Aid workers sexually exploiting people in Haiti

Canada has always had a great relationship with Haiti. Not only does it's government send aid, but many Canadian non-governmental organizations work in Haiti. All of the work has been troubled with allegations of aid workers sexually exploiting the people there.

From the Windsor Star, writer Don Lajoie and photographer Rob Gurdebeke traveled to Haiti for a series of stories they produced while doing aid work in Haiti. First, the following video gives an overview of the countries relationship. Then Lajoie tackles the issue of "Mission Sex"

Mission sex -- it's Haiti's dirty little secret.

The western world's poorest country is, according to one aid worker, a "perfect storm" of socio-economic conditions for abuse by visiting humanitarians. It's tropical temperatures and breathtaking natural beauty are easily, and cheaply, accessible from North America. Heavily dependent on foreign aid and with virtually no regulation of its schools and orphanages, Haiti's justice system is ill-equipped to deal with a rising tide of sex tourism.

Peacekeeping troops, aid workers, non-governmental organization employees, priests and missionaries engage in sexual exploitation with arrogant impunity, according to Save the Children, the world's largest children's rights organization.

And, sadly, they say, when dollars are dangled as bait, many Haitians will turn a blind eye.

"All those who come here know this is a very poor country, that there are few opportunities for youth," said Margarett Lubin, Save the Children's local child protection manager. "When financial opportunities are offered, the children enter relationships.... Do their communities see it as exploitation or do they see it as opportunity?"

Haiti has neither adequate sex-offender laws nor the police to enforce them. That helps explain why sex-tourist exporters such as Canada and the U.S. are doing the job themselves, using provisions in their criminal codes.

Consider:

- Windsor priest Rev. John Duarte faces nine counts of sexually exploiting adolescent boys in Port-au-Prince and the northern village of Labadie, where he ran a mission, following a two-year investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police and RCMP.

- American missionary Douglas Perlitz faces nearly identical charges in nearby Cap Haitien for allegedly abusing nine boys at the school he founded for poor children. That case is before the courts in the U.S.

Canada tries to give Haiti "everything"

Canadian aid is very important to Haiti. Canada will give more than a half a billion dollars to Haiti in the span of five years. It's a lot, but Haiti is a country that needs "everything" and very few Canadians are aware of the great amount of work that is done there.

Writer Laura Payton has a long piece in the Canada's Ottawa Citizen tries to explain the work of aid to Haiti.

Outside government circles, few people are aware of the work Canada is doing in Haiti, says Carlo Dade, executive director of the Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL). "Without us, a lot of children wouldn't get fed every day."

Without Canada, there are a lot of things that wouldn't get done.

Brazil, the U.S. and other countries in the Americas are also benefactors to the troubled island nation.

Last week, in a status report on the country, the UN Security Council expressed "cautious optimism." Former U.S. president Bill Clinton, a UN envoy, said, "I am convinced that Haiti has a remarkable opportunity to escape the chains of its past."

Everyone interviewed about security, aid and development work in Haiti agrees on one thing. Asked what the country needs most, their response was unanimous and emphatic: "Everything."

Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Its population is just more than nine million, crammed into an area roughly one-third the size of New Brunswick. Per capita GDP was only $1,300 U.S. last year (Canada's was $39,300 U.S.). Eighty per cent of Haitians live below the poverty line, more than two-thirds of the population don't have a formal job, and just more than 52 per cent can read. Without proper sanitation, infectious disease rates are high. Food is so scarce there were riots in 2008 when prices rose.

While it was once rich, that wealth was built on the backs of slaves. The French who colonized Haiti brought in nearly half a million slaves, who overthrew them in a revolt in 1804.

Two hundred years later, Haitians are still waiting for stable, democratic government.

Haiti is perched on the western third of Hispaniola Island, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. When planes fly over, passengers can see the border: the Dominican side is lush and green, while the Haitian side is dull and brown. Rampant deforestation — to make charcoal so people can cook without electricity — worsens the natural disasters that hit the island every year, allowing flooding and landslides to flow unabated. In 2008, for example, four hurricanes killed 800 people, left thousands homeless and caused $1 billion in damage.

A Canadian plea for aid to East Africa

Yesterday, Kenya made headlines for the millions of starving people there. Today, a coalition of Canadian aid agencies and advocates broadened their scope to all of East Africa.

Citing the wars in Somalia, and the refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, the Canadian coalition says that 20 million people are starving in East Africa. The group says that years of drought added on top of the violence has led to the starvation.

From The National Post, writer Peter Goodspeed relays the statement.

The Humanitarian Coalition, which includes CARE Canada, Oxfam Canada, Oxfam-Quebec and Save the Children Canada, warns East Africa faces "a perfect storm of crop failures, a multi-year lack of rain, conflicts and political turmoil," which now threatens 20 million people with severe hunger.

In Somalia, where recent fighting between Islamist rebels and Somali government forces backed by African Union peacekeepers has claimed the lives of 2,000 civilians, half the population already needs food assistance and one in five children is severely malnourished.

But fierce new fighting in Mogadishu now threatens a further deterioration in the humanitarian situation and is sending a fresh wave of refugees fleeing.

On Monday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees announced that more than 250,000 people have been displaced by fighting in Somalia since May, pushing the number of displaced people in the country to 1.55 million.

According to the aid agencies, most of the displaced are women and children who are living without access to water, sanitation or medical care in crowded and badly managed camps in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya.

The Dadaab camp in northeastern Kenya, which was intended to hold 90,000 people, is now one of the world's largest single concentrations of refugees, with almost 300,000 people.

Oxfam officials recently described the camp as "barely fit for humans," saying half the people in the camp have no access to water and women and children rarely have access to adequate latrines.

Yet Oxfam predicts another 100,000 refugees may flee increased fighting in Somalia this year and seek safety in Kenya.

More on Canadian international aid

A poll conducted in Canada shows that most people there don't support changing the government's aid policy.

Most Canadians want to give more money to poor countries, something their government once again declined to do. However, most Canadians don't want to link aid to the countries' economic interests or use it to increase trade.

From the Globe and Mail writer Campbell Clark gives us the results of the polling.

“For them, it's not about selling stuff. It's not about us getting an advantage. It's about us giving money for development,” said Innovative Research Group pollster Simon MacDougall.

In February, the Conservative government revamped Canada's bilateral aid program, dropping countries from Africa, the world's poorest continent, from the list of major aid recipients, and adding some from the Americas – notably those with whom Canada has recently signed free-trade deals, or started trade talks: Peru, Colombia and the Caribbean. However, the Conservatives have also untied all food aid so that it doesn't have to be bought in Canada. In addition, they've promised that all kinds of aid will be untied by 2012 so none of it has to be purchased through contracts with Canadian companies.

A poll conducted by Innovative Research Group for the Munk Centre for International Studies found that 61 per cent of respondents believe foreign aid does more good than harm.

And half, or 49 per cent, support the idea of more than doubling aid to late prime minister Lester B. Pearson's goal of 0.7 per cent of the size of the Canadian economy – an increase to about $10-billion per year. (Canada now spends about $4.1-billion on aid.)

