Toiling on a Foundation
Guest Blogger – Brian Hatchell, Partnership Development Officer at cbm Canada I recently returned from a trip to Fiche, Ethiopia where – alongside a number of cbm Canada donors and local residents – I spent 7 days lifting, carrying and dumping dirt, rocks and boulders in order to help lay a foundation for 4 new homes that will be...
Read moreStanding Up for Stunted Souls
Caroline Abbotts, cbm Canada Fundraising Field Coordinator Guest Blogger Last month, I had the pleasure and honour to visit Comprehensive Community-based Rehabilitation in Tanzania (CCBRT), a partner of cbm Canada. A specific experience made a huge impact on me. While visiting the pediatric orthopaedic ward, I sat with a mom and her two children – both who have clubfeet....
Read more4 Concerns with New Global Goals
The Friday before last, (September 25), the United Nations passed the “Sustainable Development Goals” (SDGs). These global targets are meant to drive the development agenda for the next decade. They replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by world leaders at a UN summit in September 2000. Contrary to the MDGs, the new goals (SDGs) explicitly mention disability 11...
Read moreNepal’s First Responders
At cbm, last week (and I suspect this week and next) will be dominated by the earthquake in Nepal and our emergency response. In emergencies-man made or natural-we need to remember in prayer the people directly affected. The people most obviously affected are those in Nepal who have lost family members, homes-who’ve had their lives shattered. After these most...
Read moreRemembering the Personal Side of the Nepal Disaster
When a natural disaster hits, like the earthquake in Nepal, it is easy to be overwhelmed by the numbers and the chaos. I find that sometimes the macro view – total number of deaths, homes destroyed, families split – actually numbs me to the reality. To really get a sense of what these numbers mean you have to hear...
Read moreWhy I Do What I Do
Many of you have been following the story of Denis. (Follow here) Denis is a little boy in Uganda who has had major surgery to straighten his legs. So many times kids like Denis are statistics-another client, another surgery, another life. Denis for me has become personal-he is a little boy that had to go to the hospital, undergo...
Read moreIn Niger – How do you plan for drought?
How do you plan for a food crisis? How do you include people with disabilities in that planning? One answer might surprise you… you build a garden and dig a well! In Niger we have this wonderful example of how cbm worked with Oumou Moussa, a woman with a disability, to help her use her land for a well...
Read moreThe importance of maternal health.
Last year I was visiting our community based rehabilitation (CBR) program in Lusaka Zambia. On one day we saw six clients – each a child with their mother, each with cerebral palsy. I watched how these mothers were taught to care for their children. They helped their child through exercises that encouraged mobility. They worked to get them to...
Read moreMore on a potential crises
Jeoffrey York in yesterday’s Globe and Mail has an another warning about the drought in the Sahel region (West Africa). It’s an interesting read on how to heed early warning signals. More startling was the last part of the article on the risk to children in the next 15 years, due to lack of food.
Read moreCan we avert the next emergency?
My last blog post talked about the lessons learned from the East Africa drought and crises. There are many saying the warning signs were ignored – and too much emphasis is put on the crises and not as much on prevention of a crises. I ended my blog with a question – what else is pending? The answer may...
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