World AIDS Day - December 1st

Today is a special day - World AIDS Day - a day to create awareness about the devastating effects of AIDS around the globe. This year's theme is "Universal Access and Human Rights." In many parts of the developing world and especially in all parts of Africa, AIDS is a major issue with destrcutive results for families. The disease is not well articulated, stigmas have been created due to lack of education that can leave people shunned by their communities, families and friends (even here in North America people with AIDS are shunned by those with misconceptions about the transfer of AIDS) . People are not fully educated on preventative methods of reducing or eliminating exposure to this disease. And most tragic of all, are the number of children that have been left parentless, because of the devasting effect of AIDS.

I have seen the orphans in Kenya whose parents have died from AIDS who have been left to fend for themselves and their siblings, left on their own without a loving parent to look out for their safety, or tuck them into bed each night. Sometimes they can find a home with a grandparent but these elderly persons have neither the resources nor the strength to look after these orphan children. If they are lucky, another family might take them in, but again food and resources may be severely limited.

So on this special day, we ask you to think about those who have been inflicted with this tragic disease. Speak out for them for universal access to drugs which can help prolong their life with quality and human dignity.

Making a Difference One Person at a Time

This little girl is an orphan who received clothes, toiletries and food thanks to a generous donor in Muskoka.

Prior to our trip to Kenya last summer, a donor approached us with a request to help the many orphans living in Wongonyi Village. Orphans and vulnerable children are a huge problem in most African countries as a result of the devastating effects of HIV/Aids. Parents fall ill to the disease that robs them of life leaving young children alone without parental supervision, making those children take on responsibilities of adults in tending for themselves and their siblings. Unfortunately, robbing them of their childhood as they spend time searching for food, clothing and firewood, just trying to survive. Some of these orphans are able to be taken in by a friend or grandparent but still life is not good for many grandparents are old and barely able to look after themselves let alone the added responsibility of young children.

But through the generosity of loving people in Muskoka who want to share their blessings of abundance, The Ronnie Fund has been able to begin helping some of these vulnerable children in Wongonyi Village, letting them know they are loved and that people half a world away truly care for them. This little girl was so shy and afraid of the people she was meeting she brought a friend with her for moral support. Such small gestures will have a big impact in the lives of these children.

As Richard Carlson said in his book, "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff at Work"; "Acts of kindness and goodwill are inherently wonderful. There's an old saying: 'Giving is its own reward.' This is certainly true. Your reward for being kind and making someone else feel good are the warm positive feelings that invariably accompany your efforts. So starting today, think of someone you'd like to make feel better and enjoy your rewards." I couldn't have said it better. Remember you don't have to solve the problems of the world, just focus on making a difference in one person's life at a time and before you know it you'll be changing the world.

Fair Wages for Fair Work Done

It has come to my attention lately when speaking with people working in developing countries that they are missing an essential element in the work they are carrying out in providing aid. Many of us working at a distance rely on people, both young and old, in the developing country to assist us by meeting us at airports, helping with travel plans, negotiating with local business people and arranging clinics and training sessions, so that our time in those countries will be profitably and well spent. In our own case, we at The Ronnie Fund rely on Ronnie to arrange our site visits, set up meetings while we are in Kenya and then to continue arranging training sessions, purchase equipment, etc. whhen we are back in Canada.

However, many of these people although highly skilled and well qualified with college diplomas are not paid for their work. It is somehow assumed that because we are assisting fellow countrymen that we need not pay these project managers a wage for the work they are doing on our behalf. What we tend to forget is that these people are just like ourselves. They have rent to pay, families to feed and other expenses that require finances to pay. We cannot assume that they can volunteer their time to help us. If they are working for us with no pay, how can they afford their own expenses.

I urge to you remember this next time you are working with people in developing countries. Remember that if you are expecting someone to act as your project manager or to assist you in setting up clinics, training sessions, purchasing products or simply acting as an advisor on cultural and political situations, you should be paying these people a fair wage for the time they are taking away from other jobs, money making opportunities or their families. We need these advisors as much as they or their countrymen need our help, so remember, a fair wage for fair work done - we here in the west wouldn't accept anything less.

World Food Day - October 18

October 18 is officially declared as World Food Day. And important day of rememberance by those who are blessed with an abundance of food for those throughout the world who have little. In many areas of the developing world people experience hunger on a daily basis. Droughts, lack of affordable seed or pastoral animals, or lack of tools means feeding families is a struggle. The young and the elderly are particularly at risk, as lack of nutrious food means they are at peril of succumbing to diseases and infections for their bodies cannot fight off these diseases.

We felt extremely lucky and honoured last summer during our trip to Wongonyi Village, Kenya that the people of the village were able to share their resources with us, even though we knew it was straining their supplies. The ladies of the village met daily to help Ronnie's mother, Getrude prepare our meals like Mandaazi, a tasty treat similar to a doughnut. At the same time, The Ronnie Fund was pleased to be able to donate Money Maker Irrigation Pumps (from the KickStart Company) that have enabled farmers to irrigate their lands more easily, thereby increasing vegetable production which has meant more food for their families and excess that can be sold to generate income.

On World Food Day, please remember those around the world for whom a hungry stomach is a daily occurrence and do you part by donating to a local food bank or soup kitchen or to an international organization that helps to ease the lives of those who are experiencing hunger by providing food aid or enabling tools that can help them to help themselves.

