Birds and Bees, Avian Flu, AIDS and Orphan Prevention
We've had a busy week here in Honduras!
The Birds and the BeesMany of our donors may not be aware that World Accord has another partner in Honduras called
Project Global Village or in Spanish
Proyecto Aldea Global (PAG for short). We first met this organization and its charismatic and creative leader, Chet Thomas, here in 1984. Our funding support started in 1987 and has continued for several programs over the years.
About 3 years ago, we again began to provide some funding for a new program we affectionately call
The Birds and the Bees. This program provided small subsistence farm families with training and a start in either bee keeping and honey production or domestic poultry production for eggs and chicken meat.
Once we get home and are able to translate the documents from Spanish, we'll post a full report and some photos to our web site.
Avian FluAvian Influenza (bird flu) has
NOT arrived in the America´s ...
YET. We can hope that it never does arrive here, but it probably will. In rural areas in Central America, people eat eggs or chicken almost every day.
EVERY DAY! It is a primary source of protein.
World Accord and our partners are not waiting for someone else or the government to take action. We are putting plans in place for dealing with the health threat and are immediately starting to ramp up projects to produce alternate protein sources – fish ponds, goats, cattle, sheep, soya beans – whatever the people can produce.
Bird flu will be bad in Canada. It will be
DEVASTATING in Central America.
AIDS and Orphan PreventionLastly, we've been busy with something else here in the capital city of Tegucigalpa. David Barth (World Accord staff) and I met with CIDA at the Canadian Consulate. The meeting went very well. They are good people working there and they are trying hard to do a good job. We are offering them a new program idea that needs their funding support.
The threat of AIDS is spreading here like a raging prairie grass fire. We can help and we need CIDA's help to increase the effectivness of a program that will save lives, reduce the suffering of the ill and help secure the future for their children. This will be an
ORPHAN PREVENTION PROGRAM. More to come – stay tuned!
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Terry Fielder
Executive Director
Great News from Honduras!
One of the reasons many farm families in the developing world are poor is because they do not own the land their home sits on or where their crops grow. Struggles over land ownership have lasted for decades, and have even started civil wars in some places.
For years, World Accord was involved in supporting families in the Philippines to get land ownership. It is a long, slow process.
More recently, World Accord has been caught up in a land ownership struggle in Honduras. We have been here in Honduras this last week negotiating for a peaceful agreement and resolution to this specific struggle. I'm happy to report that we will have an announcement in the week of Feb 27. Watch for it – you will be pleased!
From Siguatepeque, Comayauga, Honduras, Central America
Terry Fielder
Executive Director
World Accord
Greetings From Honduras
The unpredictable and unseasonable weather of the last year is in evidence in Honduras this year. I am here working on some long standing issues and visiting some village project people.
After a month of heavy rain, last night the air temperature reached 11 degrees. ELEVEN! I watched children in bare feet and half clothed run around to keep warm. Their homes are anything but warm against the cold misty nights up here in the clouds.
The illness and death rates would be MUCH higher if not for the volunteer coordination and work of Mary and Gord Burbidge of Listowel, ON. In the last three years, volunteers in their program have knitted over 7,000 vests and 2,500 toques for chidren in this poor mountain area. They are everywhere! It is an amazing rainbow of colour on healthier children.
It is more than a gift of time and some scrap wool. It is HEALTH and LIFE.
GRACIAS A TODOS! THANK YOU ALL!
From Siguatepeque, Honduras
Terry Fielder
Executive Director
World Accord
"World Class" TV Show Features World Accord Projects
The first 6 half-hour episodes of
"World Class: Young people who can change the world" debuts on
Canadian Learning Television beginning at 10:00 pm EST on Thursday, March 9, 2006.
"Our stories are about the first-time experiences of young people as they go off to help out in communities all over the world. These are experiences that change them forever, … and they provide gripping, first-person accounts for people of all ages who have never ventured forth from the comforts of their lives in Canada."
Episode 5 (to be aired Thursday, April 6 at 10pm ET) features
Sara Maki with World Accord in Sri Lanka, and episode 6 (to be aired Thursday, April 13 at 10pm ET) will document the experience of several teenagers going on a World Accord
construction expedition to Honduras in March.
Check your local listings and mark your calendar now. You can also
download this "World Class" poster (PDF 1.5M) for inclusion in your church bulletin or newsletter, and posting on a bulletin board at church or at work.
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Guatemala Internships for 2006-2007
World Accord has once again been approved for two CIDA-sponsored internships in Guatemala in Central America from September/October 2006 until March 2007. They will be hosted by our program partner
Mujéres en Acción, (Women in Action) or MeA. Both internships are for 26 weeks of work: 1 week in Canada before your departure, 23 weeks in Guatemala, and 2 weeks in Canada upon your return.
See our website for
job descriptions, qualifications and application instructions.
National TV Program Features World Accord in Sri Lanka
World Accord in partnership with Villagers Media Productions presents:
"Rebuilding Lives and Livelihoods", Sri Lanka's Tsunami
to be aired nationally by Canadian Learning Television
Thursday, April 6, 2006 at 10:00PM Eastern
When the tsunami hit 20 countries around the Indian Ocean, Sara Maki was on her way to studies in international relations at England's Sussex University. She contacted her hometown's World Accord, to see if she could help. Scared, challenged, energized, Maki steps into the job of a lifetime. (Check your local listings).
"I asked: Can I help? And my life changed forever" Sara Maki
World Accord