The poll used an internet panel with 1,383 respondents, a sample size that is typically considered accurate within 2.6 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. However, an internet panel is not a random sample so does not have a statistically valid margin of error.

The poll was conducted as the Munk Centre prepares for a debate on aid today as part of its Munk Debates series.

Live debate tonight on international aid

The Canadian Newspaper the Globe and Mail will have live streaming tonight on a debate about international aid. The debate will discuss the good and the bad of foreign aid practices in governments around the globe. Professor of Economics at Oxford University Paul Collier will be participating in the debate.

As a preview of the debate, Paul Collier wrote a piece on Canadian aid for the Globe and Mail. With Canada's recent promise of making their international aid dollars more targeted and effective, Professor Collier has one suggestion that could help Haiti.

The Canadian opportunity to assist this effort lies in Haiti, where Canada is the second-largest aid donor, and which is a classic country of the bottom billion. What's more, much of the heavy lifting has already been done - the Brazilians have provided 9,000 peacekeepers, ensuring stability, and the Americans have provided Haitian exporters privileged market access, opening new economic opportunities.

The government of Haiti has recently decided to seize this rare chance to create jobs by attracting foreign firms into light manufacturing. The key bottleneck to this effort is infrastructure, without which firms cannot produce competitively.

Is private finance queuing up to provide this infrastructure? No, it is looking to public agencies to provide the necessary finance and guarantees that would make the remaining risks acceptable. To do so, they need immediate outside financial support. They need strategic aid. And here is where Canadian aid can play an immediate, tangible role.

Bureaucracies hate change and are good at avoiding it. But either the Canadian aid program is speedily refocused to meet the new infrastructure priorities of the country it is intended to assist, or it is business as usual disguised by a fog of well-meaning words.

There is a simple reason why aid matters for fragile, impoverished countries: They are extremely short of capital, and private finance is reluctant to take the risks. During the 1990s, the World Bank scaled back lending on infrastructure in Africa on the expectation that private finance would fill the gap. Instead it was filled by the government of China on contractual terms that were opaque and potentially disadvantageous. On three different measures the rate of return on private investment shows up as being higher in Africa than any other region of the world, yet even at the height of the global boom private capital inflows were modest. Now is the time for public capital.

The case of Canada in Haiti provides an ideal example of the modest but serious role that foreign aid can play. Put simply, it is to reinforce positive local forces for change.

With success, comes more questions from other countries

An aid program run by Canadian government has some politicians questioning it's practices.

Canadian companies can apply to the program if they are planning on creating jobs in poverty stricken countries. But, what politicians are questioning is why aid money is still going to China.

Further audits of the program find that only 15 percent of it's projects actually create jobs in the undeveloped world. That's 15 percent of out of 721 projects totaling $1.1 billion dollars.

In this Canadian Press article found from the CBC, the complaint is detailed and we hear from the businessman who created jobs in China.

Foreign aid officials and critics alike are asking if a program that helped Canadian firms make icewine and lingerie in China is the best way to fight global poverty.

A Niagara winery received $108,000 to study icewine prospects in China under the same business partnership program that gave $103,000 to a Montreal company that makes women's underwear.

Critics have questioned why the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) still sends aid to one of the world's emerging economic superpowers.

The agency's industrial co-operation program, which matches Canadian companies with job-creating partners overseas, has been an especially broad target for skeptics and auditors.

Official with the government said the use of the funds is now being reviewed.

"We want to make sure that our aid dollars bring results — maximum results," said Jean-Luc Benoit, spokesman for International Development Minister Bev Oda. "If this program either needs to be overhauled or moved somewhere else, that's what we'll do."
...

Charles Pillitteri, son of former Liberal MP Gary Pillitteri, said his winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., applied to the program after his father left politics. The vineyard is billed as one of the largest icewine producers in the world.

Pillitteri Estates received $108,263 over two years ended last year to study the potential for a joint icewine venture in Xinjiang, an autonomous region of northwestern China.

"The CIDA program actually went very well," Pillitteri said in an interview.

He can understand the skepticism raised by the program's track record. Byzantine paperwork and dealing with an entirely different culture half a world away are likely deal-breakers for firms not committed to the long haul, he said.

But Pillitteri said his company has spent many times the amount of federal cash it received and will exceed its proposal to create 30 full-time jobs in China.

Ottawa bolsters food donations

from the Globe and Mail

No strings attached to 28-per-cent increase

KEVIN CARMICHAEL AND SHAWN MCCARTHY

OTTAWA — The federal government has responded to the growing global food crisis by increasing this year's international donation by 28 per cent to $230-million, and by forcing Canadian farmers to compete with foreign growers to supply the aid.

Amid record prices for wheat, rice and other farm commodities, the Harper government added $50-million to its food aid budget, which supports efforts by the United Nations to feed 73 million of the world's poorest and hungriest people.

In a major departure from the decades-old policy of requiring much of the aid budget to be spent on Canadian foodstuffs, International Co-operation Minister Beverley Oda said the money would go to the Rome-based World Food Programme with no strings attached.

In recent years, half of Ottawa's food aid was sourced in Canada. Prior to that, all of the food donations were bought in Canada and delivered to the world's poor.

The "tying" of food donations has been slammed by economists as inefficient and self-serving because it prevents humanitarian organizations from buying grain and other goods at the lowest price, increases transportation costs and diverts money to farmers in richer countries when it could be used to buy goods from local producers.

"The untying part is very important," said Louise Fréchette, the former deputy secretary-general at the UN and a distinguished fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation.

"Procurement in the country of the donor is not necessarily the cheapest way. It certainly limits the flexibility of the agencies that receive the contribution because they can't go to the lowest-priced item at the moment it needs it."

But agricultural groups argue that government aid should be used to support domestic farmers, or that the untied aid should be aimed at poor farmers in the developing world.

A spokesman for the Canadian Wheat Board said the aid program accounts for only a small fraction of its international sales, and wheat producers likely won't notice a drop in demand or price.

"But our preference would be that, in using taxpayers' dollars for food aid, some of that supply should be met by Canadians," said Dustin Gosnell, director of corporate policy for the Winnipeg-based wheat board.

Robert Friesen, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, said his group is not opposed to untying the aid, so long as the money is spent in recipient countries, rather than buying product from heavily subsidized competitors like the U.S., where 100 per cent of food aid is purchased domestically.

Food prices have increased about 50 per cent since the end of 2006, a surge that threatens to shove tens of millions of people deeper into poverty, according to the International Monetary Fund.

The World Food Programme estimated in February that it would need emergency assistance of $500-million (U.S.) to meet its plan to feed 73 million people in 78 countries this year. The organization was forced to boost its cash call to $755-million last month as agricultural commodities continued to skyrocket.

Ms. Oda, who oversees the Canadian International Development Agency, said the Conservative government will give an extra $45-million to the World Food Programme and $5-million to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.

Canada's decision to untie its food donations leaves the U.S. as the only major donor that continues to make aid contingent on buying from its farmers and food processors.

