Friday, December 14, 2012
Somalia: Fundraising in a Refugee Camp
The strength of these families is critically under-reported. HOPE International Development Agency does not even do an adequate job of conveying their dignity and strength, especially when the need to secure help for them behooves us to present their need as clearly as possible.
But to give to someone and know that they are working alongside your gift, that they are the forces that gives your gift potency. Throwing money at a problem never solved it. Investing money into a solid partner can reap great dividends. This is what we are honestly tying to do: find families that can work with us as partners.
In the wake of one of history’s greatest famines, families in Mogadishu, Somalia, have been taking valiant steps from survival mode to something resembling self-sufficiency. Last year we were giving famine-affected families food aid but with time it made sense to help them drill a borehole for clean water in their camp. The really extraordinary thing is that to make this happen, the families took it upon themselves to raise the money. Their contribution of $4,000 might seem paltry by our standards, but it is a huge sum of money considering the fact that they were utterly destitute, literally owning nothing but the clothes of their backs, when they entered the camp.
The borehole is now being drilled and the community of survivors is pouring themselves into seeing the project through. From fundraising to construction, they are making it happen.
This is just one example of the proactive spirit inhabiting the poor communities we choose to work with. Honestly, this is the rule and not the exception. If you give your money, know that it is going to people who know how to benefit from it, to realize its maximum potential to transform their lives.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Philippines Emergency: Survivors of Typhoon Bopha urgently need help.
At its peak, the storm was 400 kms in diameter and had winds approaching speeds of 175 kms per hour. Families caught in the teeth of the storm lost everything, including loved ones and friends.
Visit www.hope-international.com to learn how you can help families who are struggling to survive in the aftermath of Typhoon Bopha.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Giving: “We have only used HOPE as a conduit”
This person, together with his family, has been responsible for helping poor people transform entire villages into places where they can drink clean water, grow enough food, start businesses, and send their children to school.
We say all of this not to glorify the givers, who would not want us to do so, but to emphasize that they are people who know what they are talking about when they talk about the subject of giving. This friend writes:
“I can't help thinking about what you said about people donating to [HOPE International Development Agency] or to David McKenzie [ed. whether people think of their gifts as going to the charity itself or to the people like International President David McKenzie who might be exhorting donors to give].
Really thinking about it, that has never occurred to me. We…have always thought that our donations went to the people of Cambodia, Ethiopia, the Philippines or whatever country that has a population of really poor people.
We have only used [HOPE] as a conduit to get the funds to the country of our designation. AND the only reason that we use [HOPE] in that way is because you and [HOPE] have set in place a mechanism to make sure that the funds reach their intended destination and attain their intended results.
Maybe it would be wise to let the people know that Hope is only a conduit to get funds to their intended destination and that none of the funds stay with [HOPE].”
We agree and we think this man has put it beautifully. If you can trust your charity to be a conduit rather than a final destination for your gifts, then you may be inspired to give more joyfully.
We are all tired of feeling like we are bankrolling charity executives. The ‘intended results’ are those transformed villages that these givers have stood alongside and given a push towards self-sufficiency. So we believe that the more power we can give to donors and to the poor, the less power that we, as the charitable ‘conduit’ will have. That’s just exactly as it should be.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
The Dominican Republic: ‘More Than Simple Housewives’
Through decades of experience, HOPE International Development Agency has learned that community-based greenhouses run by women’s associations can be a very effective means of increasing food production and incomes. Each greenhouse is constructed of a breathable fabric with no open-air windows, sides that extend into the earth, and a hygienic air-lock entry to prevent the introduction of diseases and pests. Families farming in greenhouses can produce significantly more food than families farming in traditional outdoor plots of land.
Since the beginning of 2012, HOPE International Development Agency has helped 40 women in 5 associations in San Jose de Ocoa maintain efficient greenhouses by reinstalling roofing and insect-proof meshing, improving soil quality, rebuilding soil beds, and improving irrigation systems. Seeds have also been distributed and families have participated in extensive training.
