Well I have about 3 weeks left before I venture off to another far away place. I will be packing my bags and making the journey over to Thailand and Burma for a few weeks.
I was asked to join a friend of mine, Mike Kerychuk from Reaching Kids Internationally, to come and work for a few days with youth who are attending a bible college. As well we will be visiting families that have moved into an abandoned dog shelter (the conditions of the shelter where so bad that the government has closed down) and working with Mike to see if there anything we can do for these families.
I will be working on a few different projects while I am away on this trip.
The first will be the actual project with working with the students in Burma and Thailand.
The second is with a local group of grade 5 students and seeing if I can comminicate with them while I am overseas as well as I’ll be working with them on using technology.
(For more on this project please see this site http://thailandburma.shift8.ca/)
Lastly I will be looking at how a sub $500 netbook can be used in the field for missionary work for missionaries with very limited budgets.
Also while I am away I will be trying to keep Bryna Jones – Public Relations Coordinator for Streams of Hope updated on what I will be doing while I am away.
You will be able to follow her posts here at http://streamsofhope.wordpress.com/.
Ok this may sound weird but I was just trying some new software on my mac mini that will turn it into a media center and I installed the TED viewer and just happened to stumble across this video.
I am ever so impressed with this and would love to try one out to see how well it works ( and yes I will go to a swamp or something and actually drink the water from it, video tape the entire thing and post it here )
This device could simply erase the problem with non drinkable water around the world.
I am planning a trip to Thailand and Burma at the end of September and I would love to be able to bring a few of these with me on my mission trip (one for me to use and few extra to leave with the children that I will be meeting). I haven’t budgeted for something like this for this trip and if anyone is so moved to help either by sending a monetary gift or purchase directly and have delivered, I would be extremely grateful.
If donations don’t come through in time, there is another trip that is being planned in February/March time frame (one that I will not be going on but I could get a few people to take these with them) As well I do have a contact that lives in Thailand that makes regular trips into Burma and the surrounding area that I could send these to him and he could distribute.
On Tuesday, SOH brought you the first of a two-part interview with the President of World Vision Canada, Dave Toycen. Today (as promised) we’re excited to bring you the final installment of that interview.
ME: What can people/groups in Canada do to help?
Dave: Canadians wishing to donate to our efforts in eastern DRC can do so by calling 1-800-268-5528, or by visiting www.worldvision.ca. Those wishing to take action and keep up to date on our efforts can do so with one of the following tools. We also have a vast array of resource available at www.worldvision.ca/congo including prayer points for those who believe in prayer.
ME: Do you have any stories from your trip to DRC that you would like to tell?
Dave: One of the most inspiring children I met was 16-year-old Jonathan*. Jonathan is a former child solider who is now the president of a Child’s Parliament group that World Vision supports in the region. The group was formed in order to empower children to be part of peacebuilding initiatives in their community and has already had a significant impact. Just after the group was formed, the children realized that many homeless children were ending up in the local jail, kept with adult criminals. The group petitioned the local authority and had 15 children successfully freed from the prison and placed in care with host families in the town. The group has also instigated a watch group for girls fetching water so that during this vulnerable act of walking to nearby rivers, the girls are flanked by older boys who stave off potential molesters. It is children like Jonathan that remind me that sometimes children’s courageous acts can embarrass adults into doing the right thing.
Jonathan
*name has been changed to protect the identity of the child.
ME: Anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
Dave: I think it’s important that we remember there is always hope even in the most dire circumstances. I met a mother named Esperance who was at one of our health clinics waiting for her child to be treated. The little one is malnourished, suffering from diarrhea and although slowly recovering after six weeks of treatment, still fighting for her life. Esperance told me that her family is short of food, especially since her husband was shot while trying to flee violence and is now disabled. The family depends on Esperance to tend a small plot for food and take care of them physically. Amidst all of that pain though, Esperance – her name literally meaning hope – told me of her dreams of a future where the war will end and her family can start producing their own food; a future where her children will be safe and have the opportunity to reach their full potential.