"Our food aid support must go further and must be used more efficiently," Ms. Oda said at a news conference. "Tied aid erodes Canada's global reputation because it suggests we are as concerned about helping ourselves as we are about helping others."

But Kevin McCort, president of CARE Canada, said the increased food aid budget was money that was diverted from other development programs, and complained the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper is taking a short-sighted approach to the growing problem of world hunger.

Spending on war dwarfs aid

from the Georgia Straight

By Carlito Pablo

Afghan émigré Dr. Karim Qayumi has visited Kabul regularly in recent years. There, in the Afghan capital, the 58-year-old medical doctor maintains an extension office of his Vancouver-based nonprofit group, Partnership Afghanistan Canada. Early this month, according to Qayumi, that office received a shipment of 280 wheelchairs from Canadian donors.

As politicians in Ottawa ponder the future of Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan—a matter that could trigger a federal election—Qayumi hopes there will be some changes in the situation in his native land.

“I think most of the effort is towards the stabilization of Afghanistan through military means, so there’s not much done for the civilian population,” Qayumi told the Georgia Straight. “In the last four or five years, more than $80 billion had been spent on war in Afghanistan and only $4 billion on aid.”

Currently director of the UBC Centre of Excellence for Surgical Education and Innovation, Qayumi noted that members of the international community haven’t delivered on their promises to help Afghans get back on their feet.

“First of all, I want to see the war stopped in Afghanistan, because no matter how you want to rebuild, it’s going to be destroyed again,” he said. “With respect to rebuilding, I want to see projects that are enabling Afghans to stand on their own.”

According to The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar by Janice Gross Stein and Eugene Lang (2007, Penguin), international military spending has significantly eclipsed expenditures for development and reconstruction in Afghanistan.

“The international community has spent only eight percent of the total funds it committed to Afghanistan between 2002 and 2006 on development and poverty relief,” the book states.

Stein is director of the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto, while Lang was chief of staff for former Liberal defence ministers John McCallum and Bill Graham. The authors note that the Canadian government pledged $1 billion in development aid in 2001, or about $100 million each year throughout the decade. In 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harper committed another $200 million for development. Still, there is a “strange skewing of priorities”, according to Stein and Lang.

“Even though Canada is a large and significant donor, its development assistance is only one-tenth of what it is spending on the military effort in Afghanistan,” the authors write. They note that only 28 percent of funding given by the Canadian International Development Agency goes to the south, where Canadian forces are operating.

The Conservative government has tabled a motion in Parliament seeking to extend Canada’s combat mission in Kandahar, an insurgent stronghold in southern Afghanistan, until 2011. The Liberals, in turn, have proposed an amendment to provide a continuation of the country’s military presence with troops mostly involved in training Afghan security forces.

Federal NDP defence critic Dawn Black noted that the Conservatives and the Liberals haven’t departed from the NATO approach, which is to wage a counterinsurgency war to provide the conditions for stability and development.

“NATO is a military alliance, and as such, its mission is basically military in nature,” Black told the Straight. “What we need is for the United Nations and its many agencies to step up to the plate. These agencies have the mandate and expertise to undertake rebuilding and development.”

Federal NDP leader Jack Layton has long called for the immediate withdrawal of Canadian soldiers, arguing that the conflict in Afghanistan cannot be solved by military means.

Vancouver lawyer Gail Davidson describes the discussions in Ottawa about extending the presence of Canadian troops until 2011 as “bizarre”.

“Clearly, the presence of foreign troops is a factor that is contributing to the deterioration of security at all levels,” Davidson, cofounder of Lawyers Against the War, told the Straight. “We don’t need people trained to kill over there. We need people trained to negotiate peace between warring groups of people.”

Davidson recalled that in May 2007, the Afghan senate passed a motion urging President Hamid Karzai to hold direct talks with the Taliban and other opposition forces. More important, according to Davidson, is that the same motion urged western troops to halt operations against Taliban fighters.

World uniting to Save a Million Lives

from The Chronicle Herald

By ROSALEE GRETTE LYDON

It is a sobering fact that 9.7 million children die each year due to poverty-related causes and preventable diseases. While the statistic is staggering, there is much Canadians, as individuals and at the government level, can do to increase child survival.

Individual Canadians give generously of their time and money to organizations like Oxfam and Opportunity International, dedicated to improving living conditions in poor countries. It is heart-warming to read of the commitment by two students at Horton High School to raise $7,000 to buy 1,000 treated mosquito nets for distribution by the Red Cross in Africa (Dec. 27 story). Children are especially vulnerable to malaria, and treated mosquito nets are effective in preventing malaria.

It is imperative that the government step up to the plate in a more substantial way. The prime minister recently committed $105 million over five years to a proven initiative developed, in part, in Canada to improve the health of impoverished mothers and children in Africa. Stephen Harper further promised to double Canada’s aid to Africa by fiscal year 2008 (Nov. 27 CP story). The PM’s commitment is a good start to 2008.

A history of this initiative is instructive. In 2003, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) worked with UNICEF to develop a pilot project focused on community-level delivery of basic, inexpensive health care and nutrition. The three-year project led to a 20 per cent drop in child mortality and an estimated 18,000 lives saved. The cost was low: $500 for each life saved.

(It is noteworthy that Canada has led the charge in supporting a number of the effective interventions included in this initiative, like tuberculosis treatment, which has saved over 500,000 lives; vitamin A supplements; anti-malarial bed nets, a cause also espoused by the two students noted above; and immunization against measles, which has resulted in a 75 per cent drop in deaths due to measles.)

The director of UNICEF, Ann Veneman, subsequently praised Canada’s past commitment to this project and noted that we could "reach 60 per cent of children across sub-Saharan Africa by 2009 with these integrated … interventions." This would "mean saving the lives of a million children every year in that region alone."

The successful pilot project resulted in a global program called the Initiative to Save a Million Lives. This initiative, which the prime minister has now embraced, has attracted other partners, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the governments of the United States, Australia, Britain and Norway.

Canada signed the UN Millennium Declaration which addresses key development issues grouped under eight Millennium Development Goals, the first of which is to reduce extreme poverty by half by 2015.

The elegance of the Save a Million Lives Initiative is that it will tackle four of these goals in one swoop, resulting in decreased infant mortality, reduced maternal death, and reduction in death due to malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.

There has been progress in reducing child mortality: 3,000 fewer children a day died of poverty-related causes in 2006 than in 1990. And Canada has contributed to this progress, but have we made enough of a contribution?

Canada has the hottest economy in the G7 group of the world’s wealthiest nations, yet our international aid as a percent of gross national income has actually declined. Canada’s aid declined from 0.34 per cent in 2005 to 0.3 per cent in 2006. Our level of aid is below the average of the world’s wealthier countries, which currently is at about 0.46 per cent.

I challenge Prime Minister Harper, the government and all members of Parliament to build on this recent commitment, and rather than $100 million over five years, why not $100 million each year for five years? In this way, Canada alone would save one million lives!

The PM’s pledge has now been matched by the UN, and it is possible that the UN would match a $100-million-a-year pledge.