These activities have all helped families to grow food more efficiently and with a smaller chance of losing crops to pests or weather. For women like Josefa Emilia Castillo, who works with six other women in her group, the Asociacion des Mujeres Maria Trinidad Sanchez in the community of El Naranjal, this is making a significant difference:
We have established a small family business, providing to the family some economic benefits, among others. The family now gets better food, is healthier, and has more time available. Having a greenhouse has improved my family’s life in an agreeable way because now we have been able to acquire the resources of production.
Food comes to us that was previously not available to us, was not in our reach. In this way, the greenhouse has improved our quality of life.”
What these women are doing with their greenhouses is inspiring to us. We’ve included these greenhouses in our annual gift catalogue if you want to make their success part of your holiday celebrations.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Gifts that bring hope to people who need it most
For the seven year-old child traumatized by the loss of her parents because of HIV/AIDS, your gift means safety, education, and all the care she will need to move beyond life on the streets of Addis Ababa.
For the mother in South Sudan who weeps because she knows the filthy pond water her children are forced to drink may very well take their lives, your gift of clean water means good health for her children and freedom from heartbreak.
For the children and young people in Cambodia destined to continue living a life of oppressive poverty because they lack an education, your gift of learning will be their way out of poverty.
For the parents in the Democratic Republic of Congo whose impoverished life is a recurring nightmare that began when they were children, your gift of training, tools, seeds, and other much needed help means their families can become self-sufficient and free from poverty.
No store-bought gift can compare to the hope and transformation a gift from this year’s catalogue can bring to a poor child or family in desperate need right now.
You can give as many gifts as you wish. You can even give gifts on behalf of loved ones, friends, or co-workers. We will send them a personal note, telling them about the gift and the giver.
See this year’s selection of life transforming gifts you can give.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Haitian families dealt another cruel blow with the arrival of Hurricane Sandy
You can support our efforts to help Haiti's poorest families recover by visiting www.hope-international.com today.
Monday, October 15, 2012
South Sudan: On the Frontline of Health Care for the Poor
There are far too few health workers in South Sudan and those who faithfully serve their people are plagued with a lack of infrastructure, of medicines, and of equipment.
We’re proud to send medicines and medical supplies to South Sudanese clinics that serve the very poor.
Check out the BBC photo-essay here and you can see the conditions that people like Nurse James are working in, attempting to serve people who are ‘starting from zero’
Thursday, October 4, 2012
In Pueblo Libre, starting school is not the issue. Staying in school is the challenge.
It’s not easy to learn when you are the first among your family to go to school. Parents, the vast majority of whom never had the opportunity to attend school, are not well equipped to support their children in their learning journey. It’s not that parents don’t want to support their children, they just don’t have the first-hand experience or understanding of the benefits education can provide.
The situation is equally challenging for young people who are approaching a time when they will enter the workforce. Without the appropriate skills training, finding a job with a livable wage is next to impossible.
Both scenarios do not offer much hope and result in people remaining trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty.
With your help, however, children can stay in school, and young people can receive the training they need in order to get a good job.
With your help, children can receive tutoring twice a week. This will ensure that they understand what they are being taught, and are able to apply what they are learning. In addition, children also receive all of the school supplies they need, including items like notebooks, pencils, and paper. In addition, a portion of your gift is used to teach parents how to support their children in their learning journey. All of this help gives a child everything they need to feel supported in their learning efforts and to be successful.
You can also support the young people of Pueblo Libre by helping fund scholarships that will ensure they have access to the job skills training they need in order to secure a job with a livable wage and good future.
In Pueblo Libre, education and job skills training are two of the most important ways to become free from the poverty that has held people captive for generations.
Help the children and young people of Pueblo Libre today.
