National Call
|
The next RESULTS Canada National Call will take place on Sunday March 9 at 7:00 PM EST. As always, the call-in number is (603) 318 - 2222 ext. 637.
Our National Calls are great opportunities to connect with the RESULTS community across the country, as well as to learn about our action sheet from an expert in the field.
They should not be missed!
|
Important Dates
|
Make sure to mark these important dates in your calendars...
March 8
International Women's Day
March 22
World Water Day
March 24
World TB Day
April 7
World Health Day
April 25
Africa Malaria Day
June 20
World Refugee Day
|
Time to Stop TB!
|
How are you helping to stop TB this World TB Day? Send a photo of yourself with a sign saying "I AM STOPPING TB" to ben@results-resultats.ca and win a chance at a RESULTS T-Shirt! You can also check out the World TB Day website to learn what people around the world are doing to Stop TB.
|
,Thoughts from anti-poverty champions
|
World -renowned physician and public health advocate Paul Farmer on activism:
" [Many people] think all the world's
problems can be fixed without any cost to themselves. We don't believe
that. There's a lot to be said for sacrifice, remorse, even pity. It's
what separates us from roaches."
 Graça Machel, member of the Global Elders and International Advocate for Children , on activism:
"Therefore my challenge to each of you ... is that you ask yourself what you can do to make a difference. And then take that action, no matter how large or how small. For our children have a right to peace."
|
Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
|
The "miracle of microcredit" is a proven success story, providing over 100 million of the world's poorest people with the opportunity to work their way out of poverty. However, many poor people remain without access to microcredit - only 4% of the worldwide demand for microcredit is being met, with an additional $250 billion needed. Most of these funds will come from commercial sources, not governments.
As mentioned in our January action, Citizens Bank is the only bank in Canada that offers a RRSP-eligible term deposit which supports a portfolio of microfinance institutions around the world. The Citizens Bank "Shared World" term deposit, created last year at RESULTS request, has created an estimated 12,500 jobs in its first year of operation. RESULTS is currently asking other Canadian banks to follow this example. In the meantime, consider investing in Citizen's Bank or other microfinance investment opportunities like OikoCredit or MEDA.
|
Who We Are
|
Our Vision
A world free from poverty and needless suffering, where people thrive and contribute to their communities and the world. We see a world where citizens actively voice their concerns to their elected officials and thereby choose the poverty-related policies and priorities of their governments.
Our Mission
To create the political and collective will to end the worst aspects of poverty, and to empower individuals to exercise their personal and political power.
Our Focus
We focus on proven solutions to often neglected problems that perpetuate the cycle of poverty around the world. Currently our focus areas include tuberculosis, malaria, primary education, micro-credit, and sanitation.
How We Work
Grassroots volunteers from around the country meet atleast once a month in their local communities for Education and Action Meetings where they develop their knowledge on global poverty issues, strengthen their advocacy skills and take action.
How To Get Involved
Call Ben at the RESULTS Canada head office at (613) 562-9240 or send over an email to ben@results-resultats.ca. We'll help you determine the most effective way that you can join this powerful movement to put poverty on the political agenda!
|
Volunteer Opportunity
|
RESULTS CANADA IS LOOKING FOR FACEBOOK OFFICERS!
Are you on Facebook?
Would you like to connect with others involved in the social justice movement?
Are you interested in getting more young people hooked on RESULTS Canada?
If so, you may want to become a RESULTS Canada Facebook Officer!
This exciting position will require approximately two hours per month from the comfort of your own home.
For more information email Ben at
ben@results-resultats.ca
|
Any Ideas?
|
If you have questions about anything RESULTS-related or have an idea for an article in the next newsletter, please send your questions and ideas to ben@results-resultats.ca.
|
|
|
| TAKE ACTION! | | The Canadian International Immunization Initiative must be renewed!
g
Immunization is one of the world's biggest public health success stories. Globally, basic immunization coverage has risen from less than five per cent in 1974 to almost 80 percent today. This is one of the key reasons that the global number of deaths of children under age 5 has fallen to a record low of 9.7 million a year, down from almost 20 million a year in 1960.
It's time for all of us to TAKE ACTION to ensure the health of children around the world is a priority for this government.
|
|
State of the World's Children Report
|
|
The 2008 Report points to progress, but with much work yet to be done.
