| Message from Ingrid Munro |
The message below was sent to RESULTS Canada from Ingrid Munro, the founder of Jamii Bora thanking RESULTS Canada volunteers for their contributions to Jamii Bora's relief funds. Many of Jamii Bora's members have lost everything during the recent conflict in Kenya and all of the support we can provide to them is vitally important. If you would still like to contribute to Jamii Bora through RESULTS Canada, please mail a cheque to: RESULTS Canada153 Chapel Street Ottawa, OntarioK1N 1H5And put "Jamii Bora" in the subject line
Dear RESULTS CanadaWe are very happy to confirm that we received CAN$ 10,250 on 21 January 2008. We have routed these funds to our Emergency Plan project 1 that assists members with disaster insurance. Thanks to the generous help of many friends around the world we have been able to assist our members to get back on their feet again and start life all over. We have assisted them to re-build their small structures that were once their businesses. We have been able to help them with some money from the disaster insurance and we have given them new loans. Many have already left the refugee camps and taken the courage to move back to where they used to live and work, others have decided not to go back but establish themselves in a new place...  On behalf of our members and staff I want to thank you warmly for your donation. We hope that the gratitude and prayers of our members all over the Kenya will bring joy and happiness into your own lives. May God bless you for your kindnessWarm regardsIngrid
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National Call
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Click here to listen to George Yap, Programme Director of Watercan, from our March National Call.
Click here to listen to Alan Etherington, water and sanitation expert, from our April National Call, .Listen in next month! |
Thoughts from anti-poverty champions
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Noble peace prize winner Nelson Mandela on overcoming poverty:
"Overcoming
poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is
an act of justice. It is the protection of
a fundamental human right, the right to dignity
and a decent life . . ."
 Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, on social jusice:
"We
must apply our humble efforts to the construction of a more just and humane world.
And I want to declare emphatically: Such a world is possible. To create this new
society, we must present outstretched and friendly hands, without hatred and rancor,
even as we show great determination and never waver in the defense of truth and
justice. Because we know that we cannot sow seeds with clenched fists. To sow
we must open our hands." |
Who We Are
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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!
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| World's Biggest Lesson |
On April 23, 1 000 Canadians joined with millions of children around the world to participate in the "World's Biggest Lesson" breaking a Guinness World Record for the biggest simultaneous lesson.
RESULTS Canada worked jointly with the Canadian Global Campaign for Education to organize this lesson.
By taking part in this lesson, children, educators and Members of Parliament in 289 locations across Canada joined an estimated 5 million of their peers around the globe in learning about the importance of education and the barriers that are denying young people from accessing quality education.
Two days prior, the Global Campaign for Education facilitated a media call bringing together British PM Gordon Brown, World Bank President Robert Zoellick and pop sensation Shakira. Click HERE to listen to the call.
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Any Ideas?
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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.
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| TAKE ACTION! | | Putting an end to exploitation in the chocolate industry
g 
The production of cocoa, the key ingredient in chocolate, is a highly exploitive industry for most of the 14 million cocoa producers worldwide. Despite the lucrative profits made by companies at the end of the supply chain, most cocoa producers are not paid enough to feed their families and as a result child labor and even child slavery are prevalent.
It's time for all of us to TAKE ACTION to tell chocolate companies that exploitive business practices are no longer acceptable and that we demand fair trade.
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MUSIC TO STOP TB
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Bringing opera into the struggle against TB
In advance of World Tuberculosis Day, March 24th 2008, RESULTS Canada worked with Opera Lyra Ottawa, the Global Stop TB Partnership, Stop TB Canada and Eli Lilly for a new global awareness raising initiative: Music to Stop TB
Music to Stop TB is a project that draws on longstanding links between TB and opera - particularly La Traviata (Verdi) and La Bohème (Puccini), whose narratives focus on the tragic deaths of young women from TB.
In an effort to raise awareness, all opera attendees received a full page insert in their programmes about the Global TB epidemic throughout the entire production of La Traviata (March 15-22). All attendees were also invited to attend the two displays that were prominent in the lobby of the National Arts Centre. Guests at the event were diverse, from the South African High Commisioner and Canadian Members of Parliament, to the editor of the Canadian Mediacal Association Journal.
The goal of the event was to raise awareness amongst opera attendees, special guests and the public at  large about the global TB crisis. Our two main messages of the evening were:
1. TB is not an ancient disease but one that still kills 1.6 million people every year
2. We can all play an active part in Stopping the Spread of TB.
This was the global pilot for the Music to Stop TB Initiative, which will attempt to spread awareness about TB through music. Due to its success, there will undoubtedly be more events like this in the future.
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INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
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The RESULTS International Conference begins on July 12 and you don't want to miss it!