Friday, September 28, 2012
Ethiopia: “Like a Mother and Father, HOPE International Development Agency Supported Me”
"My name is Helen Tekele. I am 16 years old and living in the Gotera area of Addis Ababa. I am one of 7 children. We had been living off the pension of our retired father, but since my mother was an asthmatic patient she was not able to support us and medical care for her was expensive. Though our living standards were very low, my parents were happy. To increase the family’s income, my father started working as a guard in one organization. However, after some time my father became ill with Tuberculosis. When the case became serious, he was admitted at Zewditu Hospital. Shortly after, he passed away. So as not to be a burden on our family, four of my brothers married. My brother who remained at home was forced to put his education on hold because the tuition fees were too high. When my mother’s asthma became worse, I too dropped out of school to care for her. After being hospitalized for quite some time, she passed away. It was at that time that a HOPE International Development Agency employee introduced me to the organization. When I shared my story with them, they were very willing to support me. Like a mother and a father, HOPE supported me to continue my education, providing necessary school materials. The organization also has been providing me wheat, oil, and Famix monthly. With the support of the Almighty God and HOPE, I am studying the 11th grade. If it is God’s will, I want to support children who have lost parents like myself to complete their education."
We have no reason to doubt that Helen will go on to be an incredibly supportive and compassionate adult. This is what we see happen with ‘our kids’.
If supporting someone like Helen is something you’re interested in doing, learn more by visiting www.hope-international.com today.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Cambodia: Khmer Rouge’s ‘First Lady’ Released
Friday, September 7, 2012
Haiti: Picking up the Pieces in the Aftermath of Tropical Storm Isaac.
Already incredibly poor, and still trying to recover from the earthquake that devastated the country a few years ago, many families in Fon Batis and Delis lost their homes, food supplies, vegetable gardens, crops, and livestock.
This couldn't have happened at a worse time given that the most recent harvest of corn and beans never happened due to a recent drought throughout the area.
HOPE International Development Agency is responding with urgently needed items such as emergency food rations, crop seeds, tools, animals, basic household tools, and home repairs or reconstruction.
You can help the families of Fon Batis and Delis today.
Please visit www.hope-international.com to make a donation.
Ethiopia: A boost in the uphill battle of providing health care to the poor
Recently, Aklilu Mulat, HOPE International Development Agency’s Acting Executive Director, visited Ethiopia, the country of his birth, where he witnessed the delivery of a large shipment of medical supplies that we had arranged for a rural hospital to receive.
This is something we do all over the world: help struggling hospitals and clinics that serve the poorest of the poor to be better stocked and equipped.
We secure high quality medications and medical equipment (not expired pills and broken or useless tools!), and ship large quantities of them to health centers that can put them to good use.
Aklilu’s observations highlight the deprivation and struggle that these health centers experience on a day to day basis. The Hosana Hospital is typical of the institutions across the world that we are trying to help.
Aklilu writes...
The tour of Hosana Hospital was overwhelming. Supplies were in serious lack, which meant that services could not be delivered at the level necessary to ensure proper treatment of patients. It also meant that the hospital itself was unsanitary. The delivery room and the room in which they carried out some surgery, for example, were not clean, let alone sterile. Dr. Ayano (the medical director of the hospital) attributes this to lack of consistent supply of water, lack of cleaning and sterilizing supplies, and failure of some of their equipment.
There were very few pieces of equipment that actually worked. Most concerning was that the sterilizing equipment did not work at all.
Overall, the hospital and regional officials expressed deep gratitude to HOPE International Development Agency as the medical supplies will enable the hospital - which has a service area of nearly 1 million people - to provide better care to patients. “Items like gauze, scissors, gloves, and syringes may seem ordinary,” said Dr. Avano, “but they save lives.”
It is encouraging to see the shipment of medical supplies received by the good people at Hosana Hospital, knowing that it will help the doctors and nurses - not to mention the patients - in their need. Because their need is beyond acute.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Pakistan: After Survival, is Thriving Possible?
With your help, we tended to survivors in the immediate aftermath. But once the clean water, medicine, food, and shelter were distributed, there was still so much to do. As with other post-disaster scenarios, we wanted to know if we could make people more resilient in the face of future disasters, and raise the standard of living to a higher level than it had been before tragedy struck.
