Stephen Cornish, director of bilateral projects for CARE Canada, recently visited a project in the West Bank that is designed to support the region’s traditional herding communities. We asked him about his visit and the challenges of providing assistance in the region.

Can you describe the community you visited?
I visited a community of Palestinian sheep herders in the Northern West Bank. There, I met Abu Sahar, a gentlemen in his fifties- and the leader of his community. He describes himself and his fellow community members as Bedouin-like – they are 17 inter-connected hamlets of sheep-herders who graze their herds and raise their families on the region’s windswept hillsides.

The land’s relative fertility permitted them to live in permanent communities which in turn allowed them to establish claims to the settled portions of the lands on which their livelihoods and way of life depend. In addition to these traditional historical rights, they also have title deeds from the time of the Ottoman and British Empires, and the Jordanian period, when those powers respectively oversaw the territories where Abu Sahar and his fellow herders live.

Following the Oslo Peace Accords of 1993, the land around the herders’ communities came under full control of the Israeli authorities. It was then declared a nature preserve and permits were issued for the demolition of their herding pens, sheds and family dwellings. Abu Sahar and his community were ordered to leave the area permanently. The villagers challenged the demolition orders and won a stay of proceedings; however this is only a temporary solution and the situation in which they now live is extremely difficult.

Abu Saher, a sheep herder who lives in the Northern West Bank

Can you describe some of the challenges they face?
An Israeli settler community has moved onto the nearby hillside. To protect that settler community, a military garrison and a system of restricted access roads were built, affecting the freedom of movement for Abu Sahar’s community. This was further compounded by Israel’s security barrier as the community is now dependent on permission and permits to allow them to leave their communities.

This has affected the ability for children to go to school, women’s access to maternal and child health care, and the herders’ ability to freely access markets for purchasing agricultural supplies for selling products they produce such as cheese, wool and meat.

What is CARE doing to help?
CARE provides a mobile health clinic service to the community which provides basic health services for the men, women and children in the communities.  The clinic also ensures that expectant and new mothers have access to pre and post natal check- ups, and identifies high risk pregnancies. They further support expectant mothers to seek out and receive travel permits preventively so as to avoid emergency obstetric situations from occurring in the isolated hamlets.

This social safety net is complemented by a number of interventions which help to safeguard the livelihoods of these traditional herding communities. CARE West Bank and Gaza provides subsidized water trucking services to dozens of communities like Abu Sahar’s, along with veterinary and agricultural outreach services.

One of the more interesting programs provides the herders with high quality breeding rams to help restore herd quality and thus allow villagers to rebuild their weakened herds and command higher prices for their products.

The program now hopes to help the villagers obtain travel permits and regular market access, without which livelihood sustainability and the viability of the remaining herding villages will be in doubt.

By guest blogger Heather Barnabe, Senior Officer, Ambassador Relations & Events, CARE Canada

Leah Stuart Sheppard is a student at the University of Ottawa whose education and experiences led her to a great opportunity – representing Canada at the G(irls)20 Summit. I sat down with Leah, a Walk In Her Shoes participant, to ask her about how her experiences and education led her to the Summit and why she wants to participate in Walk In Her Shoes.

Hi Leah! Thanks for meeting with me. Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I grew up in Toronto and then moved to Ottawa to study International Development and English at the University of Ottawa. I have since become involved with several organisations focusing on education, both in Canada and in Kenya. At the end of my second year of university, I was selected to participate in the G(irls)20 Summit. This gave me the opportunity to interact and learn from girls my age around the world, while discussing concrete actions governments could take to support women and girls.

Leah Stuart Sheppard on a recent trip to Kenya

Your experience with the G(irls)20 summit sounds like a great opportunity. Can you explain a bit more about the purpose of the summit?
The G(irl) 20 Summit, now annual, brings together girls aged 18-20 from each of the G20 countries as well as one from the African Union in the lead up to the actual G20 summit. The goal is to bring the voices of women and girls to the G20 discussions, where they are sorely underrepresented. The other delegates and I participated in three days of panel discussions and workshops. By the end, we had developed a communiqué that we presented at a press conference and circulated to the G20 teams. This communiqué identified challenges faced by women and girls around the world in the areas of health, education, and economics. It also included our proposed solutions to help meet these challenges.

After participating as the Canadian delegate at the G(irls)20 summit, why get involved with CARE?
At the core of CARE’s philosophy for developing sustainable solutions to alleviate poverty is a focus on women and girls. CARE believes that when women and girls are empowered, they can lift their families and their communities out of poverty. CARE’s network strengthens the communities it works in, but also gives people in countries like Canada a way of participating in this work and learning from it.