Asante-sana!

The Beauty of Wildlife

"Rain, rain go away

Come again another day."

This childhood refrain has been playing over and over again in my head as the rain has been falling and falling and falling. I look outside and see all the garden tasks yet to be completed but the wet weather has kept me indoors.

But on Sunday as I replanted some autumn crocus bulbs that the squirrels had dug up, I turned my head and there on my neighbour's lawn was a mama deer and two fawns. Quite a sight for we live in a residential area of downtown Bracebridge. Actually it became a traffic stopping sight as the young ones tried to navigate across the busy road. But finally they all safely crossed the road and high-tailed it down towards the river. We must remember that we humans have invaded these beautiful creatures native areas and forced them into areas they are unfamiliar with.

But getting back to the garden chores yet undone. I keep praying for a sunny day to dry out the gazebo so I can put it away, for the grapes to ripen so I can pick them and make grape jelly before the birds eat them all or they perish with a frost, and the opportunity to clean out all the containers and store them away for another season. The prognosis for the Thanksgiving weekend isn't all that good and I even heard mention of the "S" word - snow!! Please not yet, not until the gardens are put to bed. The sky has been leaden, the pewter shades of winter in the wings and rest to come.

"Blessed Unrest" - A Worldwide Movement

I just finished reading a most powerful and interesting book by leading environmentalist and social activist Paul Hawken. His book, "Blessed Unrest, How The Largest Movement In The World Came Into Being And Why No One Saw It Coming" is a wonderful reminder of the power of small groups and individuals to effect global change. In the book Hawken recounts the history of the movement of social groups and the great leaders who have championed for those whose voice has not been heard.

Those of us working in developing countries can fully understand the importance of the work we are doing and we feel the gratitude of those we are helping by providing education, tools and resources that allow them to develop sustainable projects creating income to take care of their families. Sometimes people say they feel overwhelmed by the injustices in the world and they don't know how they can help. Our message is simple to start one person at a time, and in time those who have been helped will in turn help others, and so on, and so on. The gift gets paid forward.

Paul Hawken and his team have also created a website www.wiserearth.org at which you will find the world's largest free and editable international directory of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and socially responsible organizations from across the globe. This directory includes more than 110,000 organizations in 243 countries, territories and sovereign islands. Here you can find others working globally by category or by country. I found it a fascinating site and one I know will be so useful in making connections and networking to find useful solutions to common problems.

For those working in developing countries I would highly recommend you give this book a read. This quote from Paul Hawken's book sums it up, "...the future implications of the movement's daily actions is to remember Emerson's moral botany: corn seeds produce corn; justice creates justice; and kindness fosters generosity. How do we sow our seeds when large, well-intentioned institutions and intolerant ideologies that purport to be our salvation cause so much damage? One sure way is through smallness, grace, and locality. Individuals start where they stand and, in Antonio Machado's poetic dictum, make the road by walking. Thoreau insisted in 'Civil Disobedience" that if only one man withdrew his support from an unjust government, it would begin a cycle that would reverberate and grow. For him there were no inconsequential acts, only consequential inaction: "For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever."

We are a perfect example of the movement, our family started saving pennies in a jar for one young man, Ronnie's, education and have grown to help a village, Wongonyi in Kenya, Africa. And along the way others have joined us in the journey. If we can do it, so can you!

The Bottom Billion - moving people out of poverty

I have just finished reading "The Bottom Billion, Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can be Done About It" by Paul Collier. It has been an interesting read on global poverty. The book focuses on the poorest of the poor countries who have gone unnoticed by the West. Collier contends that the causes of the failure of these countries can be attributed to several traps including extraction and exportation of natural resources, civil wars and bad governance and that aid and globalization can hinder rather than help these countries climb out of poverty.

A couple of Paul's comments really resonanted with me and with the work we are doing in Kenya through The Ronnie Fund. Paul says, "...development is about giving hope to ordinary people that their children will live in a society that has caught up with the rest of the world. Take that hope away and the smart people will use their energies not to develop their society but to escape from it - as have a million Cubans. "

Collier goes on the further explain the impact of the migration of educated people from developing countries - that globalization has led to emigration of the brighest and best skilled and knowledgeable people leading to skills shortages in the poorest countries hindering the development process. Collier notes, "This all adds up to a depressing picture of what globalization is doing for the bottom billion. To get a chance to play in the global economy, you need to break free of the traps, ... in order to turn a country around it helps to have a pool of educated people, but the global labor market is draining the bottom billion of their limited pool of such people."

We realize that education is the key to improving quality of life and we especially support those like Ronnie Mdawida who pursue further education and then pass that information on to others or use their newly gained skills and knowledge to create a better quality of life for their countryman instead of leaving their homeland for greener pastures abroad. I think Collier nails it on the head when he says, "In every society of the bottom billion there are people working for change, but usually they are defeated by the powerful internal forces stacked against them. We should be helping the heroes. So far, our efforts have been paltry: through inertia, ignorance, and incompetence, we have stood by and watched them lose."

In poor countries across our planet there are heroes like Ronnie Mdawida in Kenya, young men and women with dreams of making their country a better place to live, to lift their fellow humans out of poverty and achieve quality of life. We salute, encourage and support those individuals to keep believing in their dreams and we along with others who share a belief in common justice and human rights will help, in respectful ways, to make those dreams a reality.