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1952 - 2004 |
JoAnna Townsend passed away on January 23, 2004 after a courageous battle with a brain tumour. At the request of JoAnna’s family, Acceso International has established an education fund in her memory. Acceso International is proud to commemorate the life of JoAnna Townsend, a woman who was so enchanted with Latin America and who contributed so much to international relations.
After her post-secondary and graduate studies (Master of Science in International Business) at the University of Ottawa and the University of British Columbia, JoAnna travelled to Antigua in Guatemala to perfect her Spanish in 1978. After working for Export Development Corporation for five years, she founded Townsend Trade Strategies in 1989, through which she applied her expertise in trade to Canadian companies doing business in Mexico, Chile and beyond. Her fluency in Spanish facilitated the projects in Latin America. She served in the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, which she joined in 1997 as Director of the Small and Medium Enterprises Division. During her time at DFAIT, JoAnna immensely enjoyed interacting with aboriginal and female entrepreneurs.
JoAnna was blessed with an adventurous spirit which led to her many travels in Europe, Asia and Latin America. She participated in a World University Services Canada (WUSC) trip to China; she experienced a typhoon in Hong Kong and woke up to a volcano eruption in Guatemala; she rafted the Grand Canyon and she danced the Tango in Buenos Aires.
JoAnna served as Treasurer on the Board of Directors for both WUSC and the North American Institute. She was a founding member of the Ottawa branch of the Legal Education and Action Fund for Women and she was an Executive Committee Member of the Medical Friends of Peru.
At the request of her family (husband Ted Friesen and daughters Meghan, Geneviève and Ariane), Acceso International has established a capital fund whose annual interest will be allocated to education projects in the area of Antigua, Guatemala where JoAnna studied Spanish. Through this education fund, Acceso International is delighted to commemorate the life of a dynamic, talented, ambitious, adventurous, kind and compassionate woman whose contributions to international development have been exemplary, inspiring and enduring.
Donations to The JoAnna Townsend Memorial Fund may be made payable by cheque to Acceso International and sent to
Acceso International P.O. Box 11395 Station H Ottawa, Ontario K2H 7V1.
For more information, please contact us at info@accesointernational.ca
