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District Twelve Altrusa International International Relations | |
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Arlene Blundell |
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Stretching is good for you!
Altrusa International is generally mandated as a
service organization which helps improve the quality of life for those
in the community. Previously
this meant those people facing hardships in the area where we live. However,
many journalists, politicians, and volunteers in non-governmental
organizations now speak of the ‘global community’ in which we live. There
is no doubt that our planet has become a smaller world where we are more
aware of the successes and/or hardships suffered by many who are
thousands of miles away. Stretching
our hearts, minds, and imagination is good for us and very good for
them!
Of course, our priority as Altrusans is to serve
those in our local community first. However,
when we hear, read about, and see the extreme hardships many families in
other parts of our world suffer in trying to provide basic needs of
food, clothing, and shelter for their children – not to mention security
and education - the real keys to survival - perhaps we should provide
some support for these families as well. Often when people know others
simply care, they are inspired with hope and ambition to find solutions. Let’s
stretch our hearts and show we care.
There are many ways we can work within the global
community. In
past years, we have had district-wide financial support for various
projects. According
to past Governor Linda Peterson (and past International Relations
Chair), popular projects were:
v
The Fistula project
http://www.fistulafoundation.org/
v
The
Iliad Foundation.
http://www.ikat.org/
Other projects out of Canada worth considering for financial support:
v
The Tabitha Foundation
http://www.tabitha.ca/
v
Canadian Harambee Society
(Harambee is Swahili for ‘pull together’)
http://www.canadianharambee.ca
v
The Stephen Lewis Foundation Grandmothers to
Grandmothers Campaign
http://www.stephenlewisfoundation.org/grandmothers.htm And there are countless others in Indonnesia, Afghanistan, East Timor, and the list goes on. Please send me any ones YOU would recommend.
We can help globally by financially supporting
such ongoing international projects, but there are opportunities to work
with people from other countries right within our own community. Many
of these people still have family members ‘back home’ and when they know
that other people care when relatives emigrate, it helps everyone face
his or her future. Money
is not the answer for many of their problems. Communicating
with understanding by both sides is the real long-term solution. Let’s
stretch our minds to be open, tolerant, and accepting.
Locally, there are ways a club can improve
communication with those from other countries – and many are at little
cost. Let’s
stretch our imaginations for opportunities. Several clubs in our
district already participate in some of these:
a.
Meet international people in your own community –
encourage more diversity in your membership
b.
Host an event for interntional students in your
community
c.
Take
part
(volunteer as a club) in international events in your community
d.
Find out needs of ESL programs in your community
and use as a club project
e.
Invite people in your workplace who have immigrated to visit your club
as a guest speaker for a dinner meeting (or a meal at your home!) and
learn about their country.
f.
Set up regular correspondence with an Altrusa
club-at-large.
g.
Find penpals for your
family/children with those in other countries. (I
have an 11 year old girl in Nairobi, Kenya, who is desperate to find a
penpal and, I’m ashamed to say, I have not yet found one for her. It’s
harder than I thought it would be!!)
h.
Have an ‘international’ pot
luck dinner meeting where all members bring a traditional dish, come
dressed in the costume of their ancestors (if possible),
and exchange histories of which country each came
from and how their ancestors arrived in USA or Canada.
(We did this at one of our meetings and it was
fascinating! – Books could have been written!!)
i.
Last year, our Altrusa club
held an afternoon with four guest speakers from international projects
they each were working for personally: a
lady working with the forgotten hill tribes in Peru, a man providing
vehicles and supplies to help communities in Gambia provide water and a
more regular income for sustainability, a lady involved in taking solar
radios into remote African villages so they could be educated through
radio programs, and another lady who founded
the
Nanaimo Grannies who communicate and share experiences with grannies
from Africa left raising orphaned grandchildren because of AIDS/HIV. Your
community also will have many individuals who are personally involved
with projects outside your country and they are interesting and
informative people to contact. Charge
admission and donate the proceeds to one or all of the projects
represented.
Help promote better universal awareness.
Help promote better understanding of other
cultures.
Be a part of the change.
Arlene Blundell District Twelve 2007-2008 International Relations project. PENNIES FOR PROGRESS - to support the fistula hospital projects in Ethiopia. We are going with this project for several reasons: this was the only organization from which we received letters of thanks for our past donations with an explanation of use of funds for the project, this project seemed to be the one of most interest in the district as it received the most financial support from district club donations last year, and the District felt there will be more of an impact on the project and for Altrusa itself if we go with a larger donation to one project. What is the project about? The Fistula Hospital Foundation supports women with obstetric fistula by funding treatment, facilities, and prevention programs throughout Ethiopia. An obstetric fistula is a common problem there – and in other developing countries. It occurs in young mothers because of poor nutrition and lack of bone development. It is a hole between a woman’s birth passage and one or more of her internal organs.This hole results in permanent incontinence of urine and/or feces. A majority of women who develop fistulas are ostracized by their husbands and communities because of their inability to have children and their foul smell. If surgery is performed by a skilled surgeon, a fistula patient has a good chance of returning to normal life. The Fistula Hospitals have a 93% success/cure rate. It costs US$450 to provide one woman with a fistula repair operation, high-quality postoperative care, a new dress, and bus fare home. Donations go to construction and furnishing of new hospitals throughout Ethiopia, medical supplies, nurses’ quarters, advanced medical training for surgeons, vehicles, and incinerators. For more information go to their website www.fistulafoundation.org You may have already chosen an international charity to support. Or you may wish to contribute to one of the others listed at the end of this letter. No problem! However, if you club wishes to join in this district campaign, here are the guidelines: 1. The campaign will officially start on International Women’s Day – March 8. 2. Attach the PENNIES FOR PROGRESS label to your jar(s). Included in this letter are 2 labels, but you can just let me know if you wish more.
3.
Collect your
pennies (or coins or even bills) in your PENNIES FOR PROGRESS jar or
jars which you can set in prominent places such as: a. Your club meetings b. At home c. At work d. With other safe, interested businesses who might wish to participate. 4. As you collect, wrap pennies and deposit in your personal account or your club’s bank account. Seniors homes and schools will often help with this wrapping and you can get good promotion photos for your local newspapers. 5. Keep a record of your savings and take a personal cheque or a club cheque to conference. Make cheques out to District Twelve – Altrusa International Inc. At Conference, I hope to get a special time in the weekend to collect all cheques. We will also have PENNIES FOR PROGRESS jars at Conference for members to add to if they so wish. The project will end at the end of Conference. Post Conference results in the DSB will inform everyone of the total amount collected. This amount will be sent to the Fistula Foundation. As mentioned before, your club may instead choose to donate to other projects such as one from last year: Female genital mutilation www.equalitynow.org Water project in central Asia www.iliad.org Support for children in Africa with HIV/AIDS www.planusa.org Or here are a couple of other new ideas: Grandmothers to Grandmothers www.stephenlewisfoundation.org Self powered radios to Africa www.freeplayfoundation.org Self-help projects in Cambodia www.tabith.ca If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to email me agblund@shaw.ca or phone 250-758-5107. If you need more labels, I will be thrilled to send you more! Good luck and many thanks for whatever support you can manage for these international causes. To them, every penny counts! |
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