You are going to be participating in Walk In Her Shoes this year. What do you think differentiates this campaign from so many others?
I think it represents a way for people all over Canada to move beyond giving money and towards committing a little bit of themselves to understanding the lives and hardships of others. The commitment to walk 8000 steps a day for 8 days allows participants to experience one small component of the lives of the women and girls their donations are going to support. It is a way to learn about the lives of people in different places, and a way of understanding where our money is going.

Thanks for the great chat today Leah. We really appreciate that you are on board for Walk In Her Shoes this year!
I’m really excited! I think it’s great that individuals, teams and schools can all get on board to fundraise for a cause that not only helps us better understand the lives of women and girls in the developing world, but also empowers those women and girls to change their own lives.

Thanks Leah! We agree and encourage people to register today for Walk In Her Shoes. If you have any questions, feel free to email us at walkinhershoes@care.ca.

By guest blogger Kathy Wong, CARE Canada’s Ambassador Relations and Events Manager. Kathy leads a team of dedicated CARE staff who manage fundraising events and campaigns, as well as the CARE Ambassadors of Change program.

I often tell friends and family that I have an amazing job. Not only am I part of an organization doing good work, which gives me a sense of purpose, but I’m in the company of passionate people who inspire me to be a better person. As the Manager of the Ambassador Relations and Events team at CARE, one of my roles is to seek out and form partnerships with powerful Canadians. Our new CARE Ambassador of Change, Kim D’Eon, is one of those amazing Canadians.

Kim is an award winning reporter who is currently enjoying her sixth season on Entertainment Tonight Canada. Over the past few months I’ve had the chance to get to know Kim personally. I asked her why she decided to partner with CARE and she pointed to two aha moments in her life.  The first happened at the age of 12, when Kim tackled a fairly hefty subject for a school project – violence against women. This experience opened her eyes to a world of injustice – she was outraged and felt compelled to share her knowledge. This led her to a public speaking competition, and eventually a degree in journalism and a career as a reporter. The second moment happened on the other side of the world. Watch Kim describe it herself:

Kim is passionate about spreading the word about empowerment, in particular to young girls across Canada. Through her partnership with CARE, Kim has been given the opportunity to do just that. She is a spokesperson for CARE’s signature campaign Walk In Her Shoes. Last week, she made a special appearance at Elmwood School in Ottawa to officially kick off Elmwood’s 2012 campaign efforts. Speaking at a school assembly, Kim inspired the girls to think big, to embrace who they are and to realize that at no matter their age they have a voice and can make a difference.

Kim D'Eon speaks to a group of girls at Elmwood School in Ottawa following the school assembly.

To learn more about CARE’s ambassadors and the Walk In Her Shoes campaign visit www.care.ca.

From January 25^th to February 5^th, 11 people will climb Mount Kilimanjaro to support CARE’s work to empower women and girls. We asked Steve Wicary, online political editor for The Globe and Mail, about his decision to join Climb for CARE 2012 and climb the highest mountain in Africa.

Steve and his wife Christina hiking in the Pyrenees

What motivated you to sign up for Climb for CARE?
It certainly helped that my wife, Christina, is a CARE staff member and wanted to take the challenge together. Obviously though, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro is a once in a lifetime opportunity, so it wasn’t too hard to convince me.

What did your friends/family think when you told them you’d be taking on this challenge?
Everyone was fairly jealous. My family had a little bit skepticism because it’s a physical challenge and there are risks involved, but everyone has been really supportive and I think that showed through in our fundraising drive.

How is your fundraising going?
We managed to hit our goal of raising $5,000 each after a couple of months. It helps that I have a pretty good network of people on Parliament Hill and lots of colleagues in Toronto that were willing to chip in. I wouldn’t say it was easy – it’s always a challenge asking for money.

“My wife Christina and I often enjoy hiking and the outdoors with our dog Bruno. Together, we’ve summited mountains in Central America and Europe – some of our fondest memories. Climbing Kili is an opportunity to discover new challenges and make new memories while supporting CARE’s work – an organization I’ve gotten to know and respect.  I am excited and grateful for the opportunity to make a contribution to defending dignity and fighting poverty.”

How have you trained for the climb?
Before the weather turned cold, we were hiking more than we would normally have. We also have a stationary bike set up in our apartment and we both do yoga and cross-country ski. We definitely increased our exercise regimen in anticipation of the climb.

What do you think will be your biggest challenge?
For me, it’s probably going to be just disconnecting totally. I spend my entire day online and connected, so shutting off from the outside world for 12 days is probably going to be my biggest challenge. The physical climb is going to be a challenge as well, but I think disconnecting is going to be odd for me. You get used to being able to pick up on hundreds of strands of information and follow them throughout a day, whereas on the mountain you’re just climbing and, of course, interacting with people on the climb.

What are you looking forward to most?
The exercise, the scenery and also the same thing that I’m going to miss most. I’m looking forward to being disconnected. It will be a nice change.