Imagine more than 1000 preschool classrooms full of kids being wiped out every single day. Future leaders, doctors, teachers, and our collective hopes for the next generation wiped out with them.
According to UNICEF'S 2008 State of the World's Children Report, 9.7 million children under five die each day from preventable disease and illness. That's 26,000 each day, succumbing to a host of health challenges - malaria, unsafe water and sanitation, a lack of access to basic immunizations, malnutrition. The causes of death have different names, but t he root cause is almost always extreme poverty.
Remarkably, these jarring statistics present a story of hope. Child survival is an area of development where inexpensive, proven interventions have had, and continue to have, tremendous impact. But more needs to be done. Canada's commitments to health and education have been crucial, but they're not enough. Our overall investments in these key areas have not grown as much as they should have given the fact that Canada's foreign aid budget has almost doubled in the past five years.
It is time to build on our successes, make significant new investments, highlight the impressive and tangible results that can be achieved from those investments, and ensure sustained future progress. RESULTS volunteers have always advocated for investments that save children's lives - investments in bednets and immunizations to name two examples. In the coming months we'll build on this legacy and push for Canada to commit to the types of investments that can make us a global leader on child survival.
|
HALIFAX INTIATIVE CONFERENCE
|
|
Development Aid on the Minds of Civil Society Leaders around the World
Leading up to the International Forum on Civil Society and Aid Effectiveness from Feb 3-6 in Gatineau, Quebec, the Halifax Initiative, a coalition of which Results Canada is a member, hosted a conference entitled: The Changing Face of Global Development Finance. A number of RESULTS Canada staff were able to attend the conference and meet with intellectuals, activists, students, and civil society leaders from around the world, discussing foreign aid and alternatives to aid - and in particular the World Bank and International Monetary Fund - in the current international context.
Amidst two days of presentations and discussions, a number of key points repeatedly came up, including hesitation about the nature and purpose of Official Development Assistance. Participants questioned whether aid is truly propelled by human interests or whether it is a tool of foreign policy used to advance a country's interests. Participants also questioned whether "Good development aid" should be the ultimate goal of those who work in development and relief work, or rather creating the conditions for which "the elimination of aid" is a possibility.
"The world of development finance is rapidly changing," said Fraser Reilly-King, coordinator of the Halifax Initiative Coalition. "A decade ago, the options for many countries were only taking aid from a range of traditional northern donors, the World Bank and regional development banks, and accepting the burdensome conditions of the Bank and International Monetary Fund. Now we find new institutio ns, such as the Bank of the South in Latin America; new sources of official bilateral aid, such as China or India, and private money, such as the Bill Gates Foundation; and even innovative sources of funding development, through initiatives such as airline levies and UNITAID. They change the rules of engagement for many countries. And while I don't deny that even these new innovations have their challenges, the fact that there is increased competition to the traditional stranglehold of the World Bank and IMF can only be a good thing."
The discussions reminded all present to always question and continually reevaluate our work to ensure the rights and interests of those we partner with in developing countries are respected. Be sure to take a look at the Halifax Initiative website to learn more about the conference and the important work they do.
|
Meet Larry Ladell
|
|
In an interview with Ben Saifer, Ottawa Group Leader Larry Ladell discusses his history with RESULTS Canada...
How did you become aware and involved in poverty
issues?
I grew up knowing hunger and poverty first hand. My mom was a single parent in Winnipeg in the 1950s. At that time being a single parent was unusual, almost shameful. My dad felt no particular obligation to support his family. He simply left the province. Too bad for us that enforcing child support was a provincial responsibilty. While most of the new immigrants moved out of our neighbourhood to better homes in the suburbs, we stayed where we were. To be poor implied some kind of personal failing. We were expected to be grateful recipients of cast-offs from righteous do-gooders. In the 1960s I saw a poster of a starving African looking up in shock and horror from a box marked CARE that was full of nothing but Babe Ruth chocolate bars. I knew just how he felt.
What attracted you to RESULTS?
One of the early successes of RESULTS in the US was to lobby for the initial seed money for the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh. I was so impressed with the concept of microcredit that I took note of it. The concept
resonated deeply in me. To me microcredit was the real answer to poverty. Poor people were not just the victims of poverty but the solution. They needed access to resources to end their own poverty and that of their communities. Why was it so difficult for well-fed bureaucrats to see this truth?