We wanted to make sure the poorest families had better livelihoods. For example, we found ultra-poor landless women and gave them goats and cattle and training on how to raise these animals and treat common livestock diseases.
Shahnaz Mai has five boys and three daughters. The floods destroyed her home, drowned her four goats, and wiped out all of the food she had. Her situation was beyond desperate. She says when she heard how HOPE International Development Agency was helping women like herself she had a ‘glimmer of hope for [her] betterment.’ She said she felt she might be able to stand on her feet again. She was right.
Shahnaz now has a goat that she has been fully trained in the care of. She sells the milk for 30 rupees a day. When the goat has a kid, she’ll sell it for a ‘windfall profit’. At this stage of the game, she says that she and her family now depend on nobody for charity.
Two years after losing everything, Shahnaz and her children are doing well. They did not only survive mind-numbing catastrophe, they are strong and self-sufficient in their new post-flood reality. Fortunately, there are many others like them. We have the privilege of working with them.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Cambodia: Personal reflections on choices
Here's what our friend Jennie has to say about her experience...
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Hunger – Caused by People, Solved by People.
More often than not, people invite hunger into their lives and the lives of others.
Sometimes the invite is issued unknowingly. A lack of knowledge, for example, can result in hunger appearing on the scene in a home or village.
Other times, hunger appears because of greed, or for the gain of the powerful.
Further discussion of hunger, however, must include some consideration of our perception of nature’s role in the prevalence and persistence of hunger throughout the developing world.
At first glance it would appear easy, if not convenient, to blame nature for much of what ails the developing world.
Upon closer examination, however, it becomes evident that blaming nature may be both unwise and disastrous, especially for the poor.
Without a doubt, nature has the ability destroy lives. A tsunami or earthquake, for example, can end life in a heartbeat. Prolonged drought, on the other hand, ends life slowly and agonizingly.
Yet if we take a moment to look beyond the obvious, the fury of a killer storm or the silent death caused by drought, we find, yet again, people.
Choices made before a natural disaster occurs have as much impact on a post-disaster outcome as the choices made in response to a disaster. In fact, poor choices, made by impoverished families through a lack of knowledge or resources, or by knowledgeable people for their own advancement, are the real disaster, and put multitudes more people at risk than any disaster.
Our daily inaction against the root causes of hunger, for example, is massively amplified in the aftermath of a disaster.
The fact that it often takes an act of nature to force issues of chronic hunger into our consciousness is a sad testament to the human condition these days, especially when you consider that the hunger we are concerned about existed long before the disaster happened.
In essence, hunger has been hiding in plain sight all along.
Yes, we can blame nature. In fact, we can blame whomever or whatever we choose. In the end, however, hunger is most often caused by people, exacerbated by people, and allowed to persist by people.
And therein lies the hope. If people, through the choices they make, invite hunger into their lives, they can, with the right knowledge and resources, send hunger packing.
You can help the poor learn to make choices that make them both self-reliant and resilient.
The question is, will you?
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Somalia: The Long Road Home
The UN has since rescinded its declaration of famine, but this does not mean Somali families, especially those currently living in displaced person camps, are not at risk.
Currently, around 2.5 million people in Somalia continue to need assistance, and an additional 1.2 million could fall back into crisis very quickly without the type of sustained assistance provided by organizations like HOPE International Development Agency.
Without a doubt, the ascent out of famine is going to be much slower than the descent.
Recent rains have helped in some areas of the country, but other areas remain much like they were before the famine.
In some areas, modest gains are expected in harvests where families were able to plant crops.
Yet for millions of Somalia’s population, talk of rains and harvests borders on the irrelevant as they are still living in displaced persons camps and unable to return home at this point. The conditions that forced them to flee their homes in search of shelter, food, and water persist today, but then again, so does our resolve to help!
From the outset of the crisis, and even before famine was declared, it has been HOPE International Development Agency’s desire to accomplish two key things with and for displaced families in Somalia.
Firstly, we want to do everything we can to ensure that families survive and become healthy enough to make the journey home when the time comes. We had hoped that many would have been able to return home this year, but the conditions simply are not right at this time. Families would be inviting suffering and death into their lives if they left the camps at this time.