The agenda, preliminary information and registration form for the RESULTS International Conference to End Poverty are now online. Check out the agenda and start registering as soon as you can! The international conference, held in Washington, provides a fabulous opportunity to meet RESULTS volunteers from around the world, learn about the issues we advocate on, and hone skills that will help us in our advocacy. This year the Executive Director of the Global Fund, Michel Kazatchkine, will be delivering a plenary session. We will also be going to the World Bank and the IMF to lobby key decision makers on RESULTS issues.
REGISTER NOW!
For more information about the international conference, contact Lindsay: lindsay@results-resultats.ca
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MEET NINA EMEFA
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In an interview with Ben Saifer, Gatineau Group member Nina Emefa discusses her history with RESULTS, her motivation towards social justice activism, and her hopes for the future...
How did you become aware and involved in poverty
issues?
I was raised in a poor country surrounded by people living in extreme poverty. Bearing witness to this daily suffering left a lasting impression on me. It breaks my heart to see poor people forced into p rostitution or literally having to sell their children in order to eat. It is unjust that in the 21st century, over 800 million people go to sleep on an empty stomach every night or die from hunger while the affluent are well fed and sleep in skyscrapers. Confronted with these realities, I could not stand idly by doing nothing!
What attracted you to RESULTS?
I discovered RESULTS through a classroom friend after he witnessed a presentation I delivered on the interrelationship between poverty and gender with respect to HIV/AIDS. He invited me to a RESULTS meeting with the Gatineau group. I have always believed that anyt hing is possible, but in the absence of political will and adequate financing, it is difficult to move forward and initiate concrete actions. However, this should not discourage us from action. The fact that RESULTS actions work on raising political will made the group attractive to me.
What is your motivation to continue?
A gesture from everyone can make a difference. Drops of water form an ocean. We cannot merely say this is somebody else's problem. Let us not think that there are already so many people fighting poverty and that our action will not change anything! Let us not believe that extreme poverty has always existed and will continue to do so! Let us not standardize such matters. Laws, borders and barriers were established by human beings, and therefore, we are also able to abolish them and create a world united and sustainable...
To read the whole interview, click HERE
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| TB and HIV coinfection |
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According to the latest statistics, almost 10% of people with new cases of tuberculosis are also HIV+.
Despite being curable with a simple regimen of pills that costs around
$20, TB is still the leading cause of
death among people with HIV on the continent of Africa. As a result, the global community is looking for new avenues to increase awareness and fight the deadly link between the two diseases.
Although the links have been known for some time, the extent to which the HIV/AIDS crisis is driving the recent surge in TB incidence has become a rallying point for activists around the world. At the same time, while there has been both increased awareness of this issue and a more focused implementation of strategies that test for and treat the two diseases together, the most recent WHO TB report shows that we a re failing to meet the targets for testing, detection and treatment set out in the Global Plan to Fight TB
During this year's UN General Assembly meeting, there will be a Global Leaders Forum on the relationship between HIV and TB. This will be the first time in history that such a forum will take place at the UN General assembly.
It is time for global leaders to examine the devastating relationship between HIV and TB. Results volunteers have always advocated for investments that save lives and achieve maximum results. In the coming months we'll build on this legacy and push for Canada to show leadership in getting global leaders to commit to new investments that will reduce the burden of TB and HIV around the world
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RECOMMENDED READING
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To learn more about this month's action, read Carol Off's Bitter Chocolate (2006) which presents a fascinating and haunting look at the cocoa and chocolate industry through a comprehensive blend of social history and investigative reporting.
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LETTER OF THE MONTH
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Every month, we will highlight a letter published by a RESULTS Canada volunteer. This month, we'll look at a letter published by Donna Fraser
Global sanitation a matter of life and death
Ottawa Citizen
March 21, 2006
While most Canadians take safe drinking water for
granted, one in six people or 1.1 billion worldwide lack access to it.
On Saturday, world water day is celebrated to recognize this concern.In
developing nations, the leading cause of contaminated water is poor
sanitation. Almost half of the world's population, 2.6 billion people,
lack access to basic sanitation and as a result 4,500 children die
daily from diarrhoeal diseases. The United Nations has recognized this
worldwide public health crisis and has declared 2008 the International
Year of Sanitation. Canada's record in addressing global
sanitation has been less than stellar. The Canadian International
Development Agency (CIDA) is two years behind in bringing forth a
promised water and sanitation strategy as part of its social
development priority (SDP) initiative. Canada, as a signatory to
the United Nations' millennium development goal of halving poverty by
2015, needs to spend $200 million towards global sanitation, not the
estimated $70 million it is contributing at present. Global
sanitation is not a glamorous or fashionable issue, but ignoring it is
resulting in the deaths of 3.6 million people every year and depriving
hundreds of millions of people their health, dignity and quality of
life. The time to act is now, because while the pain and suffering is
felt most acutely by the poorest of the poor, the burden of
responsibility rests with all of us. |
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