By Leah Bjornson,
Special to The Post

When David Beattie first moved to Vancouver from South Africa 25 years ago, he expected to have to adjust to the cold weather of Canada, but not the cold shoulders of its citizens.
After noticing that residents in his new neighbourhood of Collingwood were going out of their way to avoid interacting with strangers in public, Beattie made it his mission to bridge the gaps between Vancouver’s alienated populations and founded HELLO, a grassroots venture intended to erode social isolation. 
The initiative will launch the HELLO Project this fall in downtown Surrey, which is the first of many intended pilot projects building up to a Metro Vancouver-wide campaign in years to come. 
The Project asks residents to wear lapel buttons that invite others to greet and chat with them. It is hoped this will lead to friendly interaction between residents of different ethnicities, as well as bridge other divides — young and old, affluent and low-income, immigrants and those born and raised locally, for example.
Social isolation is the top concern of Metro Vancouver residents, as identified in at least two major studies, by the Vancouver Foundation and Vancouver Coastal Health. Among the many reasons for this is growing multiculturalism and multilingualism. Surrey's half million population is more than one-third South Asian, and some are concerned that immigration without integration has led to two Surreys living parallel.
An informal coalition of South Asian politicians, religious leaders and youth activists in Surrey have joined Beattie in his mission to encourage more contact and engagement between strangers.
Muhammad Malik, a director at the Masjid-Ur-Rahmah Muslim temple in central Surrey, says the HELLO Project fits perfectly with Islamic philosophy and teachings. "Islam promotes that we say hello first, regardless of whether you know the other person or not,” he explained. “Everyone living in 40 houses around yours are your neighbours, and you have responsibility for them.”
High profile Sikh politician and journalist Harpreet Singh echoed that sentiment, adding that more needs to be done to erode the ghettoization of South Asians in certain pockets of the expanding, sprawling city south of the Fraser River. "We are wondering why some white people are moving away from these neighbourhoods, and that is disappointing to us," he said from his Newton home, in the westernmost part of Surrey where South Asians are now a clear majority.
Recent media reports show that in neighbouring Richmond, during a period when 80,000 Chinese-Canadians moved into that suburb, nearly 30,000 Caucasians moved out. At 62 percent foreign-born, Richmond is one of the most "hyper diverse" cities in the world. Surrey's share of foreign-born is 41 percent.
The HELLO plan, provisionally set to begin on September 21 this year, aims to hand out as many as 30,000 buttons and flyers over about one month. During that month, the project will have scores of volunteers decked out in the project’s official yellow and blue t-shirts, handing out free buttons and flyers at the core of the emerging Surrey city centre — the area bounded by Surrey Central Skytrain station, an adjoining bus loop, the SFU Surrey campus, and the Central City Shopping Centre. 
Surrey Public Library main branch and city hall will also be in on the action, urging staff and patrons to use the buttons to identify willing "chatters" and to connect and engage when not on duty.
Organizers hope that at least ten percent of people who receive buttons will wear them at coffee shops and restaurants in the area, on transit, on campus, and outside in public, marking them as eager to greet and chat with people from other races, generations and languages — to the extent their language ability allows. They are encouraged to do this at any time it suits them, on an ongoing basis, for months and even years into the future. 
If complications arise, the launch date will be moved to spring next year. 
Given the novel nature of the button intervention (it's believed the first of its kind anywhere), the organizers have opted for a small scale, inexpensive pilot that uses no public money. Approximately $10,000 in funding has been raised by private donors and an ongoing crowdfunding campaign on the site GoFundMe. 
Depending on the success of this first experiment, foundations and government agencies concerned about social isolation will be invited to donate to later pilots. These pilots will be more ambitious depending on how much money is raised.
Beattie said it is understandable that people are cautious about the venture because there is no guarantee it will work. "We need a certain critical mass of publicity and scale to give us something to measure, but as there are no really similar examples of this we know of, it is definitely a gamble." 
HELLO co-director Allan Hunt said all agencies consulted have been open-minded and positive about HELLO, but South Asians have been the most enthusiastic and willing to push it along. "Right from the start they could see the opportunity for strengthening ties with the 'mainstream' white community in Surrey," Hunt explained. "They feel bad about all the negativity recently to do with South Asian gangs in the area."
In Surrey, MPs and MLAs from all major parties, Sikh, Muslim and Hindu leaders, and South Asian businesses are rallying behind HELLO. But it is South Asian youth who are most enthusiastic. "I am very interested in this," commented SFU student society vice president Deepak Sharma. "Working alongside my community members to eliminate the stigma of youth in Surrey."
The HELLO Project has also teamed up with Youth Transforming Society (YTS), a non-profit headed by four South Asian women in their early 20s. With the help of YTS, the Project held a smaller test of the HELLO button on July 18 at the huge Fusion Festival multicultural event in downtown Surrey.
Other "friends" of HELLO include Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Surrey Board of Trade and Surrey RCMP. Groups that serve immigrants, such as SUCCESS, have also been consulted and are supportive. Anita Huberman, CEO of the Surrey Board of Trade, said of HELLO: "It's a very worthwhile project for Surrey to build an inclusive and welcoming community."