It’s not too late to sponsor a climber and help the 2012 team reach their fundraising goal!

On March 8th, join thousands of Canadians who will walk 8,000 steps for 8 days to simulate what a woman or girl experiences daily in the developing world.

Women and girls in developing countries are disproportionately affected by poverty and are often responsible for collecting water, firewood and other basic necessities.

Our Vice-President of International Programs, Evelyne Guindon, understands this very well. Recently, she sat down with Heather Barnabe, senior officer of ambassador relations and events, to explain how, when CARE empowers women to fight poverty, whole communities can be helped.

As someone who has seen the distance many women have to walk to collect water, can you tell us about a specific region you’ve visited?
I recently visited CARE programs in the Zaka District of Masvingo province in Zimbabwe.  It’s an area prone to serious and chronic drought. I met with many inspiring women. Among the projects I visited was the Taruberekera Water Harvesting and Garden Project that lies 50km in the north eastern side of Jerera growth point. It seemed close enough on a map, but the road to this community was as treacherous and unforgiving as any road could be.

What kind of project was CARE implementing? 
This project is trying to build resiliency for some of the world’s most vulnerable and hard to reach communities. In Taruberekera, CARE is working with communities to irrigate homestead gardens. In recent years, the watershed was at risk of drying up owing to poor agricultural practices and cutting of trees for firewood and construction. CARE helped sensitize the community about sustainably utilizing the resources within the catchment.

The project I saw is multi-facetted. It consists of community gardens and the construction of an amazing 1.5 metre weir to divert water through a 100m long earth canal. Buckets are used to irrigate the beds. Blair toilets and storage structures were also built. All the work was undertaken by community workers themselves in close collaboration with government partners.

Did that mean less walking or safer walking conditions for the women of the community?
This not only meant less walking for women. Water can now be reliably obtained within their community. It also meant the ability to grow healthy food for their families. In addition, the project has women take ownership of the water, the gardens and the long term sustainable development of their community. As key members of the Community Management committees established to run the garden they have a meaningful seat at the table and are trained as technicians and managers. They will help decide on the future of their community watershed and, as a result, women have a voice in a key resource and are leading their community.

What a wonderful story! Anything else you want to tell us about the project?
It was incredibly inspiring to see the pride that the women had in the Taruberekera project. They had developed technical and leadership skills in addition to benefitting from simple, sustainable technology that would improve their ability to feed their families a healthy and balanced diet. The garden I saw had harvested rape and cabbage, healthy leafy crops. It was also harvesting mealies, sugar beans, onions and butternut all at various growth stages.

Women who had faced many hardships caused by drought, who had many stories to tell about hunger, spoke of promise and hope for the future. CARE assisted with simple technology, community mobilization (ensuring women had that seat at the table) and helped provide a resource we all take for granted here in Canada. Water.

Learn more about how you can support women like those in the Taruberekera project — Walk in Her Shoes.

Marilyn Kawadza, CARE Zimbabwe

Marilyn Kawadza has worked for CARE Zimbabwe for eight years, she currently holds the position of water, sanitation and hygiene program manager in the CARE Zimbabwe Masvingo Provincial sub office. Her work often takes her to some of CARE’s most innovative projects, and her commitment to CARE’s work was evident when we sat down to talk to her.

What’s the most satisfying part of your role at CARE?
I think it’s the passion I find in my job. Every day I get to see women growing and developing in great directions. In Zimbabwe 75-80 per cent of rural communities are made up of women and they’ve been left with the burden of doing everything themselves. Historically, they’ve had no access to wealth or land, this was the realm of men. In my job I get to advocate for these women. And while their husbands have moved to the city we have been able to help them develop ways and mean to access wealth and resources. And then I get to see what great things they can achieve when they do have resources, their children can go to school, they can access health care and they begin to help the less fortunate in their own communities. So of course, this is the most satisfying part of my job.

What sort of impact does CARE have with a woman in rural Zimbabwe?
In the community garden initiative alone almost 58,000 households have been positively impacted by the outcomes from the project. One woman participating in this project might earn enough each month to send her children to school, access medicine when needed, be able to get clean water and participate in community decisions. The impact of these achievements across all of the men and women participating is enormous. I’ve seen how it makes such a difference in the lives of the women I work with.

Is there one particular woman who you remember?
Yes, she was a widowed mother of four children who lived in one of the villages where we were beginning a community garden. She did not have enough to feed her children and she was having ongoing health problems. Through CARE I had received training around the effects of HIV and AIDS and I thought that maybe she needed to see a doctor right away. I counseled her to visit the clinic which was 22 km away, that was a very far distance for her and she had no money to travel. She was overwhelmed and frightened so I helped her to access the money to make the trip. She went to the clinic and they sent her to the hospital where she was tested for the HIV virus, her test came back positive.