Given Canada’s financial strength, surely the government could afford a $100-million-a-year investment in proven, cost-effective measures to save children’s lives.

Moreover, child survival is an issue that Canada can take a lead on globally. The campaign to Save a Million Lives should be on the top of the agenda at the next G8 meeting in 2008.

Rosalee Grette Lydon was a member of the host committee for the Global Microcredit Summit 2006.

Poverty of Haiti's Cite Soleil gives Harper firsthand look at country' desperation

from Canada com

Richard Foot
CanWest News Service

PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper made history in Haiti on Friday, becoming the first foreign leader to enter into the sprawl of human misery that is Cite Soleil -- the notorious, crime-ridden slum on the west side of this desperate capital.

It was also Harper's first personal brush with such wretched poverty. And although his journey into the slum was brief -- he went there to visit a Canadian-funded hospital -- it was a vivid, firsthand lesson in Haiti's harsh realities.

"You go into a neighbourhood like Cite Soleil, where there has been considerable improvement in security and life, and yet you see how difficult that life is obviously for most people," Harper told reporters later, after a meeting with Haitian President Rene Preval.

"I think all of us, as fellow human beings, as people who have our own families, can only begin to understand the true difficulties and the challenges that so many people in this country face on a day-to-day basis."

Haiti, the poorest and most lawless nation in the Western Hemisphere -- and the birthplace of Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean -- was Harper's fourth and final stop on his week-long tour of Latin America.

As the second largest recipient of Canadian foreign aid after Afghanistan, Haiti is evidence of the obstacles in this region to Harper's new vision of a hemisphere bound together by prosperity and security.

His trip into Cite Soleil was made under tight security. Armed Brazilian soldiers from the United Nations stabilization mission were on every street corner as his motorcade made its way through neighbourhoods filled with ramshackle homes and storefronts pock-marked by bullet holes from years of gang violence and civil war.

Residents stared at the passing Canadian vehicles with moody detachment. Few smiled or waved. When CanWest News asked one woman her opinion of Canada - and whether the world was doing enough for her country - she made a simple plea.

"I am hungry, and I need money," she said.

At Sainte Catherine Laboure Hospital, a medical clinic funded in part by Canada and the United States, Harper spoke with doctors and nurses, watched the vaccination of young children, and met two little girls whose mothers are HIV-positive.

As Canadian police patrolled the rooftops of the clinic, Harper stood in the courtyard, sweating in the overpowering Haitian heat, and presented a blood-analysis machine to the hospital.

Canada, which had contributed a total of 550 soldiers to United Nations forces in Haiti over the past decade, now has 100 military and police personnel working with the current UN stabilization mission, known by its French acronym MINUSTAH.

Last year, Canada also pledged $520 million in development support to Haiti over a number of years, and is currently involved in a range of aid efforts, from the building of schools to the training of local civil servants, judges, prison workers and journalists.

After his private meeting with Harper, Preval said Haiti was a country "in convalescence," and that Harper was like a "doctor" coming to check up on a patient.

"It is still weak, very weak," Preval said, speaking in French, "and we have to be careful to protect it from relapse."

Harper said Canadians "should be very proud that they are offering to help. Their help is making a difference in terms of the safety of people's lives, in terms of giving them some hope and some opportunity.

"We all want to see that people enjoy some of the things we're able to enjoy in our country," he said.

Just how effective Canadian and other aid dollars are in helping Haiti rise above its misery is open to debate.

Commander Daniel Allard, a Montreal police officer working here with the UN mission, told CanWest News that if Harper had come last year, Cite Soleil - beset by violent gangs and drug traffickers - would not have been safe enough to visit.

"In the eight months I've been here, things have definitely improved," Allard said.

Other observers say that while political security has improved and inflation has been brought under control, crime, drug trafficking and human smuggling have reached epidemic levels - despite two years of international intervention following the election of the Preval government.

A recent report in the Miami Herald said record numbers of Haitians have been boarding rickety boats this summer and risking their lives at sea in a bid to reach other Caribbean islands, or even Florida.

Prosperity and stability have eluded Haiti ever since a slave revolt overthrew French colonial rule here in 1804.

Three-quarters of the country's 8.5 million people now live on less than $2 US a day, many scratching out a subsistence living in shantytowns like Cite Soleil.

Modern efforts to reform the country began in 1986, at the end of the dictatorial Duvalier era, but although a democratic constitution was adopted in 1987, Haiti remained in political turmoil, with former president Jean Bertrand Aristide twice being elected and ousted by coups and rebellions, the most recent of which, in 2004, was sponsored in part by the United States.

The world's hopes for Haiti now rest on Preval, a moderate who holds power thanks to a shaky coalition of political parties.

A stone's throw from the presidential palace grounds where Harper met Preval on Friday, a graffiti-stained concrete wall shows proof of Preval's tenuous hold on power, and his reliance on the UN forces that prop up his government.

"Vive Retou Aristide!" says the graffiti. "Hail the return of Aristide!"

Call for overhaul of CIDA strikes chord: senator

from The CBC

A Senate report that recommends the federal government overhaul or abolish the Canadian International Development Agency has found surprising support, says one of its authors.

The report, Overcoming 40 Years of Failure: A New Road Map for Sub-Saharan Africa, says that CIDA has failed to make a difference in Africa with its system of foreign aid.

"People have been really positive about it," Liberal Senator Peter Stollery told CBC News Online on Wednesday. "Oh my gosh. You would have thought I would have been killed by now."

The report recommends that CIDA should either be abolished, or turned into an effective agency by giving it a statutory mandate that would include clear goals that could be monitored by MPs.

If abolished, the report says, its staff should be folded into the Foreign Affairs and International Trade Department. It also says the government should set up an Africa office and the majority of staff moved into the field.

Stollery, deputy chair of the committee, said CIDA has yet to react officially to the report, but he has heard that a response is in the works.

"They are worried because we are right. Why has it gotten such a huge response? We have peeled back the cover of all of this," he said.

"We are going to put pressure on the government to change this situation. We are not finished with this thing. We will corner them," he said.
Little to show for the money, says report

According to the report released in mid-February, since 1968 CIDA has spent $12.4 billion in bilateral assistance to Sub-Saharan Africa, which Stollery defines as the countries between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.

The report says there is little to show for the money. "CIDA is ineffective, costly and overly bureaucratic," it reads.

About 80 per cent of CIDA staff are based in Ottawa, and staff people in the field have little authority to design and implement projects and allocate funds, the report says.

"This top-heavy system has perpetuated a system where our development assistance is slow, inflexible and unresponsive to conditions on the ground in recipient countries."
'No clear mandate'

CIDA was established through a paragraph in the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Act, the report says, even though it has an annual budget of more than $3 billion.

"CIDA has no well-defined and clear mandate with objectives that can be monitored by parliamentarians," the report says.

Stollery, who was scheduled to speak at the National Press Club in Ottawa on Wednesday night, said Sub-Saharan Africa needs investment and trade that will create jobs, and the government should move away from "poverty alleviation" because economic development is what is needed.

"Without investment and private enterprise, there would be no progress," he said. "Businesses have to be established that will create jobs. Governments from other countries are not going to make Africans richer," he said.

