from Barka in the Netherlands and Belgium (Magda Chwarscianek), and one of the founding members of Barka Foundation, Ewa Sadowska. Each delegation member presented their respective activities and programs. Questions were taken from the audience in a productive discussion. The Consul General of Poland in Vancouver was in attendance, as well as representatives of other Polish-Canadian organizations.

Our Support/Leaders’ Group meets on Thursdays 7:00 to 8:30 pm in Room 306 at Surrey Central Library. The group is open to people struggling with addiction, as well as their affected family members. Also those facing difficult life circumstances and family problems are welcome.

Barka Canada hosted it’s second community seminar on The Causes and Dynamics of Addiction. The seminar was held at the Surrey Central Library on Dec. 8, 2016. The speaker was Dr. Edward Kruk, Professor at the School of Social Work at UBC. The topics discussed included theories about why people become addicted. Social factors were noted as very important, including family dynamics. Questions were taken at the end and audience members also made some great contributions to the discussion. We would like to thank Dr. Kruk for taking the time to present and explain the topic so well. The seminar was very informative for all.