Secondly, we want to ensure that when families do return home, they have access to the knowledge, supplies, and tools they will need to become self-reliant again.
The sum of these two initiatives will ensure that returning families and their communities become drought resistant and as such, are able to survive and thrive in the challenging conditions that are characteristic of this region of Africa.
Right now, however, our attention is focused on two major concerns related to our work among families in Taagwey camp on the outskirts of Mogadishu, the nation's capital city:
Food supplies are running critically low
The emergency food supplies that are keeping families alive until they can return home are starting to run out. We need to restock these vital supplies as soon as possible.
Water is in short supply
The camp water supply, a borehole well with an insufficient pump and no storage capacity, is failing to keep up with even the minimal needs of Taagwey, whose population has swelled to 12,000 from its original population of 3,200 people before the crisis began.
Visit www.hope-international.com today to learn how you can help.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Hunger Rarely Shows Up Uninvited.
We, through our decisions, either invite hunger into the lives of the poor or force it to leave.
Follow the money, or as is so often the case, the breadcrumbs that fall from the table.
In nearly every situation where chronic hunger is present and busy laying waste to families, countries, and regions, we observe that hunger’s presence, more often than not, originates in decisions made by people. Sometimes the decision-makers are affected by their decisions. Most times, however, they are not.
The problem for the poor of our world is that a marginal decision, made either directly or indirectly by someone else, can have dire consequences. The poor can be forgiven for making decisions that end up harming them – in nearly every situation, they simply do not have the resources or knowledge needed to make beneficial decisions in an environment that has become increasingly hostile and marginally livable. The same, however, cannot be said of others, whose decisions are based solely on profitability or power.
For example, someone decided that food would be no different than a barrel of crude oil and should be traded as such.
The commoditization of food contributes to the persistence and broad presence of hunger in our world. The extraordinary concentration of power and dollars within the global grain trade is but one example. Estimates show that as few as four massive transnational corporations control somewhere between 70 to 90 per cent of the global grain trade. Billions of dollars are up for grabs. One of these corporations alone generated 62 billion dollars in earnings in one year. With billions of dollars at stake and millions of people at risk, it is not hard to guess which number will win out in the end.
In the end, the common element is people and the decisions they make.
Next week... Caused by people, solved by people.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Hunger – The Real Story is in the Not So Obvious.
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Putting Tools in Hands, Hope in Hearts, and Food on Tables
Hunger is the norm and earning a livable wage is as rare as having enough food to eat, or a child not being terribly sick every second or third day.
The years have not been kind to these families. Poverty has prevented them from attaining the knowledge, skills, and resources needed to coax both a bountiful harvest and livable income from the soil. This despite the fact that the soil beneath their feet is fertile enough to grow almost anything you can imagine.
In essence, the soil is incredibly rich and the people are incredibly poor.
Unable to grow enough food to feed themselves, chronic hunger and severe malnutrition are considered a way of life.
But thankfully, with your help, we can put tools in their hands, knowledge in their minds, and a sustainable supply of nutritious food on their tables.
With an armload of sturdy gardening tools, a huge bag of seeds, and agricultural training specifically developed to help families learn how to do everything from planning for a bountiful harvest right through to transporting and selling a portion of the harvest at the best price possible, families will be able to free themselves from poverty.
Their desire and your support will ensure that the families of Bogalengba become as rich as the soil they walk upon every day. And by rich, we mean having enough food to eat, earning a livable wage, and having hope in their hearts.
Learn how you can help the families of Bogalengba today.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Cambodia: Chan’s ‘Look-You-In-The-Eye Confidence’
A North American-based member of our staff recently traveled to Cambodia. The last time he’d been in the country, he was assisting the film crew that annually donates their professional services to create the films showcasing our work with the poor.
One of the families depicted in that year’s film, ‘The Journey of a Promise’, was headed by a woman named Chan (shown above). In the film, her extremely harsh existence is on display as she and her children eat the thin rice gruel that constitutes their main daily meal.
