Felipa Comes To Canada!
World Accord is pleased to announce Felipa Xico, Director of Mujeres en Accion (Women in Action) Guatemala, will be visiting Canada from November 10th-23rd 2006! Felipa will be participating in the 2006 Global Microcredit Summit in Halifax, speaking at local universities Wilfrid Laurier and Waterloo and meeting with government officials in Ottawa. An excellent opportunity for World Accord and Mujeres en Accion to strengthen their long time partnership even more.
All are welcome to attend Felipa's presentations and hear her inspirational story of women's empowerment! Felipa and Mujeres en Accion now empower women in 60 rural community groups through turning their existing skills in textile weaving and agriculture into profitable businesses. Her outstanding dedication and participation in indigenous women's development in Guatemala has been recognized by the United Nations.
Felipa Xico: Women's Empowerment in Guatemala Presentation Listings:
Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario
Thursday, November, 16th, 2006
75 University Avenue West, Waterloo
Bricker Academic Building, Rm 101
7-8:30 p.m.
University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario
Friday, November 17th, 2006
200 University Avenue West, Waterloo
Modern Languages Building, Rm 246
12:30- 2 p.m.
Canadian Council for International Cooperation, Ottawa, Ontario
Monday, November 20, 2006
1 Nicholas St, suite 300, Ottawa
12-2 p.m.
University of Western Ontario, Ontario
Tuesday, November 21st, 2006
1349 Western Road, London
The Great Hall, Huron College
7-8:30 p.m.
Free Parking (Mention event to parking attendant)
World Accord, Waterloo, Ontario
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
1C-185 Frobisher Dr, Waterloo
12-2 p.m.
For more details, please contact World Accord at 1-800-525-3545.
We welcome you to Canada, Felipa!
"Homes For Health" a Hit!
Homes For Health Project- Honduras
It's said here in Canada, that you can have all the money in the world, but if you don't have your health, you don't have anything. What is said then for those who have no money and still don't have their health? There is a disease in Honduras, along with other Central American countries, called Chagas. It is spread by the bite of an insect that lives in the mud walls and thatched roofs coming out at night to bite whatever inhabitants are there, whether dogs, children or adults.
If a nursing mother is bitten, she can then spread it to her baby. Once bitten, symptoms may not show up for 10 to 20 years and 20-30% of those people will develop health issues that include a swollen esophagus, a swollen heart, or heart failure. Even those less serious symptoms make it difficult to impossible for a person to look after their home and family. Children are often hit much harder, and their already short life is shortened even more.
Programa Reconstruccion Rural (PRR) has asked World Accord for our help in building 210 homes to help 210 families! That will enable about 1500 people to have better living conditions and all but eliminate the risk of Chagas! It will save lives!!!
CIDA, along with the UN, are funding the homes, but each family must come up with 'match funding' or the additional funding required to complete a new house. The match funding cost is $555. Not a lot of money here in Canada, but there, it might as well be $555,000. If the families don't come up with the additional funds required for building their house, they cannot have one and the funds will be returned.
There's not a lot of time! All homes must be completed by June 30, 2007 and without help, the people who need these homes the most, don't have a hope of coming up with that kind of money.World Accord launched this project Saturday Oct., 21, 2006 at a conference held by the Canada East Mission Center of Community of Christ, and
as of this morning, October 24th, we have commitment for 51 homes!! How extraordinary and exciting to be able to tell PRR Staff to go ahead and get started on
over 50 houses already!
Thank you to all those who have pledged their commitment thus far! If you would like to build a house as a group, a family or an individual, please contact World Accord Staff! We would love to give you more information!!
Every now and again, an extraordinary opportunity comes along to make a real difference in a significant way.
This is one of those moments!
Nobel Prize Committee Gets It Right!
World Accord Salutes the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee for choosing to award their prize this year to Muhammad Yunus.