What are your favorite RESULTS memories?
My first is when Jean-Francois Tardif and I met with James Grant, the late Executive Director of UNICEF, in early 1989 for breakfast at the Chateau Laurier. We were there to brief him prior to his meeting with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. He had just come from a meeting with President Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan about co-chairing the World Summit for Children and he
wanted our advice on his approach to the Brian about doing the same. My head was spinning with the reality of what we were accomplishing as amateur lobbyists. Until then I had been a committed RESULTS skeptic. Luckily, Jean-Francois did most of the talking.
There are actually many more memories, but my final favourite is meeting Dr. Yunus for the first time at a RESULTS International Conference. As founder of the Grameen Bank, he was invited to be on a panel with a couple of foreign aid skeptics. Wisely, Sam Daley-Harris had decided to bring him into the room separately in advance of the other panelists. When Dr. Yunus entered, it was as if god himself was there. He just glowed with love and integrity. The response in the room was an explosion of love and celebration like nothing I have experienced before or since.
What issues are you especially passionate about?
I am the father of four wonderful sons. Until I had a child, I did not know that it was possible for my heart to beat outside of it's own body. I love children, all children. I want them all to be happy, healthy and able to realize their potential no matter what. For me it is a sacred trust and obligation that I have been given just by virtue of being alive.
What inspires you to keep going?
In the press kit for the 1988 UNICEF State of the World's Children Report, there was a black and white photo of a young Bangladeshi mother. She is beautiful and she is crying. She is holding the body of her infant who has just died of some easily preventable cause. Even now, I get tears at the thought of her grief and of anger at the absolute waste and stupidity of it all. Anything, anything that I can do to prevent such needless pain and suffering has to be important. Whenever I get discouraged, I spend some time with Jean-Francois Tardif. His ability to see the most heart wrenching setback as an opportunity for action, inspires me to give up my luxury of despair.
|
RECOMMENDED READING
|
|
Paul Farmer's Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor (2003) will challenge you, move you, and call you to action. It's a penetrating analysis of global health by one of the world's foremost global health practicioners:
From the New England Journal of Medicine - Feb 12, 2004:
"There are many kinds of gifted physicians: clinicians, researchers, and
those who build institutions. Paul Farmer is the rarest of all: a
prophet. Pathologies of Power is a jeremiad on how the "structural
violence" of denied opportunities, economic deprivation, violent
despots (and the powers supporting them), and international financial
organizations harm the health of billions of people who are so distant
that they are glibly and uncomprehendingly referred to as living in a
"third world." This summary does not do justice to the richness of the
book. Farmer deftly weaves personal stories from his work with the
dispossessed, careful academic notes, and well-chosen quotations from
intellectuals, poets, and proponents of liberation theology. These
citations introduce marvelous writers who are not well known to readers
from the United States. Farmer builds from the 19th century's Rudolph
Virchow, who argued that physicians must advance public health through
political and social reform as "attorneys for the poor." |
Letter of the Month
|
|
Every month, we will highlight a letter published by a RESULTS Canada volunteer. This month, we'll look at a letter published by Susan Lewis Hammond
Microcredit gives macro results
Victoria Times Colonist
January 20, 2008
The global credit crunch is getting lots of attention these days. But it's nothing compared to daily conditions for over 1 billion people around the world. Imagine borrowing $ 5,000 for house repairs today and owing $ 6,000 tomorrow. Many in the world routinely confront something like this "5-6 deal" from the village loan shark.
That's why Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus invented microcredit to provide small loans paid back at a reasonable rate of interest. A $ 50 loan, miniscule by western standards, can make the difference between starvation and a thriving business for a basket weaver in a remote village. Soon the basket weaver hires an assistant and helps turn a whole village economy around.
Microcredit works. But only about four percent of the worldwide demand is being met. So far, Canada's "Big Banks" don't offer investors - folks like you and me - the chance to invest their savings in microfinance. But it can be done, and be profitable, too. Citizens Bank offers a "Shared World" term deposit that is RRSP-eligible, fully guaranteed, and pays a reasonable rate of return.
On average, each $ 1,000 invested for a year creates at least five jobs. The social profit is obvious, but the fiscal profit is equally compelling. The average payback rate for microfinance borrowers is around 97%, far more reliable than subprime mortgage investments.
|
|
|
|
|