Chan was one of the first people that our staff member wanted to visit. Inspired by what he saw, he wrote this email to the film crew:
“I am just back from Cambodia. I am always interested to see how the individuals we show in our films are doing. My first field visit was to Chan's family and her home and community (from the 2009 film). Her life and that of her family have really improved!
A well and now a safe and plentiful and close-by water supply (shared with other nearby families). Garden and nutrition from vegetable crops, and new income from produce sales. Participation in a Self Help Group and all the social capital that comes from that. Raising livestock (her own cow from the Cow Bank, and tending other people's goats). She has now has an income from all of these activities. Her husband is a more active contributor/participant in the family. All her children are in school, including the 16 year old who gets to start in grade 2 or 3 (now that is one brave woman!), except the youngest who will start when she is old enough (but she wants to go NOW!).
The confirmation of all this good is the clear sparkle in Chan's eyes and the look-you-in-the-eye confidence that comes with the knowledge she is on a good path (and from all the interaction with the HOPE International Development Agency staff that has completely affirmed her). That was a great moment for me to see that in her!
A few of my pictures attached. A big THANK YOU from me for all you do in support of what we together try to do with and for the poor.”
Seeing as you (dear Reader) might be one of those people who were moved by Chan’s story to give towards families like hers back in 2009, we figure the ‘thank you’ applies equally to you! We hope the update is as encouraging to you as it is to us.
Friday, June 22, 2012
Another Look at Kony12: ‘Post-Humanitarian Advertising’
The article focuses on the famous Kony12 campaign, which saw a short video produced by the Kony12 organization go viral on a scale never before seen.
Wan’s analysis — namely that the Kony12 campaign distinguished itself from the type of advertising charities have used in the past by mirroring the consumerist, narcissistic qualities that prevail in today’s Western culture — cuts deeply.
It’s all of especially interest to us because, of course, one of HOPE International Development Agency’s mandates — and, indeed, the only way we can go forward with any other mandate to serve the poor — is to communicate the problem of poverty to people who can do something about it.
When we do this, we have to do it right. It’s not an easy task. Do you best serve the cause by shocking people with the depth of poverty suffered by people a whole world away? Or do you encourage positive feelings by emphasizing the good that you, as a donor, can do? Or do you appeal to the Western desire to be heroic, a kind of humanitarian super-star like George Clooney or the notorious makers of the Kony12 video?
All of these ‘trends’ in humanitarian advertising can do a lot of damage, and miss the mark entirely: letting people know that that others—just as human as they are—are suffering and could be helped. It’s incredible to think that such a simple message can be so difficult to convey without demonstrating the worst tendencies in our culture
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Ethiopia: A ‘Simple Repair’ is Success Beyond Measure
A professor from McGill who recently traveled to Ethiopia to evaluate our work helping the poor to develop clean water systems in their villages observed something that he found very encouraging.
When a tap on a system broke, the villagers organized someone to leave the village, purchase a replacement in the correct model, and install it upon his or her return. Of course that’s what they did, you might be saying. But this simple act of repairing a tap demonstrated something profound, a milestone that the community had reached in the non-linear and often-bewildering journey out of chronic poverty. They might have gotten their water system installed but never reached this milestone and then in five to ten years time they would be a community with a broken-down system and a sense of poverty more firmly entrenched than ever.
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Afghanistan: Jalalabad Clinic a Bastion Against Poverty’s Worst Ravages
How does a person, like the young woman shown above, burn their entire arm and not have any place to go to have it treated? How is it that a boy’s foot can be injured while chopping wood with an axe and nobody is there to clean and bandage it? Billions of people scrape by without much or any money, but if something goes terribly wrong with their bodies, that’s when poverty becomes a real horror show.
Thankfully, the Jalalabad clinic is running well and caring for poor people who would not be able to afford the fees at other clinics. This is a place of mercy, where our staff treat their patients with a high degree of sensitivity and devotion. When staff tell us about what they spend the lion’s share of their time treating, we know that they are dealing with a very deprived population indeed: parasites, waterborne diseases, malaria, TB, the ailments that most of the Western world has long left behind. They are meeting critical needs — from presiding over complicated deliveries that, without assistance, would have killed both mother and child, to counseling women from traditional communities regarding their options for birth control.
