Global Citizens in Manitoba
Like a chain of paper dolls, we are all connected. We live in one world and our individual actions affect the whole.
When you think about all the people in the world, we really share the same basic needs. We all want to be well fed, to have a comfortable place to call home, to have access to health care when we need it, to live without fear, and to have what is best for our children–to be educated, healthy and happy. We also want an environment that is healthy and will sustain future generations.
Of course at another level people are more diverse, and this is good. We can learn from each other’s experiences, and we can find better ways of doing things.
If we are all connected then it is our responsibility to become active global citizens, working together for a better world for all.
As global citizens, we realize that we are connected to people throughout the world. We understand that our choices here in Manitoba will impact people elsewhere. We try to live our lives everyday choosing acts that will have more positive rather than negative impacts on our community and the world.
This collection is an attempt to showcase a selection of Manitobans who are demonstrating these values and doing what they can to build a better world. There are many more Manitobans with stories like these. Perhaps you are one, and if not, you could be–there is always room for more.
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Vera Goussaert
Vera Goussaert from Winnipeg, Manitoba, is the Executive Director of the Manitoba Cooperative Association. She has worked with credit unions in Ghana, which encourage women to save money to start their own businesses and send their children to school. Vera is very pleased that the United Nations has declared 2012 the International Year of Cooperatives as she believes that cooperatives represent gender equality and allow women to support themselves and their families financially.
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Corina Lepp
Corina Lepp from Rivers, Manitoba works with the Canadian Agricultural Rural Extension Society (CARES) who partners with organizations in Tanzania to promote micro-enterprise development, particularly for women. Through a recent project, CARES was able to improve the stoves that women used, and this resulted in less time collecting wood allowing girls to go to school, and increased the income of the whole family. Corina cannot even express what it feels like to make such a difference in the lives of these women, and encourages all Manitobans to get involved, in any way they can.
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Lieketseng (Keke) Phooko
Lieketseng (Keke) Phooko from Lesotho, is working as a Public Engagement Intern at the Canadian Foodgrains Bank in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Keke gives presentations to schools and community groups on Conservation Agriculture, a farming method that disturbs the soil as little as possible which is particularly important in Lesotho where the soil is easily eroded. In Lesotho, Keke trains farmers and thinks it is a shame that there are not more women farmers, because she has proven that they are just as capable as men. According to Keke, successful Conservation Agriculture will increase food security in her country, so that everyone has enough to eat.
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Krista Fraser-Kruck
Krista Fraser-Kruck from Winnipeg, Manitoba works for IDE Canada, a member agency of MCIC. In 2010, thanks in part to a contribution from the MCIC Theme Fund, IDE Canada focused on implementing affordable water technology for farmers in the Upper East Region of Ghana. Farmers could purchase a treadle pump for $82, making it easier to pump water and relieving the burden on women. With increased yields, and less time spent irrigating, the girls could afford to go to school and learned to sell their produce. Krista says that women development workers excel and have the social networks and work ethic to ensure the success of IDE’s projects.
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Nathalie Piquemal
Nathalie Piquemal from Winnipeg, Manitoba, is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education of the University of Manitoba. In partnership with Canadian Humanitarian, an MCIC member agency, Nathalie developed a course which trained Ethiopian teachers in student-centered pedagogy. Nathalie then conducted a study to see the effect of the course on the lives of the Ethiopian students, and her preliminary results demonstrate that the work of Canadian Humanitarian is allowing vulnerable children to go to school, eat three times a day and experience a sense of family and community.
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