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Cat Ross in 2009 with students at the Kibera School of Hope, located just outside Nairobi.

Five years after a volunteer stint in Kenya inspired her to take action here at home, Cat Ross shows no sign of slowing down.
   
The 27-year-old Winnipegger is an unstoppable force when it comes to humanitarian work (one colleague has called her "a philanthropic guru") — one of those passionate, committed people who exudes positive energy and possesses boundless energy.
   
Uptown first met Ross in 2006, shortly after she had returned home from a summer vacation spent working in an HIV/AIDS clinic in Kibera, a densely populated slum on the outskirts of Nairobi. Just a few square kilometres in size, Kibera is home to more than a million people who live in abject poverty with no running water, electricity or sewer system. Many of Kibera’s citizens are also infected/ affected with HIV/AIDS, the virus being widespread throughout Kenya.
   
The trip was a life-altering one for Ross, who also volunteers with Winnipeg’s Nine Circles Community Health Centre and Siloam Mission, and with Eat So They Can, an international campaign that raises money to fight child hunger through annually held dinner parties.
   
"The first time I came back, I pushed big-time to everyone to get in everyone’s faces and be like, ‘This is what I did, you should let me come talk to you about it’ — and it totally worked, which is great!" Ross says over coffee, laughing.
   
Soon, Ross was speaking in schools, to community groups and at national conferences — and fundraising for another trip.
   
Ross returned to Kenya in January 2009, a year after a disputed presidential election saw violence erupt throughout the nation.
   
"Going into Kibera was really a completely different experience. It was way more dangerous," Ross recalls. (Given that she witnessed a man beaten to death by an angry mob during her first trip, that’s saying something.)
   
Ross spent a month teaching HIV/AIDS prevention to Grade 4 students and reconnecting with people she had met during her first trip. "Going out there was like seeing long-time friends. It was really great," she says.
   
Even greater? Persistent fundraising efforts and the generosity of Winnipeggers meant Ross arrived in Kibera with a container of donated supplies (including dolls knitted by her grandma) and $4,000 cash — money she used to purchase recreational equipment and new textbooks for the school, clothes for a nearby orphanage and a massive shipment of medical supplies for the health clinic.
   
While her volunteer work efforts have kept her busy since returning home from that trip, last year saw Ross embark on an adventure of a very different sort: after applying as a joke, she was one of 13 Manitobans chosen to compete on Wipeout Canada, the ridiculous TV game show that pits contestants against a punishing obstacle course, often with painfully hilarious results.
   
Ross describes the week she spent filming in Argentina as "the most physically draining, exhausting thing I’ve ever done in my life." (Fittingly, she was chosen to appear on the show’s "Heroes" episode, competing against police officers, military personnel and fellow Winnipegger Annalynn Czarnecki, a paramedic. The episode will air this spring.)
   
Ross also founded her own organization last year, the Kenya Initiative for Development & Sustainability (K.I.D.S.). While operational details are still being finalized, the plan is to work in partnership with David Omayo, a respected figure in Kibera who’s known as the slum’s chairman. K.I.D.S. will raise funds for several programs Omayo is involved with, helping to support schools and orphanages, develop clean water projects, provide medical care to children, and offer emergency food relief to rural communities and some of the 300,000 Kenyans displaced by 2008’s post-election violence.
   
The coming year promises to be an eventful one. Ross has began planning a third trip — and, while she’s not sure exactly when in 2011 she’ll be leaving, she’s already lined up a travelling companion: local videographer Jamie Korstrom, who’ll be accompanying her as she meets with staff from the programs that will be supported by K.I.D.S.
   
By documenting the people directly affected by her fledgling organization, Ross hopes to show Winnipegger donors how their support is making a difference and, in turn, help grow new relationships that will have a lasting impact.
   
"I don’t want to go over to Kenya and work there for the rest of my life — although I love being there and it’s like my second home," Ross says. "I want to be able to work here and continue to tie different communities together, because the more they get tied together, the more they’re willing to help each other."