Because the help is there, real people are being saved from the worst kind of poverty—the loss of health, of life itself. We are grateful for the work our clinic staff are doing and honoured to support them in it.
Monday, June 4, 2012
Bahamani, South Sudan: The raiders are long gone but the suffering remains
In a matter of moments, the families of Bahamani became refugees and remain as such even today.
Our work among the refugee families began in the aftermath of the attack and continues today. We've been assisting with the provision of food, basic household items, hand-tools, seeds, and agricultural training - all in an effort to help them return to self-sufficiency, even amidst this very difficult situation.
In the aftermath of the attack, 28,000 needed immediate help. And while we are thankful that we've been able to help the survivors begin returning to self-sufficiency, we also have become aware that there are families who need more help or have not yet received the help they need.
Today, we need your support in order to increase the amount of help we are providing to these refugees. Please visit www.hope-international.com and learn more about how you can help the families of Bahamani today.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Peru: Stemming the Tide of Tragedy
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Somalia: A Job Well Done, But Also Only Partly Done
The United Nations has officially declared the famine in Somalia to be over. For our part, we are reflecting on our food distributions in ‘Zone K’ refugee camp in Mogadishu with gratitude toward how smooth the process was, and humility when we consider how many more people need food acutely.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Manuella: A Haitian Success Story, One Year Later
Just a few weeks ago, we met with Manuella to see how life has changed for her since she received help through our 2011 campaign on behalf of Haitian families.
HOPE International Development Agency's Director of International Relations, Clifferd Dick, reports that...
‘Real positive change is beginning to happen in her life! The new tarps that [we] were able to get her continue to provide her and her family significant temporary shelter. Manuella is also now a member of the local Chinchiron cooperative! She participates in all the training and education services that [we provide] to farm families…Manuella and her husband have been able to access improved seed and participate in agricultural training as they work to improve their farm yield. Finally, the water situation is about to change for Manuella! A part of the storage silo structure that is just beginning to be built is a large water cistern. This will gather and hold for community use water that runs off from the roof of this building. The cistern will hold tens of thousands of litres of water, reducing greatly the time and effort required by Manuella's family to collect water.’
It is gratifying to revisit the struggles depicted so candidly on film, and then to consider the changes that have taken place since. Now she is epitomizing the flip-side of the typical developing world mother’s situation: a success story who was just waiting for a small investment of tools and training.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Fear replaced with hope in Cambodia
Monday, April 23, 2012
Guatemala: Time Saved and Dream’s Realized for Juana San Amparas
Friday, April 13, 2012
African Stories and ‘Comment Culture’: Where Compassion and Callousness Meet
The editorial is thoughtful. It’s helpful to let people know how hard aid organizations work to address a crisis like that brewing in the Sahel region of Africa right now, before they become media spectacles. Unfortunately, it is the media spectacle that inevitably provokes the greatest response from concerned donors.
As eye-opening as the article is, the reader comments below are far more revelatory. Although one must always remember that the comments section of most online publications are the natural habitat of people who are spoiling for a fight, eager to express their polarizing views with convenient anonymity, they are still worth a read. That is, if you are someone who cares for the poorest of the poor and tries to create the conditions on this planet that would give them something that almost approaches a fair shake in life.
It is beyond the scope of this blog to address the extremely complicated feelings that Westerners habour towards Africans. But it’s fair to say that there is a tenor of extreme disgust and impatience towards the perceived ‘failures’ of this continent, economically, politically, and otherwise. This impatience makes rallying support for intelligent investments into the abilities of poor African families to become self-reliant (something we try to do) quite the uphill battle.
