Photo credit: Steve Burton

A Red River College student has created a new website giving voice to burn survivors from across Canada — while connecting them with the supports and online resources she herself missed out on as a child.

Maria Cristina Laureano, a second-year Creative Communications student, will host a launch party this Saturday for After the Cocoon, a website featuring stories and photos of burn survivors she interviewed at a conference in Calgary.

The project was completed as part of Laureano’s CreComm coursework, and was inspired by her experiences growing up with scars caused by serious burns suffered when a pot of boiling water spilled on when she was just nine months old. Her family moved to Canada from the Philippines when she was four, and Laureano later found out about burn-support networks such as the Canadian Burn Survivors Community and the Mamingwey Burn Survivor Society.

“I got really excited. because it was the first time I ever found out that there were people out there like me,” Laureano told Metro Winnipeg.

“I think (this site) will be good for new burn survivors to read about what other people went through and how they got through it … (It) isn’t just about how people get burned; it’s about what happens afterwards.”

Now 25, Laureano will host a launch party for After the Cocoon this Saturday, Feb. 9, at 2 p.m., at the Fire Fighters Museum (56 Maple St.)

Click here to see the website.