Canada could make a difference to the continent if it had a new, clear and coherent foreign policy on Africa, with a focus on generating economic and employment opportunities, he said.

The report also recommends focusing bilateral development aid on a smaller number of countries to have a greater effect.

Africa needs to tackle corruption aggressively, the report says, while developed countries need to complete the World Trade Organization's Doha round of negotiations to pull down trade barriers that limit the access of African agricultural products to world markets.
A vibrant economy the answer

"Despite many popular beliefs to the contrary, the committee has concluded that international development assistance is not the long-term answer for Africa. Vibrant economies and good governance are the answer for Africa," the report says.

Stollery says the positive response the report has received stems in part from its comments on corruption because there is relief that these issues are being aired.

The committee, which took two years to research the report, heard from more than 400 witnesses. Sub-Saharan Africa is considered the world's poorest region. It contains some of the least developed countries in the world.

MalU students, faculty fight poverty in Ghana

from Nanaimo News Bulletin

Bridgette Zohner has never stepped foot on an airplane, but in April she’ll leave her comfort zone and travel to Africa to fight poverty.

Zohner, a first-year nursing student at Malaspina University-College, is one of four students selected to participate in a month-long field school in the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana.

“It’s going to be an amazing educational experience,” she said.

The field school, led by Tourism and Recreation Management professors Ken Hammer and Rick Rollins, is the start of a five-year project developed by Malaspina faculty and Malaspina’s International Education department to help alleviate poverty in Sunyani, Ghana.

The project involves a multi-disciplinary team of students and faculty in tourism, forestry, health and human services and international education working together with partners in Sunyani, and has received $400,000 in funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) through the Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC), said Sheila Swanson, director of English as a Second Language programs and International Education at Malaspina.

“Our primary objective is to work with two post-secondary institutions – the Sunyani Polytechnic and the Faculty of Forest Resources Technology at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science – to develop new curricula to improve living conditions in rural Ghana,” said Swanson.

Malaspina faculty and students will help develop four community development projects aimed at reducing household waste, reducing HIV/AIDS, improving forest fire management and developing ecotourism.

“The project is about sharing knowledge and expertise between institutions, and connecting with community leaders in Ghana to affect positive change,” said Rollins.

In April, the Malaspina team will meet with partners in Sunyani, a municipality of about 61,000, to determine roles and working relationships, identify target communities in the area and develop strategies aimed at reducing poverty.

“As a nursing student, I’m interested in seeing what health means to the people of Ghana, what resources are available to them and how their environment is affecting their health,” said Zohner, a Powell River native.

Tourism and Recreation Management student Amanda Moore, originally from Red Deer, Alberta, said participating in the field school is “an incredible way to provide the people in Ghana with the necessary tools to promote positive change.”

“I want to return with new eyes to see the world and a deeper passion to fight poverty locally and globally,” she said.

Andrea Jancicka from Prince George is currently enrolled in Malaspina’s Forestry Resources Technology program and works as a seasonal forest firefighter in the South East Fire Centre in Revelstoke during the summer months.

“Going to Africa has always been on my travel itinerary. I like the prospect of being able to contribute to community development,” she said.

Karla Duarte, born in Mexico and raised in Nanaimo, is another Tourism Management student selected to participate.

“My parents emigrated from a Third World country and I have heard about their struggles and reliance on foreign aid to be able to get to where they are now,” she said. “So going to Ghana is a very personal experience for me. I hope to see the impact of foreign aid, learn about the culture, and gain personal growth and a better understanding of international community development.”

Tourism professor Dr. Ken Hammer added that the trip is perfect opportunity for students and faculty to learn together in an applied environment.

He’s looking forward to working with other collaborators, including the Regional District of Nanaimo, which has been involved with its own CIDA-funded project in Ghana for the past few years. The RDN is helping to develop capacity for waste management.

Nanaimo Rotary clubs are also exploring ways to get involved to help alleviate poverty in Ghana.

The Malaspina team is accepting donations of school supplies, hygiene products, recreation equipment or cash for the people in Sunyani.

Donations over $20 will receive a tax receipt, and can be sent to the Malaspina University-College Foundation, 114-59 Wharf Street, Nanaimo BC, V9R 2X3.

CESO to CVED: Sustaining Canadian Aid Gains through a Local NGO

from The American Chronicle

Mike Banos

Donor countries have a soft spot in their hearts for small and medium industries. From manufacturing garments, to weaving crafts and making paper, molding pottery, baking bread, pastries and sweets, or processing meat products, Philippine small and medium enterprises may not be the biggest contributors to the economy but they are tops in generating jobs and alleviating poverty.

"They comprise more than 90% of all our enterprise in the country and if we can create a million to two million small enterprises and each one hires two to three people, we can create five to six million jobs with small enterprises," said Economic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri.

But a general lack of sustainability has hampered small and medium enterprise growth in the Philippines . Intuitive rather than proven business practices and policies generally characterize these "mom-and-pop" operations, so bringing them up to par in an increasingly competitive global market is proving quite a challenge. But the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) saw opportunities in the situation to make a difference.

"We have two kinds of assistance. One is focused at business support organizations and the other is CESO-BAP focused on individual companies and groups of companies who need special expertise like marketing, finance, production to help them grow their businesses," Canadian Ambassador Peter Sutherland said in a recent visit to a beneficiary enterprise in Cagayan de Oro.

CIDA's mandate is to to support sustainable development in developing countries, in order to reduce poverty and to contribute to a more secure, equitable, and prosperous social order.

CIDA's partners and stakeholders agree on the need to address persistent and high levels of poverty in the Philippines. The consultations recommended that a broad-based private sector, supported by a strong public sector institutional base, would contribute significantly to poverty reduction and sustainable development in the Philippines. By promoting greater private sector participation, employment opportunities and incomes of Filipinos would increase.

Strengthening the capacity of institutions and non-governmental organizations/peoples' organizations (NGOs/POs) would help the Philippines achieve a stronger public sector and civil society structure - two key elements for prosperity and sustainable development.

By helping create an enabling environment for private sector development and by sharing Canadian technology and skills in areas of mutual interests, CIDA's efforts are expected to result in increased employment opportunities and improved incomes in the Philippines as well as create and expand linkages between Canadian and Filipino private sectors. Through the Canadian Executive Service Organization - Business Advisory Project (CESO-BAP) assistance is given to Filipino entrepreneurs to enhance operations, generate higher income, and create more jobs.

"We provide business advisory assistance, basically in the areas of marketing, technology transfers, product development, organization, improvement and operating functions of organizations," said Timothy Moiket, country project manager for CESO-BAP. "We came up with an SME continuum to make us understand the distinct needs of enterprises."

CESO is a non-profit organization that helps to build proud independent communities. Over 3,000 distinguished Volunteer Advisers on the CESO roster share their professional experience by serving as mentors, advisers and trainers to our clients and partners at home and abroad.