Back in her village her neighbours identified her as a “vulnerable person” in their community and in the Community Garden meetings they decided she qualified for extra help. Each week she received a basket of maize, oil and vegetables that her neighbours had grown through CARE’s community garden project.

This story ends well! She got ARV (anti retro virus) medication and her health began to stabilize, she gained weight, she felt better. And her neighbours kept making sure she had a box from the community garden on a regular basis. Within the year she was well enough to participate in the community garden initiative and she became a conservationist farming participant. And I can tell you that today she is living a good life with her children, she’s healthy and improved and she has stronger ties with her village. Her participation in the garden initiative has allowed to access a monthly income which can make an enormous difference in the life of a woman with children on her own.

What are you looking forward to?
I look forward to seeing the communities that I work with get stronger and more resilient for the future. There is no doubt that there are more hardships to be faced but when we can build resilient communities then we equip people with the means to take care of themselves and their children during these troubles.

How has CARE impacted you?
CARE has given me the opportunity to do meaningful work with the women of my country. Every day I am in the field working with these women I am able to look at them say, “See? Women can be the decision makers. Women can be leaders. It is possible.”

Learn more about CARE’s work in Zimbabwe.

As the dust began to settle, international organizations like CARE provided life-saving food, water, medical care and shelter. Within weeks it became evident that this disaster was not only massive but incredibly complex.

With severe vulnerabilities plaguing the country prior to the quake – including extreme poverty, poor infrastructure, and unsafe building standards – the results of the earthquake were catastrophic, and the response incredibly challenging.

As 2010 progressed and new risks emerged, CARE remained in life-saving mode. Hurricane Tomas brought flooding and high winds. Housing reconstruction progressed slowly due to land and property issues and excessive rubble. As the year drew to a close, the first cases of cholera appeared and spread countrywide. CARE quickly and efficiently shifted its resources to address these new emergencies and challenges.

CARE’s life-saving efforts continued into 2011, but work also began on longer-term, sustainable solutions. More than 2,500 transitional shelters were built, allowing thousands to move out of make-shift camps. More than 1,600 latrines were constructed and rehabilitated. Nearly two million people were reached with cholera prevention and hygiene messaging. CARE also began training community members, health workers and mothers on reproductive health, and prevention and counseling related to sexual and gender-based violence.

As we move into 2012, CARE is empowering women and their families to move beyond survival, and build thriving communities. The road ahead will not be short – building back sustainably takes time. But thanks to the support of our donors, CARE will be there for women, girls, boys and men affected by the earthquake in Haiti.

Guest blogger Jessie Thomson is the emergency response program manager for CARE Canada.

In 2011 I visited Haiti for the first time. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I arrived. I’d seen the images on television, and as a humanitarian aid worker, I’ve certainly seen what a major disaster can do to a community. I knew I’d see the scars left behind by the earthquake; the flattened buildings, the rubble, and the camps. This was, unfortunately, all true, but what really struck me when I arrived were the vibrant colours, the streets bursting with activity and life and the clean, deep gray of fresh concrete. All signs of a country beginning to rebuild.

CARE works with Haitians everyday to empower them towards recovery – to build back sustainably. CARE was working in Haiti long before the earthquake struck, and we’ll be there, working alongside survivors, long after.

Our shelter program is but one example of how we aim to do this. Entitled Neighbourhoods of Return, our program will provide the training and skills families need to rebuild their homes, and work alongside communities to prioritize the needs of their neighborhoods. We’ll empower entire communities, as well as individuals to get back to normal. We’ve already helped thousands of people move out of make-shift camps and into robust shelters – now we aim to empower entire communities, so that life increasing returns to normal and communities continue to grow and improve.

Rebuilding sustainably is not easy – just the act of reconstruction takes time. Near my home in Ottawa, a building was torn down recently to make room for a condominium. Watching the process unfold – the demolition of the building, the removal of the rubble and dust, the building of the frame, the foundation, the concrete, and the wiring – really put things into perspective for me. It’s been six months and the job is not finished. This is not because of a lack of resources or access, as neither are an issue in Ottawa, but because it’s a complex job. Now imagine that in Haiti, in cities where entire neighbourhoods were destroyed, where rubble filled the streets and where challenges such as property issues acted as major blocks towards progress.

After only a few short visits to Haiti, it was clear to me that the country will be rebuilt by its people. Haitians are remarkably resilient. I’ve heard people say that this word, resilience, is overused when referring to Haiti. But the reality is, it’s true. Haitians are the most resilient people I’ve ever met. It’s one of the reasons why Haiti is so special and important. Despite everything, all the devastation, all the destruction, the slow progress of rebuilding and the immense challenges ahead, Haitians maintain their spirit of optimism. They move forward. I believe that Haiti has a real chance at a stronger future and it’s because of its people.

Learn more about CARE’s response in Haiti.