News – Page 12 – World Neighbours Canada

January 3, 2017July 3, 2017

Greeting 2017 positively!

posted by Judy Gray, with quotes from our partners – Vecinos Honduras and APDC

Our partner organizations, Vecinos Honduras and APDC from Burkina Faso have recently sent well-wishes for a prosperous new year and expressed thanks for the support they have received from World Neighbours Canada and Global Affairs Canada. The directors of World Neighbours Canada pass on those wishes and gratitude to all our supporters. We are hoping for peaceful conditions throughout the coming year in all the areas where we are working with people to alleviate poverty. Here are the messages from our partners.

¡Que las fiestas de navidad sean propicias para fortalecer nuestro compromiso por un mundo mejor e iniciar el 2017 con renovadas energías y esperanzas!

~ miembros directivos, personal técnico y administrativo de Vecinos Honduras

“Nous adressons des voeux de santé, de progrès, de paix et de succès à WNCanada et au Gouvernement Canadien à travers votre Institution. Toute notre vive gratitude à l’égard de vos multiples efforts pour nous soutenir, s’exprime également à travers ces voeux.”

~ Charles Tankoano et toute l’équipe de APDC, ainsi que les communautés de Fada

December 13, 2016July 3, 2017

Vecinos Honduras – a successful model for Holistic Community Development

by Vera Radyo, Executive Director of the Kenoli Foundation and a World Neighbours Canada volunteer; photos by Ken Phillips; posted by Judy Gray

Improved stoves make a world of difference for women, their families
and the environment.

Over the years, we have seen dramatic improvements in the lives of the people in the original 10 communities of the Michael Newman Program located in the El Guano area of the municipality of Danli.
As a result of an agrarian reform process, some landless farmers “campesinos” were granted land in the remote mountain areas of the Danli. In 2007, when Vecinos Honduras came there, the community leaders stated that food insecurity was a huge problem with an average of 90 days a year when families had no food and were forced to borrow funds at exorbitant interest rates to feed their families. Thus, not only were they extremely poor, but they were in debt!

This plantain harvest will help feed the family.

The reality for these communities has changed dramatically since then. They are now food secure. The families have learned how to grow organic corn, beans, coffee, vegetables and fruits. Their children are healthier and better nourished. Women cook on improved stoves, no longer inhale the smoke from cooking over open fires and they have made many household improvements. The families no longer live in isolation from one another, but have formed coffee cooperatives and micro-businesses.

Because they live in remote mountainous communities, they are easily forgotten. However, they have learned how to advocate for themselves and have received support from the local municipality in the way of water and sanitation, road improvements, construction of a training center and more. Most importantly, community leaders have been trained as agents of change to ensure that the development is sustained. These communities will never regress to the old ways!

These children are learning a marketable skill — making beautiful baskets!

The Vecinos Honduras model is unique. The staff of the project live in the rural and remote communities in which they work. This model has been very successful and for the past few years, the staff of the Michael Newman Program have shifted the focus of their work to another 7 villages in the mountains of Azabache, where they are already seeing important changes in the lives of the communities.

NOTE: Michael Newman of World Neighbours Canada supported the Vecinos Honduras programs for over 20 years and passed away in 2013. The program was named in his honour. World Neighbours Canada is pleased to be able to support the expansion of this project into a new area, Valle, in part due to grant support from the Canadian Government as part of a Maternal, Newborn Child Health initiative that WNC received. Further program expansion in Azabache is not possible at this time due to insecurity as violent crime is widespread in the country because of the drug trade and ineffective policing.

October 11, 2016July 3, 2017

Introducing our newest Board member

posted by Judy Gray, with information from Libby Denbigh

The Denbigh family in Salleni, Nepal - Libby, our newest Board member on the right — The Denbigh family in Salleni, Nepal – Libby, our newest Board member, wearing a white Tilley hat.

My name is Libby, short for Elizabeth, but nobody calls me that except the bank. My late husband, David Denbigh, was a member of the board of World Neighbours for several years. He passed away suddenly last December and I am honoured to be asked to take his place on the board. I don’t expect to be able to fill his shoes, (they were size eleven, after all) but I will do what I can to help this really important organization. I have seen first hand what money from WNC has accomplished in Nepal as I have been there twice. Our initial interest was spurred by our younger daughter’s death in 2006. Her last wish was that we should find an NGO that worked with the villagers of Nepal. We chose World Neighbours because all of the board are unpaid volunteers. All the money donated goes to fund new water systems in the rural area of Ramechhap in Nepal, or to projects in Honduras and Burkina Faso. We have been supporters ever since. I am a retired primary teacher. I have three children and four grandchildren and I enjoy camping with them in the summer and skiing in the winter. Originally a farm girl from Manitoba, I have lived and worked in Kamloops since 1970. I look forward to serving on the board of WNC for as long as I can be of assistance.