"Within the confines of the project, we view business advise as an asset. Through our private sector development programming, we address the issue of poverty reduction through the creation of jobs. If businesses can be strengthened, if the delivery of business services can be strengthened, jobs can be created. Through creating jobs, you create wealth. By creating wealth, it works its way down to system individuals and poverty is reduced in some shape and form," said Tom Carroll, CIDA Head of Aid in a recent visit to SLERS.

But beyond giving business advise, CESO is making sure that Filipinos take an active role, and rise to the challenge of giving ample, doable and tested advice to their fellow Filipino entrepreneurs.

"We created a model which can replicate the kind of service that we provide but in a Filipino setting so, together with Philippine Business for Social Progress, we created a program called CVED" Mr. Moiket said.

CVED (Corporate Volunteers for Enterprise Development) is a business advisory program of PBSP in partnership with CESO and funding support from CIDA. Like CESO, CVED provides expert advice and technical assistance through Volunteer Advisers to micro and small enterprises to empower them to sustain their businesses and be net contributors for job generation and poverty alleviation.

Gil Salazar, PBSP executive director said CVED aims to be the sustainability mechanism for BAP. "We're tapping the corporate employees, primarily the employees of our member-companies to act as volunteers, volunteers as business advisors," Mr. Salazar said.

The convergence of the two programs had its most successful joint collaboration to date with SLERS Industries in Cagayan de Oro. BAP adviser Charles Gouett provided assistance in niche marketing and distribution strategies, while CVED advisor Oliver Tiu focused on developing sale strategies and a sales force for the client.

Although the two experts could not work together physically, they found time to meet in Davao with the client to formulate a general marketing plan with the BAP expert focusing on its ham and chicharon (pork rind crackers) while the CVED advisor focused on its daily meat products.

As a result of the collaboration, SLERS invested PhP1-million in new funds for a new plant for its chicharon production, another PhP2.5-million for its Expess Meals kiosk at a nearby mall, and another sales kiosk at the SM Mall of Asia in Manila. Sales increased from PhP2.7 million in January-April 2006 to P3.3 million in May-September 2006, and most important, thirty new employees were hired.

"We've developed new products, introduced them in the market, and consequently hired more people to produce and sell these products in our outlets," said Mercedes Mejia, managing director of SLERS Industries.

By transforming CVED into one of its core programs, the PBSP will continue the work started by CESO-BAP and molding it into a tool to complement its credit and livelihood programs. CVED will continue to strengthen its roster of volunteer advisers to continue delivery of business advisory services to small and medium enterprises.

"SMES are really out of the loop of management service providers in the economy largely because of their small size which make them more difficult to reach and interact with," Paul Dominguez, chair of the PBSP Mindanao executive committee said. "We noted a number of enterprises really need assistance to grow which is why PBSP has this program."

"It's gonna take a lot of hard work, sweat equity on the part of the organization. They have to know where they are, how to get there, come up with a plan, set their mind to it, assemble the assets, assemble the resources required to do that," Mr. Carroll said. "If one of them is CVED that would be great, but CVED cannot do it for them, they must be prepared to devote their time, their effort and energy to achieve their goals themselves."

To further ensure the sustainability of the success which the project has so far attained, CESO and PBSP are now preparing a detailed 3.5 year plan covering the last 18 months of the BAP and maximize the potential of CVED and two years of CVED post BAP.

"The plan will outline the folding in of BAP's operations into CVED, the human resource requirement, and the structure of CVED within PBSP," said Arun Bauri, CIDA development officer for Indonesia, the Philippines and South-East Asia. "It will also outline the funding and resources needed for the approval of the BAP project advisory committee."

Falling Aid

from Embassy

Foreign aid continues to take a beating in Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s budget.
FOREIGN AID

Aid Dollars Rise, Official Assistance Level Dips

Canada is moving in the wrong direction if it wants to meet its commitment to spending 0.7 per cent of its gross national product on international development, experts say.

While Canada's aid contributions in dollars have increased every year since 2001-02, the Canadian Council for International Co-operation, a coalition of civil society organizations, says that Canada's Official Development Assistance level fell from 0.34 per cent of GNP in 2005 to 0.33 per cent last year. Barring any large changes, that number is expected to drop to 0.32 per cent in 2007.

Getting every country to meet the 0.7 per cent level, a goal Prime Minister Stephen Harper was very vocal about when he was in opposition, is considered essential if the Millennium Development Goals to address global poverty are to be met.

CCIC executive director Gerry Barr said when Mr. Harper was campaigning during the last election, he promised to get increase ODA so that Canada met the average donor level by 2010.

"At the time that he said it, average donor performance was 0.42," Mr. Barr said. "We're stuck. We're absolutely stuck and we have been stuck for some years. With [former prime minister Paul] Martin's government, it's fair to say, we were also stuck.

"But Mr. Harper has now had two budget opportunities to perform on those promises and he has not done it. And it's quite unambiguous, he has not done it."

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Canada's ODA stood at 0.22 in 2001, 0.28 in 2002, 0.24 in 2003 and 0.27 in 2004.

On Monday, the government released this year's budget, which will see Canada's international assistance spending increase from $3.5 billion last year to $4.1 billion in this year and $4.4 billion in 2008-09.

The increases represent the Conservative government's continuation of a policy started under the Liberals that increases aid spending by eight per cent each year, with the goal of doubling Canada's 2001-02 international assistance amount, in dollars, by 2010-11.

According to calculations by the CCIC, Canada's total ODA contributions stood at $4.6 billion last year, when international development aid, debt relief and non-CIDA programs were included.

Bloc Québécois CIDA critic Caroline St-Hilaire said the government has done little to address Canada's ODA commitments.

"They say they are committed to the Millennium Development Goals, which is to fight poverty, but I am wondering how they are going to do it because at the same time they are not increasing ODA," she said.

She also questioned the government's three-point plan to improve aid delivery and effectiveness, which was also outlined in the budget.

According to the plan, the government will reduce administrative costs for aid delivery and provide more frequent and comprehensive reports on how Canadian aid is being used.

Bill C-293, a private member's bill introduced by Liberal MP John McKay which will go through third reading this week, already addresses those issues, Ms. St-Hilaire said, but she questioned why the Tories have not thrown their support behind it.

The third point of the plan introduced by the budget, to reduce the number of countries it supports from 77 to an unknown number, will see Canada aim to be among the largest five donors in specific countries, and choose which countries will receive aid based on "our foreign policy objectives," the budget reads.

Canada is already one of the largest donors to both Afghanistan and Haiti, and critics worried the government may start allocating aid based on political reasons rather than poverty eradication.

"What is the basis for how they choose countries?" Ms. St-Hilaire said. "Is it going to be where the Canadian military are, like Afghanistan? Or is it going to reduce poverty?"

Liberal CIDA critic Mark Eyking also questioned why there was no mention of Africa within the report given the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee recently released a scathing report that alleged Canadian development efforts on the continent have had no lasting effects.

"We had a commitment to Africa that we were going to double our spending over five years," he said. "I don't see anything specifically ear tagged for Africa. Which comes down to where the Harper government is on Africa."

He also questioned why there was no response in the budget to any of the points raised about CIDA's operations by the Senate committee.

