Helping the Rohingya

Sometimes, I'm a bit slow on the uptake. After months of hearing about the Rohingya refugee crisis, I finally made a donation to help them this afternoon.

It can be hard to know how to donate, but it's only procrastination that kept me from it until now. I always have complete confidence in giving to Caritas Canada (also known as Development and Peace)  because it offers clear ways to assist partner organizations in areas affected by injustice and disasters. This summer my 23-year-old daughter had the experience of meeting with partners working in Bolivia, and she came back more committed to D&P than ever. The stories she tells are enough to convince anybody about the importance of Caritas' work!

D&P's partner organizations are staffed by people who are best able to serve the needy because they come from the same place, speak the same languages, and understand the difficulties that brought about the crises as well as potential solutions. The workers in Caritas Bangladesh are on the ground where the refugees are, already doing what can be done, and a donation to Caritas Canada helps their work in providing shelter, hygiene kits and sanitation facilities, and protection for children. Donations made before November 28th will be matched by the Canadian government.

To learn more about our brothers and sisters fleeing persecution in Myanmar, click here, and if you are able, send Caritas Bangladesh some financial assistance. It's the least we can do. And, perhaps, the best.

Happy 50th Anniversary, Development and Peace!

For the last 50 years, a Canadian Catholic organization has been doing what needs to be done when it comes to standing up for justice and peace in the developing world. I'm old enough to remember quite a few of the yearly Share Lent campaigns and different projects that the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace has offered in those 50 years, but it's only as our oldest child has become a staff member with CCODP that I've paid closer attention to the work of the organization. Development and Peace, as it's less officially known, has taught many Canadians that people in the developing world aren't looking for charities to parachute in with North American solutions to their local problems -- rather, they are looking for partners to help them develop their own solutions more fully. I have no difficulty with supporting projects found at devp.org because I know that the communities most affected by the projects are on board 100%.

50 years of social justice work around the world is worth celebrating, and there have been events and activities planned throughout this anniversary year, including a series of videos recalling D&P's many projects in the past. The video below is one of seven three-minute shorts to give you an idea of what's been going on since the Canadian Catholic Bishops founded Development and Peace (now also known as Caritas Canada) in 1967. It's definitely worth watching this amazing solidarity timeline. I've posted the first of seven below just to get you started... Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ7_hZ0MGzU

Let's not forget Syria

Thousands donated photos to make this image to represent
Syrian children caught up in their country's conflict.
(Save the Children/InterAction.org)
http://www.facesforsyria.org/me

With all the rightful concern and excitement about what's been going on in Crimea over the last days and weeks, something else has been missing from the news -- namely, Syria. Have you noticed? I have, because I work with two wonderful people from Syria whose families and friends have been affected by the ongoing crisis there. It hasn't been easy for my friends to watch their beautiful country descend into total chaos over the past three years. There have been periods when they've wondered if some of their family members are even alive... and when they've heard that some are not... I think of my friend's twelve-year-old cousin named Giorgio who was killed by a stray bullet in his own living room...

Many Syrians have been forced to flee their homes for overpopulated refugee camps where health issues such as polio and leprosy have suddenly reappeared. Lebanon, to Syria's south, is about half the size of Nova Scotia (10,800 sq km), and its population of 4.5 million has swelled by almost a third as 2 million Syrians have sought refuge there, further stressing the country's already precarious finances, healthcare, housing, employment and education.

Two weeks ago, a Lebanese doctor who works to provide healthcare to Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Dr. Rita Rhayem, came to Edmonton to make us aware of how our donations to Development and Peace (Caritas Canada) have helped Caritas International in Lebanon serve many Syrian refugees. She shared stories about helping families to get essential health services from basic first aid and vaccines to more critical help like delivering babies, psychological counseling and wound care. The Caritas Lebanon team of  approximately 25 doctors and 30 nurses is a dedicated group, many of whom have been working with the organization for more than twenty years. They are so convinced of the importance of what they do that there is little, if any, staff turnover -- they see that they are making a difference with every smile they receive from their patients. Here's a little video that gives you an idea of what they're doing:

When it became evident that the Syrian crisis would not just go away, every politican and their dog jumped on board to raise funds to help the people of Syria. But now, three years in, other issues have turned their attention elsewhere, and Caritas Lebanon's funding of projects to help Syrian refugees will soon run out. So it's important to spread the word about excellent organizations like Caritas, which also runs projects for Syrian refugees in Jordan, Turkey, and within Syria itself. We need to point people to places where they can learn about and support the work that people like Dr. Rhayem and her colleagues from Caritas International are doing. Please consider sharing this post and visiting any of its links to learn more and make donations to help the people of Syria. It's one simple way to live in solidarity with our Syrian sisters and brothers.