October 6, 2016July 3, 2017

Benefits of BCCIC

by Bruce Petch, WNC director

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

World Neighbours Canada is a member of the BC Council for International Cooperation (BCCIC), a network of organizations working in international development. I attended the annual general meeting of BCCIC in Vancouver in mid-September. It was a great opportunity to meet with other BC organizations who are also engaged in the alleviation of poverty around the world. BCCIC has provided a number of very useful workshops over the past year, with topics such as project monitoring and donor stewardship. The network also fosters connections with Global Affairs Canada, and a current employee and two retired employees from this branch of the federal government attended the meeting. They were able to provide insights into the functioning of this sector of our government. Lastly, BCCIC is a useful link to “the big picture” of international development. A current focus of attention is the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations, a lofty set of goals intended to make the world a better place for everyone by 2030.

September 23, 2016July 3, 2017

Hilidevi- An example of community partnerships

a short excerpt from, “Sustainable Community Development” written by Navjot Gill as a reflection of her 2016 field visits in Ramechhap, Nepal ]

I had the opportunity to accompany the TSS (Tamakoshi Sewa Samiti – our partner NGO in Nepal) team to the district of Hilidevi for an initial community-wide engagement visit. Here, TSS will support the construction of household toilets. This work will be funded by the Global Affairs Canada grant in Maternal, Newborn and Child Health. The community of Hilidevi faces many challenges in health care and development. First, it is extremely isolated. It is a 5-hour drive from Manthli and roads are often closed due to the weather. Second, the community lacks basic necessities. There is no access to electricity and most people have no access to water. Lastly, the village does not have accessible health care, though there is a health post in the district headquarters. With so many challenges, where does development even begin?

The community-wide meeting in Hilidevi gave individuals, families, and service providers an opportunity to discuss some of these challenges. In total, there were 8 TSS personnel and 55 community members, ranging from children, mothers, elders, teachers, health care workers, political leaders and female community health volunteers. TSS project coordinator and board member presented their invitation for collaboratively building household toilets in the district. This was followed by an invitation for community members to discuss their experiences of health care. Themes that circulated the room were access to healthcare services, lack of accessibility due to their geographical location, the need to include and provide for those who cannot afford to build their own toilets, and an agreement that ODF (open defecation free) was a priority for the community. This participatory process ensures community buy-in, allows dialogue and discussion, and further gives community members, like the health services providers, an opportunity to discuss the importance of topics like household toilets in relation to infectious disease.

September 16, 2016July 3, 2017

WNC welcomes a new director

gray4021 — Board of Directors for WNC: (left to right) Judy Gray, Bruce Petch, Laurena Rehbein, Mary Doyle, Graem Nelson, Libby Denbigh, Dale Dodge and Nav Gill

The Annual General Meeting of WNC took place last weekend in Penticton B.C. As always, it was an intense, though very cordial meeting, with many items to cover. Much of the discussion centred on developments dealing with our Maternal Newborn Child Health grant from the federal government. Activities are underway in each of our three project countries; and our partner NGOs are very happy to know that funding will be secure for the next four years. Some Board members are experiencing a very sharp learning curve with respect to the documents required by the government!

We are also very happy to announce that Libby Denbigh has joined WNC Board. We’ll be profiling Libby soon on our website.

September 4, 2016July 3, 2017

New water system installed in Nepal

Content and Photos provided by Suresh Shrestha, Tamakoshi Sewa Samiti Compiled by Bruce Petch, World Neighbours Canada director

Photo 53_Finished Tap No. 5 — Completed tap stand

A gravity-fed water system was constructed in the village of Lahachhewar in the district of Ramechhap in Nepal, from March to June 2016. The work was done by the residents of the village (on their own time), with technical support and guidance from Tamakoshi Sewa Samiti (TSS, a Nepali NGO based in Ramechhap). Funding was provided by World Neighbours Canada, which was supported by Global Affairs Canada, Kamloops West Rotary, Aldergrove Rotary and Oliver Rotary.World Neighbours Canada also continues to receive donations in Rachel Denbigh’s name for work in Nepal.This was the first water system installed under a new four-year project supported by Global Affairs Canada.

