About « East of Main

About

Main St. in Vancouver, BC, Canada is known now for being the funky and ‘hip’ new area of town. It has trendy bars, restaurants, cafes and shops. Yet this gentrification has not happened to East of Main. East of Main has very strong visible minority (mainly South East Asian and Asian) and working class roots. This site intends to provide a new fresh and progressive perspective on the life in Vancouver but also on the whole world. We’d love to hear from you: your comments, questions or if you’d like to join the movement please email us at blog@eastofmain.com

To learn more on East Vancouver check out the wikipedia article.

Co-Founders: Ajay Puri| Andriy Mishchenko

Ajay Puri

Research Associate, Centre for Addictions Research of BC
Decision Support Analyst, Providence Health Care
Chair, Grassroots Organizers for a Progressive Canada
Advisor, Canadians for a Progressive Coalition
Co-Founder, Canadians for Obama
Co-Founder, Canadian Young Leaders Network

Mr. Puri has is Masters of Health Administration from UBC (2005). For the past 7 years, Mr. Puri has been volunteering, working and providing important health services and policy research to advocate and improve the lives of many marginalized populations including the elderly, visible minorities, and those working in the sex trade, suffering from mental health and addictions, and living in the Downtown Eastside.

His passion for leadership, community engagement and research was acknowledged with the Dean of Science Ambassador Award in 2001 for his commitment to UBC and the sciences. Of particular note he founded the 200 member strong South Asian club entitled ‘Masala’.

Mr. Puri is also politically and socially active –

Selected to attend various international youth conferences: CANIMUN 2003, NMUN 2003, McMUN 2003, UBCMUN 2002, Global Youth Assembly 2007 and the Global Youth Forum 2006
Federal – Liberal cardholding member for 7 years, Youth Chair for Ujjal Dosanjh, active Young Liberals of Canada BC (YLCBC) member (ran for both National Multicultural Rep on the YLC and YLCBC VP internal – lost by one vote), selected as Gerard Kennedy delegate for the Liberal Leadership convention 2006
Provincial – Volunteer for many NDP candidates including Gregor Robertson (MLA Mount Pleasant)
Municipal – Vision Vancouver member and organizer – Gregor Robertson supporter
US Politics – co-founded the www.canadiansforobama.ca group – 1000+ members on Facebook and 300+ members on website. In February volunteered in Everett, Washington to assist Barack Obama win Washington State for the 2008 Democratic Leadership race. Will be actively volunteering till the General Elections in November. Group had volunteers who helped in Virginia, Ohio, Nevada and other swing states to get the vote out.

Andriy Mishchenko

Freelance Photographer
Web Designer
Co-Founder, Canadians for Obama

Andriy is originally from Ukraine and was an international election monitor during that country’s 2004 elections. He has worked and volunteered on municipal and federal election campaigns in Vancouver. He loves grassroots movements, having helped out as an online organizer for Vancouver rallies in support of Ukraine, created a “Search To Help” search engine to raise money for charities, and brought out the youth vote with Get Your Vote On. In his spare time from work in IT and non-profit fundraising, Andriy loves travelling the world, photography and blogging about local events. You can find him on Facebook.

Barinder Singh

Medical Resident

Barinder Singh was born in Mumbai and moved to Canada at the age of 13. She has a BSc in Animal Biology from the University of British Columbia, a BSc in Medical Science from University College Cork and a MB, BAO and BCh degree in Medicine from University College Cork. She is currently a first year resident in Family Medicine at the University of Dalhousie. Her interests include reading, writing, traveling and doctoring.