Mr. Yunus was a professor of economics from Bangladesh. He established the Grameen Bank, now famous for being a commercial enterprise that makes loans to people without collateral, a very non-banking thing to do. Despite his successful example to the financial world, financial institutions and governments around the world in general have failed to sieze the opportunity. The profile provided by the Nobel Committee may help to shake up a system that fails to allow most of the global citizens through the "locked iron gates" of economic power to participate in the global economy on a more equal footing.
Our salute to the Nobel Committee also adds to the respect and accolades earned by Mr. Yunus for vision and leadership. Mr. Sverre Lodgaard, Director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and also first deputy member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee has stated, "More people die each year from poverty than from war, so a fight against the violence which is perpetrated through the extreme division in our world's resources is very welcome. This year's prize was spot on. That they (Nobel Committee) now include development is great."
World Accord has long believed in and supported credit initiatives among the "un-bankable" poor in Asia and Central America. Micro Credit loaning systems championed by Mr. Yunus and his Grameen Bank contribute dramatically to global peace and stability. Access to credit can allow people the opportunity to participate in civil society, democratic advancement and stability. If so-called 'first world' leaders, even those who verbally champion democracy, would consider their own national stability and prosperity should the majority of their citizens be denied access to credit and all the opportunity it affords their people, there would be wholesale change in policies governing foreign aid. Official development assistance and the draconian rules and policies currently employed by governments, the G-8 and the World Bank would change radically.
World Accord agrees with Ole Danbolt Mjoes, of the Norwegian Nobel Committee who said, "Today there are few things peace researchers and other scholars are readier to agree on than precisely that democracy and human rights advance peace".
In the community of nations making up the "Peaceful World", Mr. Muhammad Yunus should not stand out as "alone" among his banking peers, but he does. Indeed, Bangladesh is a world leader with citizens like Mr. Muhammad Yunus and Mr. Fazle Hasan Abed, founder of BRAC, an agency that works shoulder-to-shoulder with Grameen Bank to equip those born into poverty to participate as equals with those born into wealth.
Thank you Mr. Yunus for your vision and willingness to take action. Thank you to the Nobel Committee for your insight and leadership. You make the world a better place.
Interest in Construction Expeditions is Building!
World Accord has been conducting Construction Expeditions into Central America for several years. Initially under the leadership of volunteer Al Wigood, 10 - 12 commited participants were able to participate in this life-changing experience each year. Then Richard Kirsh of Toronto joined the leadership team to help Al with the promotion of the trips. He was followed a couple of years later by Jens Schoenrank, an experienced contractor, to work with Al in the field. The volunteer trio has been extremely successful at bringing the
"developing world construction experience" to more and more interested Canadians.
The first trip, a decade or so ago, had a half dozen people who paid their own air fare and in-country expenses plus donated the cost of the building materials they worked with. This year, we are going to have about 60 people help local community members build three schools and ten homes destroyed by a hurricane in Guatemala. Schools, community centres, training centres and homes of hurricane and earthquake victims have been built by volunteers and local people throughout Honduras and Guatemala. The volunteer leadership and participants make an amazing personal contribution to a process that will make the world a more equitable and peaceful place ... one village at a time.
Here is an update on the Construction Expeditions for the 2006-7 season and how many participants are confirmed and pending (but likely to attend.)
- November, 2006 – Honduras - 11 confirmed
- January, 2007 – Guatemala - 4 confirmed with 4 fairly likely additions
- February, 2007 – Honduras - 12 confirmed participants (4 in the last 2 days)
- March 3, 2007 – Honduras - 12 confirmed + 1 likely + a second scout leader (FULL)
- March 9, 2007 – Honduras - 10 confirmed (FULL)
If you have been thinking about an adventure like this, contact us soon for this season. There are still a few spaces open. Air travel spaces are getting scarce.
World Accord thanks the participants and volunteer staff for what is stacking up to be our best year ever!
Terry Fielder
World Accord