Photo 27_Reservoir tank construction — Reservoir construction

The Lahachhewar Water System will service 30 households with a population of 206 people – 120 female, 86 male, 81 children under 12. The water system consists of an intake at the source (a spring on the hillside, a concrete and stone storage tank below the source, a buried PVC water line running down the slope to the village, and 6 public tap stands.

The construction of gravity fed water systems requires that reservoirs be built at some point between the water source being accessed, and the water stand pipes in the villages being serviced.

The reservoirs are typically 5 cubic metres in size, and will hold 5000 litres of water. The reservoirs are always built in a location such that a break would not cause a flooding of any nearby residences. In the 27 years, including 2015 when there was a major earthquake in Ramechhap and nearly 90% of the homes in the district were damaged, a TSS built water reservoir has never failed. Only minor damage was sustained to a few water systems in the 2015 earthquake.

Community Participation, Technical Guidance and Summary of Environmental Impacts

Photo 65_Water User Committee members — Water User Committee members

The Water User Committee, with help from the TSS technical people, plan all aspects of the water system. They decide the location of the intake, the route of the pipe, the size and location of the water reservoir, and the location of the tap stands in the village.

Photo 12_Pipeline digging — Digging the trench for the waterline

The water users – the villagers – do all of the physical work. They transport materials, they dig and backfill the ditch for the pipe, they help build the water reservoir, they help construct the tap stands. This is all done with guidance of the TSS technicians.

The cement work is done by people trained by TSS over the years. These people may still live in their original village, but will travel to nearby locations to do the cement work and to train others to do similar work. The Government Engineer is notified when the work is done and will do a final inspection.

At all stages of the project, environmental considerations are identified and assessed. The water source is always fenced off so that animals cannot access the source. Ditches are always filled in such that there is no evidence of ground disturbance. Reservoirs are always placed in areas such that if they were to fail, there would not be any damage to structures below them. Tap stands are always made of cement, with cement catchment areas below to prevent erosion of the immediate area.

Photo 66_Traditional water source — traditional water source

Photo 69_Traditional water source — traditional means of obtaining water

Photo 54_Finished Tap No. 6 — completed tap stand

The farthest tap stand from the water source is approximately 2 kilometres. It is estimated that the women using that tap stand will save 3-4 hours per day in carrying time. What an important change the completion of this water system must make in the lives of these women!

July 12, 2016July 3, 2017

Taking steps to reduce child malnutrition in Burkina Faso

posted by Judy Gray, director, World Neighbours Canada

yellow indicates moderately malnourished

Peter and I returned, in early April, from a monitoring mission to Burkina Faso to touch base with our partner NGO (APDC) and to deepen our understanding of their activities. Rates of malnutrition among children are tragically high in the area. We were able to attend a training session for community health animators about the dépistage process (malnutrition screening), one of the activities that will be undertaken as part of our new Maternal Child Health Initiative supported by Global Affairs Canada. What might appear a simple procedure to us – measuring upper arm circumference and recording the results – is not easy for people who have never had formal schooling. In addition to training the community health workers, APDC must train a “secretary” – a member of the

recording names, ages and nutrition level

village, who is literate. The following day, we visited the village of Kpartangou to witness the process “in action”. There were about 50 mothers gathered under the big tree, waiting to have their children screened. A number of children fell into the moderately or severely malnourished category – the goal is now to diagnose the cause and then provide training and support so mothers can begin to alleviate the situation. Mothers were keen to learn about the opportunity to have their child evaluated at the regional Health Centre. The visit to these remote villages in eastern Burkina Faso, made us realize, once again, how slowly change occurs in many parts of the world and the gravity of the problems that many people face. We are glad to be part of World Neighbours Canada – an organization that is

willing to accept this rate of change, and remains in project areas for the long haul!

June 22, 2016July 3, 2017

Tributes to Victorino continue …

posted by Judy Gray, with information from Brita and Bob Park

Though I never met Victorino, those who were part of World Neighbours Canada in its early days did meet both Victorino and his wife, Senia. It is clear that he left an indelible impression on those people and clearly embodied the philosophy of World Neighbours Canada. Here are some further reminiscences, from Brita Park, a former Director on the Board:

“Victorino spent several days with us in our log house during the early 1990’s when he was banned from speaking at a Rotary Int’l event in Yakima, Washington. His annual income was considered too low, for him not to be a statistical risk of “defecting” to the US. Bob and I remember how Victorino patted the side of our old loghouse while telling us: “Love lives here” . And how, while hiking in our hills, he took some of the sandy soil and some of the clay into his hands to rub it and evaluate it for growing quality.

