Manitoba Council on International Cooperation

Global Citizens

All over Manitoba, people are taking action as Global Citizens. MCIC believes in recognizing organizations and individuals who make a positive impact in their communities and around the world.

In the Spring of 2009, MCIC launched the Global Citizens: Manitobans Working Together for a Better World exhibit, which features photographs, stories and video from international projects with Manitoba connections. It also explores how Manitobans are making a difference through their local actions and asks visitors to make a commitment and be a Global Citizen.

MCIC gratefully acknowledges the Winnipeg Foundation and the Government of Manitoba (Culture, Tourism, Heritage and Sport - Heritage Grants Program) for their support of this project.

The Global Citizens exhibit will be on display at many locations throughout the province in 2010. Its next stop is the Millennium Library in Winnipeg - January 12 to February 4. After that, we are bringing the exhibit to the Sam Waller Museum in The Pas in mid February and to the University of Winnipeg in March.

  • Chantelle Cotton, a teacher from Elmwood High School, speaks with her students about global water issues at MCIC’s Generating Momentum for Our World: Water for All Conference in Winnipeg. MCIC organizes six Middle Years conferences each year throughout Manitoba.
  • Youth from MCIC’s African Theatre Project created a play about the life of a young girl in Africa, based on their own experiences. It was presented to a number of schools in the province. MCIC’s Move Your World Theatre Tour engages young audiences throughout Manitoba with plays about international issues.
  • The idea for a home-based water purification system was first developed in Nicaragua. IDE modified this early system for use in Cambodia where the system has greatly increased general health in over 100,000 households. Here, school children line up for purified water in their classroom.
  • A healthy crop thrives in the Svay Rieng Province of Cambodia thanks to the drip irrigation system. The large cement water tank in the background has been nicknamed a Thai Jar.
  • Drip irrigation systems, using a series of pipes and bags, give farmers a much more efficient and affordable method of delivering precious water directly to their plants.
  • Suraj, a young man from Afghanistan, lost his legs in 2003 after stumbling upon an old cluster bomb left in a park. Although he was able to recover, living with a disability presents an extra challenge in his daily life. It is one of MCIC’s priorities to fund development projects that include the participation of people with disabilities.
  • Children are fed by hospital staff, known affectionately as ‘Mamas’ at Grace Children’s Hospital in Haiti. Mamas are hired to do many of the important non-medical tasks offered at the hospital, which is considered Haiti’s leading medical facility in the treatment of children with Tuberculosis. MCIC funds have gone toward the hospital’s community outreach programs.
  • Two young patients visit Grace Children’s Hospital in Haiti. The hospital treats thousands of children each year.
  • A Haitian health worker gives a vaccination as part of Grace Children’s Hospital’s community work. People living in the slums around the hospital receive vaccinations, prenatal care, and other basic health services from specially-trained community health workers and volunteers.
  • Grace Children’s Hospital is a stateof- the-art facility in Port-au-Prince. The hospital is staffed entirely by Haitians. © Internat ional Child Care
  • An Afghan girl reads to her classmates at the Paghman School near Kabul. Although literacy rates are improving, more than 80% of girls and 50% of boys in Afghanistan are still unable to read and write.
  • Young women are taught to use computers as part of the Global Family education sponsorship program in Afghanistan. Nearly 6,000 people have benefited from this program, which also provides meal supplements to students.
  • Young boys play in front of the Paghman School in Afghanistan. Years of warfare, natural disasters and a breakdown of social services mean that many children, boys and girls, still cannot access primary education.
  • In spite of desperate conditions, Pakistani children find time to play outside their temporary tent home.
  • A daily routine, like making meals and caring for children, continues thanks to the shelter kits provided to victims of the earthquake in Pakistan.
  • A city of winterized tents provides shelter for some of the 3.5 million people left homeless in earthquakeravaged Pakistan.
  • Students and teachers at MCIC’s Generating Momentum for Our World: Water for All Conference in Brandon learn about global poverty and how they can become active global citizens.
  • Even before MCIC was founded, Manitoba organizations like Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) were coordinating overseas relief efforts. In the 1950s, MCC began collecting quilts made by the Mennonite community in Manitoba for international distribution and fundraising.
  • International Development Enterprises’ treadle pump has revolutionized small-scale farming in Bangladesh and elsewhere. Using the locally made, affordable pump, farmers are able to irrigate their fields and dramatically increase yields and profits.
  • Manitobans assemble at the Millennium Library in Winnipeg to kick-off the Fair Trade One-Month Challenge, where participants choose to consume only fair trade brands of coffee, tea and chocolate for 30 days.
  • Grade 7 students and teachers gather for a game of ‘Are You More Concerned About a Better World Than a 7th Grader?’ at the Manitoba Legislature during International Development Week 2009. MCIC programs are designed to engage youth in fun and interactive ways.
  • Staff from MCIC’s Fair Trade Manitoba program display products available at Ten Thousand Villages, a store that sells only fair trade goods. When products are fair trade, it means that producers in the developing world have been paid fairly for their work so their children can go to school and their communities can thrive.
  • A young Afghan girl writes on the blackboard at a community- managed school. The girls in this photo, along with many girls in Afghanistan, only began their formal education in 2002 after the fall of the Taliban. One of MCIC’s priorities, when distributing funds from the Government of Manitoba, is to ensure that women and girls are included.
  • Naomi, a student at the Akropong School for the Blind in Ghana, learns to read Braille from a book. The school’s library is supported by the Osu Children’s Library Fund - a MCIC member organization. When funding projects, one of MCIC’s priorities is to ensure the participation of people with disabilities.
  • Roger Amenyogbe, a Ghanaian- born architect and former resident of Winnipeg, designed the Nima Maamobi Community Learning Centre of Accra to look like an open book to welcome visitors. It was officially opened with a large celebration on November 18, 2006.
  • Kathy Knowles doing what she loves best - reading to children.
  • A mother and child sleep under a mosquito net in a Tanzanian village. They could face serious health risks if exposed to malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
  • When the subsidized malaria prevention nets are sold, it is not only the recipients that benefit. MEDA works with a distribution network of 7,000 retailers in Tanzania - mostly very small operations - who are able to increase their incomes through the sale of these nets.
  • MCIC has funded projects in all of the countries shaded green: Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Burkina, Faso, Burma/The, Union, of, Myanmar, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape, Verde, Islands, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa, Rica, Cuba, Democratic, Republic, of, the, Congo, Dominican, Republic, Egypt, El, Salvador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Mexico, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua, New, Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra, Leone, Solomon, Islands, Somalia, South, Africa, South, Korea, Sri, Lanka, St., Vincent, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, The, Gambia, Togo, Trinidad, &, Tobago, Uganda, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe.