Why giving is good

 

Holiday catalogues galore spilled out of my paper this past weekend. I was struck by just how much stuff was on offer. Gift ideas for my sisters, my nieces, my sweetheart, my aunt and her cat! Trouble is that there is very little on offer that any of them really need and although there is a lot my nieces would say they want, they are at the age where I wouldn’t select a hairpin on their behalf. And while the kitchen implements are tempting in their holiday red, none of us have room for another appliance.

And the cat well…

So how to celebrate this season of giving? Is it by giving up? Or by giving in to the holiday hype?

I’m advocating all of the above. I plan to celebrate giving and giving up.

This year I am following Lawrence Hill’s lead. The three-time Crossroader and acclaimed writer (The Book of Negroes) started his holiday shopping by giving back to Crossroads. And so did I. I encourage you to consider making Crossroads’ Gift that keeps on giving a new part of your holiday tradition.

I have learned a lot about the power of giving at Crossroads.

Crossroads volunteers rarely talk about what they gave up to volunteer overseas. Instead they speak about what they got — how the experience changed the way they see themselves in the world and how the skills and lessons they learned changed their own lives.

The act of giving enriches them to be sure, but more than that, it enriches all of us by increasing understanding and by reducing the disparity between North and South.

Which brings me to giving up. For most volunteers the reality of working in the developing world is shocking at first. How am I supposed to build a database when there is only electricity for a few hours a day? ....Build a web site with dial up? ...I have to get permission from who before we can introduce a workshop? Crossroaders quickly learn to slow down, to seek advice, to listen well and to get creative to compensate for gross inequities and a dearth of resources. And for many, with the support of their host families and their local colleagues, they also get a glimpse of the richness of community life where relationships with people come first.

Crossroaders know it is not easy to know how to help. Many Canadians feel the same way. Just six per cent of donations made by Canadians support international development causes*. Not for lack of compassion witness the hundreds of millions of dollars raised to support victims of the Tsunami or the earthquake in Haiti. But long-term development and strategies to address the root causes of extreme poverty are often too nuanced for a fundraising pitch — hence the proliferation of goats as gifts and pictures of children in need. How can we be sure that these donations will actually make a difference in the lives of people on other side of the globe?

That is why at Crossroads we work with local partners to develop joint projects that advance their goals. We don’t set up offices or stand-alone projects overseas. Instead we invest in the people and organizations that are driving change in their own communities.

As for the hype, I am glad there is at least one time of the year to remind us that we're here for something other than ourselves. This holiday season I will be making time to be with friends and family and honouring those who inspire me half way round the world.

PS: Click here for a few goat-free shopping ideas that celebrate gifts that keep on giving.

*Highlights from 2007 Canada Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating Caring Canadians Involved Canadians 2009.

How to help

Canadians outpouring of support to Haiti challenges our thinking on how to avert disaster for the world’s poor.

When new broke of the massive earthquake in Haiti, Canadians across the country asked themselves, How can we help?

The response was swift and impressive. As of January 25, Canadians donated than $80-million in support of relief and reconstruction. Within 24 hours the government had committed $5 million in aid and within 48 hours, more than $80 million was promised with an additional commitment to match all individual donations. Rescue teams, the disaster assistance response team (DART) and military personal were also dispatched. Less than two weeks after the quake hit, Canada convened a meeting of foreign ministers and key multilateral players in Montreal, to prepare for a spring leaders conference on the reconstruction of Haiti.

Canada’s longstanding relationship with Haiti — they are our second largest aid recipient after Afghanistan — eased our ability to help. Montreal has one of the biggest concentrations of Haitian Diaspora. Many Canadian relief and development organizations have worked there for decades. We know the country and its people.

We can be proud of the Canadian response. Canadians care. But increasingly Canadians are also asking, really, how can we help?

As a January Globe and Mail editorial noted, “With millions of dollars pledged and more than 10,000 NGOs operating in Haiti there is no shortage of good intentions.” Newspaper editorialists and ordinary Canadians are striving to make sense of what disasters of this magnitude can teach us about development for the future.

We know that in natural disasters, it is the poor and disenfranchised who suffer most brutally. Among the poor it is most often women and children who bear the brunt.

This disaster is all the more acute, because of the chronic and desperate poverty in which most Haitians live. As Peter Hallward in the Guardian UK noted poverty and powerlessness account for the full scale horror in Haiti. Earning less than $2 per day, ordinary Haitians have no ability to arm themselves against disaster with defences like earthquake resistant homes.

Haitian poverty, like poverty in countries where CCI works in West Africa, Southern Africa and South America, is no accident. It is the result decades of exploitation and oppression by wealthier nations. A history that continues to present day with global trade rules that favour rich nations and their producers while devastating national economies of developing countries; crippling debt obligations that siphon off resources that could be used to build sound infrastructure and services and impose conditionalities that force governments to curtail essential investments in public services like heath and education.

While it is critical that we support agencies on the ground striving to meet immediate urgent needs, we also need to look at how are our official development assistance and foreign policy, now and in years to come, can build and strengthen local resilience.

An important way to mitigate disasters like the Haitian earthquake is to invest in the resilience of people and their institutions. Reconstruction efforts need to support an independent and sovereign government that ensures basic human rights are met and that citizens are empowered to demand their rights.

The situation in Haiti and other fragile states will undoubtedly be discussed by G8 and G20 leaders when they meet in Canada later this year. Canadian civil society organizations, including Canadian Crossroads International, are hard at work trying to meet with government leaders to ensure past commitments are met, to renew and strengthen poverty-reduction strategies, with special emphasis on investment in programs for women and children. We are seeking government commitments to provide assistance to low-income countries coping with the effects of climate change and to instigate meaningful global financial reform to help all countries recover from the economic crisis. On Tuesday it seemed that the message was getting through. In an editorial, January 26, the Prime Minister acknowledged “it should not take a natural disaster to turn our attention to the less fortunate and that the world's poor have been hit hardest by the global economic downturn and in these difficult times we must address their pressing needs.” He stated that as president of the G8 in 2010, Canada will champion a major initiative to improve the health of women and children in the world's poorest regions.

Canada's commitment to playing a lead role in a pair of major new international aid projects is most welcome, but it has some Canadians asking where is the money? Currently Canada is giving only 0.32% of our national income in development aid. That's less than half of the point seven per cent (0.7%) we keep promising to give. In upcoming international summits and in Canada’s own upcoming budget announcement there is an opportunity to make good on past commitments and outline our vision for the future. Add your voice to these efforts and let our parliamentarians know that Canadians care deeply about these issues and believe that Canada can and should play a leadership role in developing and implementing the kinds of policies that will strengthen human rights and relieve the suffering of billions living in poverty.  http://www.makepovertyhistory.ca/en/set-agenda-action-g8