Esperance with her child, and Dave
Our sincerest thanks go out to Dave Toycen for this interview, and to his amazing staff, for the work they do bringing awareness and aid to the world’s most impoverished people. You truly inspire us!
For those of you who didn’t read my post yesterday, please take a moment to do so before you continue with this intro. I feel almost any words I use to describe the work of World Vision, Canada, and it’s President, Dave Toycen will be inadequate.
In this two part interview, Dave was kind enough to share with SOH his recent experience in the Democratic Republic of Congo–a country torn by civil war, poverty, and some of the worst injustice the world has ever seen.
ME: What was the purpose of your trip to the Congo?
Dave: It has been 15 years since I had last been to the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, during the time of the Rwandan genocide. At the time there were refugees scattered across Goma, bodies everywhere waiting for mass burial – and now more violence stalks the region. I had to come back, to see how our programs are helping those struggling now and how we can better serve those in need moving forward.
I also wanted to meet with our staff and other NGOs in the region to encourage them. Many leave their own families behind to sacrificially and persistently put the needs of others before their own. And I wanted to remind them that there is a team of people in Canada working to support them and the work on the ground.
ME: What is the situation like there?
Dave: What we’re seeing in eastern DRC is an incredible humanitarian crisis – absolutely one of the worst in the world right now. Nearly 1.5 million people are displaced, women and girls are the victims of sexual violence and children are recruited as soldiers daily. An estimated 45,000 people are dying every month from malnutrition and infectious diseases in the region – a number we would certainly not tolerate here in Canada.
For me personally, this was one of the most difficult trips I have taken in a long time. It all strikes like a body blow when you go into a therapeutic feeding centre and see skinny, severely malnourished little ones struggling for life. One mother named Furaha has two children at her side, a baby who is one month old named Divine and a one year old named Prisca. Prisca has signs of severe malnutrition, including painful mouth sores. Furaha’s husband is out looking for work so she is left to care for two sick children on her own.
I was also struck by the incredible amount of sexual violence that women and girls face. It is certainly a tool of war used by many parties to the increased violence and one that leaves sheer trauma and terror in its wake.
ME: What is World Vision’s presence in Congo?
Dave: World Vision began working in the DRC in 1958, helping girls who would otherwise have been forced into early marriage. By 1988, World Vision had established longer-term community-based projects, through child sponsorship, and is now assisting 56,000 sponsored children in the country.
We are currently working with communities through 25 long-term development programs. We are working to improve water and sanitation, develop infrastructure, improve health and education, in addition to responding to HIV and AIDS while improving food security through special, shorter-term projects.
We are helping 50,000 children recover from the trauma of war in eastern DRC through a UNICEF-funded psychosocial and child protection project. We are also helping families in crisis with survival items like blankets, soap, plastic sheeting for temporary shelters and other emergency help to children and their families.
ME: Do you think the Canadian government needs to take more responsibility in addressing the needs of this conflict?
Dave: We believe that the conflict in the DRC requires a regional solution, and Canada, as co-chair of the Friends Group to the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region, is well placed to support the Governments of DRC, Rwanda and others in finding a lasting solution for peace and development.
Given that The Mission of the United Nations in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (abbreviated in French as MONUC) primary mandate is the protection of civilians, and given Canada’s leadership on the protection of civilians mandate, we would say that there is a logical fit for Canada to provide greater support for the activities and planning of MONUC around the protection of civilians, especially girls and women who are so vulnerable to rape, which has become a frequent weapon of war in this conflict. This will require the concerted efforts of the international community, and we call on Canada to play a lead role in this.
This is the end of part one. Check back on Thursday for the final half of the interview in which Dave describes what we can do as individuals to help those affected by this crisis. He also shares two personal stories of the inspiration and hope that can cause people, and a nation, to heal.