"It's just not on the radar screen," he said.

Minister Dismisses Senate's Idea Aid Agency Be Axed

from The Embassy

By Lee Berthiaume

An Ethiopian diplomat, an NGO head and some MPs agree with a Senate report that CIDA might have to change the way it works in Africa.

While the government is still studying a Senate report on Canada's Africa policy, International Co-operation Minister Josée Verner says Canada's International Development Agency is making a difference on the continent.

"When I visited Mali, I saw projects and I saw results and I saw progress," Ms. Verner told Embassy in an interview Monday. "We have made progress in Africa."

The Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade sparked an apparent furor two weeks ago when it said Canada has made no notable or lasting impact in Africa after 40 years and $12 billion of aid efforts.

The report made 44 recommendations, including a call for a complete review of CIDA's operations and the development of a comprehensive Africa policy that combines aid efforts with economic development, security and diplomatic direction.

Days later, Conservative Senator Hugh Segal reluctantly tendered his resignation as chairman of the committee in a move that fellow committee members believe was forced upon him by the Conservative leadership.

While Ms. Verner said she didn't know the details of Mr. Segal's resignation, she noted that two committee members, one Liberal and the other Conservative, had not endorsed the report.

In addition, she described some of the recommendations as contradictory, and dismissed suggestions that Canada's aid agency be dissolved.

"We cannot just decide to put away 40 years of existence of an organization," Ms. Verner said. "Do we have to change things? Maybe. We always have to adjust the way we work in those countries."

Ms. Verner said she was surprised the senators took a hard line with CIDA.

"When I appeared before [the Senate committee], nobody told me that it was about the CIDA structure," she said. "They invited me to go there to talk about Africa."

The minister said that since she took over CIDA, there has been a push for efficiency and accountability within the agency.

"We will have to make sure that that money is well-spent and make sure we have clear results and make sure we focus our aid," she said. "We have been working in that way since we've been here.

"Our government was elected on a transparency agenda and an accountability agenda and I will manage CIDA in that way," Ms. Verner added. "This is what I'm committed to doing."


'Senators Did Not Invent This'

Abdurahim Mohammed Ali, counsellor at the Embassy of Ethiopia in Ottawa, said there are ways in which CIDA can improve its development efforts in his country.

Not only is more money and technical support needed–a common complaint from African governments–but CIDA could also work more closely with the Ethiopian government more as opposed to civil society and other organizations.

"Working with civil society, sometimes, especially after the last election, sometimes they are undermining the government," Mr. Mohammed Ali said. "You have to stick with the policies and avoid external forces."

Mr. Mohammed Ali also said that Canada could provide more direct budget support to the government.

However, he said CIDA is making a difference in Ethiopia, and, in fact, is a key player in the country.

"We believe the contribution of CIDA in Ethiopia is not wasted," he said. "It helps us a lot."

Two years ago, the Canadian Council on Africa, a non-profit group that receives funding from the government and the private sector with the aim of promoting trade between Canada and Africa, made a number of recommendations that, in many cases, were repeated by the Senate committee.

"The senators did not invent this," said CCAfrica president Lucien Bradet. "They have uncovered a certain number of issues and malaise that has to be addressed."

While Mr. Bradet said the wording of the report, and its focus on CIDA, was "unfortunate," there are problems in Canada's Africa policy that the government must address.

"A lot of the recommendations make a lot of sense," he said. "Unfortunately, a lot of distraction came out because of one specific area, which is CIDA's fate."

Mr. Bradet said Canadians are becoming increasingly interested in Africa and the government will have to do something.

"You have to have a coherent policy, which we don't have," he said. "We need a statement from the government that we are serious about this."


Segal's Resignation 'Odd'

Last week, a private member's bill put forward by Liberal MP John McKay was debated in the House. The purpose of the bill is to focus CIDA on poverty alleviation efforts, a move that its proponents say will bring more direction and accountability to the aid agency.

"It is an effort to bring accountability to our aid projects," Mr. McKay told the House after presenting the bill for third reading last week.

"This is about better aid. It is not about more aid," he said before referencing the Senate committee's report. "I think that this particular bill...addresses in some small measure the concerns of the senators as they expressed them in their report."

While the opposition parties all expressed support for the proposed legislation, Conservative MPs described the proposed bill as flawed.

Ted Menzies, the parliamentary secretary for international trade and international co-operation, described the bill that "is so laden with unproductive restrictions and unnecessary criteria that it would do nothing more than overload the aid program with an administrative and bureaucratic complexity."

Deepak Obhrai, the parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs, said the government "takes a bigger picture into account" when doling out aid, and by focusing it specifically on poverty alleviation, "this bill restricts all those things and creates another level of bureaucracy."

Mark Eyking, the Liberal's CIDA critic, said much of the Senate committee report "made sense" and the proposed bill is "all part of us parliamentarians looking at CIDA and that it needs an overhaul."

Canada needs to work with countries where democracy is evolving, he added, "where we're going to get a good bang for our buck."

"We have to change the way we do things," Mr. Eyking said.

Liberal Senator Dennis Dawson, who presented the Senate committee report with Mr. Segal on Feb. 15, said the proposed bill addresses a narrow part of the problems identified in the report, but much more needs to be done if Canada wants to make a difference in Africa.

But Mr. Dawson believes Mr. Segal's resignation, the timing of which he described as "odd," will make it more difficult for the committee to sell the report to government.

"It certainly weakens a lot of the effort that went into this," he said. "But we will continue to fight for it."

lee@embassymag.ca

Web update: Harper announces $200 million more for Afghan aid

from The Winnipeg Free Press

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, faced with growing pressure to shift Canada's mission in Afghanistan more toward good works than military might, has committed another $200 million to reconstruction and humanitarian aid.

The new 10-year funding commitment is in addition to $1 billion Canada has already pledged to Afghanistan through 2011.

"Afghanistan is a long way from home, but the issues we are addressing here — building democracy, reducing poverty, fighting terrorism, celebrating pluralism — matter for the entire world," Harper said Monday.

"Global security hinges on success in Afghanistan. . . . Afghanistan is on the frontline of the international security challenge of the modern post-war world. We must build a successful alternative there in order to defeat extremism and terrorism everywhere."

That success depends on a concerted international effort over years, the prime minister said.

The new money will help pay the salaries of teachers, police officers and health workers. It will also finance de-mining efforts, road construction to promote cross-border trade, a micro-credit program for Afghan businesses, and efforts to counter the country's heroin poppy industry.
Click here to find out more!
Harper said the funds will go toward proven national programs, most of which are also supported by NATO allies.

Harper's announcement came as Foreign Minister Peter MacKay prepared to table a major report Monday on Canada's overall progress in Afghanistan.

Canada's sixth Afghan winter is drawing to a close and Canadian soldiers are preparing to combat another spring offensive by pro-Taliban fighters crossing the border from Pakistan.

Harper said Canadians based in Kandahar have helped secure a "fragile peace" that now extends over large parts of the country's volatile south.

"Now it's time to consolidate those security gains on the ground and use them to advance reconstruction because the long-suffering Afghan people desperately need hope for a better future for their families and communities," he said.