If you are like many of the commentators of this article and you believe that sending aid to famine-afflicted starving people directly causes problems like overpopulation, you have a perfect excuse not to care very much at all whether the next batch of miserable African victims die off or not. Not caring is being part of the solution, rather than the problem! One wonders at the thought process which leads the very intelligent-sounding ‘Dieter HH’ to state that aid organizations “may in fact have made the situation much worse by encouraging irresponsible and unsustainable population increases ( y factors of 3X to 4X ) in what is/was under the best of circumstances a marginal and unforgiving eco system.”
What does he picture in his mind’s eye? That presumably once she’s watched her child with toonie-sized biceps ingest a rehydration packet, the typical African mother immediately makes plans to give birth to many more children, seeing as the experience of depending on emergency aid has relieved her of much of the stress of figuring out how to keep body and soul together? Maybe African mothers and fathers are sort of like entitled teenagers and they have children just to test the patience of Western donors?
We say this: beware of the type of logic that encourages hardness of heart. Beware of the thoughts that conveniently allow you to forgo even the most modest shows of generosity. Consider carefully what commentator ‘KateCanadian’ has to say:
“The responses to this article so far are not responses to human beings in trouble. They sound like the callous English landlords who sneered at the Irish in the midst of the potato famine. The 8-year-old child whose brain is being clouded and body twisted by lack of protein and vitamins -- the child does not know that thirty years ago relief funds were stolen by strongmen who died before they were born. The child is living now, today, and needs help in a situation created by adults.”
Thursday, April 5, 2012
UBUNTU
We have often considered it our mission at HOPE International Development Agency to get people who have been given a lot to understand how full life can be when they give generously — when they give more than they thought they would be comfortable giving. But it is difficult to convey the joy of sharing in a culture where lonely self-protection rules the day.
As you mark Easter this year, and you think about how to be on the side of life, on the side of love and generosity, perhaps think about this story:
An anthropologist proposed a game to a group of African tribal children. He put a basket full of fruit near a tree and told them that whoever got there first would win the sweet fruits. When he told them to run they all took each other’s hands and ran together, then sat together enjoying their treats. When he asked them why they had run like that, as one could have had all the fruits for himself, they said: “UBUNTU, how can one of us be happy if all the other ones are sad?”
UBUNTU in the Xhosa culture means: "I am because we are."
Happy Easter and remember — you are because we are.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
UNION: Beyond the Consumer’s ‘Voluntourism’
For those interested in traveling for a purpose beyond merely taking in the sights, consider volunteering with HOPE International Development Agency's UNION program. If you have a few minutes, watch this short film about UNION.
In recent years, we’ve become aware of the term ‘voluntourism’, which refers to overseas tourism that incorporates some sort of volunteering. The term is fairly glib and in many respects, it should be. The idea of rich westerners taking excursions to the poorest, most desolate places on earth for their own sense of personal enrichment should make us all a little squeamish. The idea that one can buy the experience of feeling like a good person — because, let’s face it, it is costly to fly, costly to travel to far flung places — should give one pause.
We have been sending volunteers to the communities where we are at work since the early 80s, long before there was a market for this kind of travel experience. Since that time, we have been telling people that, in fact, they are really not that useful to us as school-builders, nurses, teachers, or any of the myriad roles that people take on as overseas volunteers. Even if those are exactly the sort of jobs our volunteers do, the purpose has never been to replace indigenous school-builders, nurses, and teachers with Western travelers — the purpose has been to allow our volunteers to simply experience life in these villages.
The most useful work our volunteers do takes place when they return home — our volunteers have raised untold sums of money for the communities that they grew to love, they have become formidable advocates, they have found ways to support and strengthen the work of HOPE. We could hand out a million pamphlets on poverty and their impact would be inconsequential compared to the experience of a handful of people who had actually traveled to a poor village and befriended the people there. Information breeds opinions, but experience stokes the fire of activism.
So while the term ‘voluntourism’ summons images of the perfect consumer package — a travel experience designed to provide moral satisfaction in a few convenient weeks — please understand that the UNION experience is a little different. We want your time overseas to be the beginning of something a lot less convenient, tidy, and short-term, but ultimately much, much more satisfying