And we remember Victorino remarking on how good it is to see children, like our two, so healthy and energetic that they can be rambunctious. (I, in the meantime, was rather embarrassed that they were misbehaving in the presence of a guest.)

I remember, too, the great discussions we had — for example, how Victorino remarked that in Honduras there was too much passive acceptance of ” fate”, and attributing people’s dire situations to divine punishment for sin, whereas here in Canada everything was considered ” fixable” by human ingenuity, with no need to do any soul searching on how we might be needing to reconnect with community and nature as a response to the gift of creation. All this kind of talk was in a garbled “spanglish” that served us well enough, since we felt we were kindred spirits. And he had that smile!
Graem Nelson, a World Neighbours Canada director once told me that he felt he had so much to learn from this minimally schooled man from another ” world”. Bob and I felt the same way. By the way … Victorino earned his Secondary School diploma at age 24, already the father of several children at the time.

One of our sons, who visited us recently, and learned of Victorino’s death, reminisced about his memory of Victorino: “that friendly man with the permanent baseball cap on his head, except when he plunked it on the floor beside his chair at mealtimes.”

(l to r) Edwin Escuto, Senia, Michael Newman and Victorino — (l to r) Elmer Lopez, Senia (Victorino’s wife), Michael Newman (a former director of WNC) and Victorino

The vitality of Victorino is so strong in our memories. Bob and I remember going to Victorino’s and Senia’s home, in 2003, where he went to the backyard to butcher a chicken for our meal, and then came to show us his study, with a computer, and, most importantly, the super encyclopedia two of the founding World Neighbours directors had given his family. Several of his children were also there; each on a path to good education, it seemed to us. For Bob and me, Victorino personified what the word ” good leadership” should mean.

I’m sitting here with tears for the loss of this wonderful person. Just think of his family, and his community! “

June 10, 2016July 3, 2017

WNC directors mourn the loss of Victorino Rivera

posted by Judy Gray with information from Graem Nelson, WNC Director

Screen Shot 2016-06-10 at 8.42.54 AM World Neighbours Canada directors learned yesterday of the death of Victorino Rivera Flores, the first local trainer hired by WNC in the 1980s in Honduras. Victorino was instrumental in motivating and developing program activities in the El Socorro region of that country. Graem Nelson met Victorino several times and has written a moving tribute about this man and has included some vivid personal memories. Graem’s tribute follows … “I was very sad to hear of the death of Victorino Rivera Flores. He will be mourned by his wife Senia and quite a few children, I can recall five at least. And probably by now, some grandchildren.

In 1989, I led a trip of Rotarians to Honduras to meet with the Siguatepeque Rotary Club and World Neighbors Oklahoma staff. The Rotarians included Michael Newman, who was my friend in Oliver, new to Rotary and on his first trip to a “less developed country”. It also included Bob Ellis, who went on to found The Gleaners in Oliver, influenced by his first glimpse of real poverty in the countryside and cities of Honduras.

After getting settled in at Siguatepeque and meeting our Rotary counterparts, we all went to lunch at a fish restaurant at Lake Yojoa. Dr. Miriam Dagen was the temporary area representative for World Neighbors and she welcomed our group to the lunch. We met a young volunteer World Neighbors trainer named Victorino Rivera. He had been working as a farmer trainer at the WN program at El Rosario, a mining village not very distant from Siguatepeque. Victorino was proposed as the leader of the program at El Socorro, which would become the first program funded by WNCanada. With some amazing help from Rotary that continues to this day.

Victorino was already a big young man. He had an infectious grin that spread from ear to ear. He had intelligence, charisma and humour. Our Rotary group was very happy to give him a chance to be a WN program coordinator.

Victorino quickly recruited a fine staff of farmer volunteers to get going on the development program. It included a progressive local farmer whose farm included a neglected hillside visible from the highway. This is where Victorino decided to establish the demonstration plot, where it could be seen by everyone who passed. The transformation of this rocky hillside into a beautiful terraced garden took a year of work; it was remarkable and was noted by everyone who passed. Continue reading “WNC directors mourn the loss of Victorino Rivera”