"That's what our announcement today is all about."

The battle to win the hearts and minds of Afghans has suffered while Canadian and other NATO troops have been preoccupied with the war to stop those who would stop aid efforts.

NATO's former commander in Afghanistan, British Gen. David Richards, has warned that Afghans could rebel en masse against foreign troops unless they see a tangible difference in their lives soon.
Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said last week that the military needs to work more closely with Canada's development workers and diplomats to make tangible progress in the Kandahar region.

Dion bemoaned that Canadian military spending in the south has outpaced its aid contribution by nine times, and that four-fifths of those aid dollars are being spent outside the Kandahar region.

He also announced that his Liberals would, if elected, withdraw Canadian troops at the end of the current mission in February 2009. The NDP wants Canada's 2,500 soldiers pulled out of Kandahar immediately.

The Conservative government says it has made no decision about what happens after 2009, but the Tories ridicule the notion that reconstruction is possible without a robust military presence.

Battling Jamaica's grinding poverty

from The Western Catholic Reporter

St. Theresa parishioners witness people's struggle to survive destitution

By RAMON GONZALEZO

Jamaica is a popular tourist destination with thousands of Canadians visiting the Caribbean island of 2.7 million every year to enjoy its beaches.

But beyond the luxurious beach resorts there lies a different reality - one of extreme poverty and need that affects more than 20 per cent of its inhabitants.

Aware of this reality, 10 members of St. Theresa Parish in Millwoods, including Father Martin Carroll, the pastor, travelled to the island in October at the invitation of the Diocese of Mandeville to build houses for the poor.

The group also visited orphanages, homes for the elderly, schools and several needy families who had received houses from the diocese in the past. They distributed everything they had among the needy - some money and nearly 980 pounds of clothing, shoes, school supplies, toys and other items. They even left their suitcases behind.
Project J Team

St. Theresa Parish learned about the need in Jamaica through the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council and decided to act on it.

For the members of the group, called Project J Team, it was a practical way to put their faith into action.

"This is a practical demonstration of stewardship of time and talent and treasure," noted Stephen Dufresne, a Project J Team member who is ministry coordinator at St. Theresa Parish.

"I was very pleased that a group of our parishioners decided to give of their time and their actual resources to go down there," said Carroll. "This is living our faith in reality. This is not Christianity in theory, but in practice."

For the poor, the gesture meant a roof over their heads, some immediate relief and the knowledge someone cares about them. Most group members came back shocked by the extent of the poverty and the lack of prospects for the future, as children seem to have no opportunities to break the cycle of poverty.

"Each of us in our own way were overwhelmed with the degree of poverty that we observed and the difficult living conditions each person and their children are living in and having to deal with on a regular basis," Dufresne said.
Government powerless

The government, which spends 48 per cent of the country's GNP to pay Jamaica's external debt, doesn't really make a difference in the lives of the poor, who have to depend on charity to survive, noted Dufresne. "I don't think the (Jamaican) government is capable of dealing with these issues."

The working poor make an average of $50 a week in Jamaica.

Carroll said there doesn't seem to be a middle class on the island. "People are either very poor or very wealthy." And he noted roads are bad and there is no public transportation. "So if you get a job out of town, you have to hire a taxi."

Many people make a living by selling fruit and produce by the side of the road.

"We saw the Jamaica that the tourists never see," Carroll said, noting there are high fences that extend miles and miles separating the resorts from poor areas. Security guards make sure the poor don't get into the resorts.

Dufresne said the Oct. 22-29 trip changed him. For one, he is not engaged in the hype of Christmas as much as he usually is. "I think I'm more contemplative now. I keep coming back to this: What can I do? What's the next step? I find myself reflecting a lot about this. Going on this trip kind of ignited that fire (for justice) in me."

Dufresne and Carroll said there are plans to educate the parish about the Project J Team observations in January so other parishioners can get involved. The idea is to sponsor some needy Jamaican children and families and eventually send another team to the island.

"None of us want to let it go," Dufresne said, noting a group from Holy Trinity High School has already expressed interest in participating in the project. It cost $1,750 per person to make the trip.

Catholics are only about four per cent of the population, but the Church spends a good portion of its resources housing, feeding and educating the needy regardless of their religious affiliation. Protestant churches, with 61 per cent of the population, help the poor in similar ways.

St. Theresa's Project J Team went there at the invitation of the Diocese of Mandeville, which runs a project to provide housing to the poorest of the poor in the diocese. The project was co-sponsored by the St. Peter Columbus Club, which contributed $10,000 to finance the costs of the tour.

The group stayed in a retreat-like six-bedroom home with a chapel provided by the diocese just outside Mandeville, Jamaica's third largest city with a population of 250,000.

At the Catholic Distribution Centre in Mandeville, the group, assisted by five Jamaican workers, pre-fabricated two houses and then erected them in two different rural areas. Carroll blessed both houses and handed the keys to their proud owners. The houses are small, 16 by 10 feet, and the cost of each unit is about US$2,500.
Garden shed homes

"They are glorified garden sheds, but people are really happy with them," Dufresne said.

"We didn't solve Jamaica's problems but at least we gave two families what they needed - a roof over their heads," said Michael Petruchik, a machinist and father of two who is an adult server at St. Theresa.

Many of those who receive houses from the Mandeville Diocese are women. The reason is cultural. In Jamaica, women are pressured to have children at a young age to prove their worth with no talk of marriage.

"A girl who doesn't have a child by the age of 17 is called a mule," explained Dufresne. "There is a huge cultural pressure to have children."

Denise Beztilny, a mother of three who went on the trip with her husband Orest, said the sight of so many young, impoverished single mothers broke her heart.

"I really want to go back there," she said. "I feel God is calling me to go back. There is a need to help these young people. They shouldn't be used as baby machines."

She noted there are no agencies to help the people, not even food banks. "This trip was a good eye-opener for us."

To be eligible for a house, people have to have some land and agree to build a cement pad on which to place the house. It takes about two years to get a house, noted Beztilny.

The Project J Team erected the first house in a rural area next to a small community in the parish of Clarendon. It was for Chase, a young man with a wife and two small children. Chase owns the 2.7 acres of land where his small deep-blue house was built and plans to raise goats on it.

The second house, a pink house, was built in an area of the island called Hadley, which is up in the mountains at an elevation of 850 metres. It was built for Jennifer, a mother of two, who works as a schoolteacher in one of the primary schools there.
Profound bravery

The group also visited a number of people in Borobridge, in the interior of the island, who had received houses in the past. They visited Richard, whose house was built five years ago. On the 2.5 acres that his house sits on, Richard grows bananas and sugar cane.

"The most remarkable aspect of Richard's work is that he works his farm by moving around on his hands and hips because he has no legs," Dufresne observed.

Richard lost his legs due to diabetes some years ago.

Petruchik said the trip transformed him. "I'm a lot more aware of poverty now," he said.

"I don't accept the notion that the poor are happy (in their poverty) and that we shouldn't be concerned.

"Poverty can't be ignored. I would be very disappointed if nothing happens after this."