“If you want to go far, go together.”

“If you want to go far, go together.” As we celebrate National Volunteer Week, this African proverb resonates. Over the last 60 years, Crossroads International has worked with more than 9,000 volunteers and year after year, we witnessed the change they accomplished, the lives they contribute to improve by working with locals as equals. When we come together, when we work together, we can do great things. In 2016-2017 alone, our volunteers gave 54,077 hours to advance women’s rights and fight poverty in Africa and South America. Some worked with Girls’ Clubs, empowering young girls to speak up and know their rights. Others worked with women and youth to improve their leadership skills or develop their business. Young Quebeckers spent the summer in Senegal working with our partner APROFES to optimize garden plots, therefore helping improve food security. These volunteers may have had different mandates, but they all worked together with partners, beneficiaries or other volunteers to implement change. They all took part in a movement improving the situation of women, girls and youth, their work taking us a step further toward gender equality and ending poverty.

“If you want to go far, go together.” This idea is particularly timely. Emergence of movements like “MeToo” or “Times Up” showed us how powerful we become when we rally together behind the same cause. Thanks to these movements, sexual misconduct happening in all walks of life are now centre stage. Violence against women is finally evoking the outrage it deserves. The silence has finally been broken. United our voices can’t be ignored.

Volunteer Cooperation can also be a movement for change. In addition to supporting local partners and beneficiaries to change their reality, volunteers can change the discourse here in Canada. By talking about their work overseas, volunteers can raise awareness about the issues they helped fight during their mandates. And by doing so they can inspire other Canadians to volunteer or to take a stand for women’s rights or for more funding for international development. Real global citizens, volunteers bring a new perspective based on their valuable experience but also values and new skills to enhance their communities.

Our volunteers by working in solidarity with our partners are doing great things. I would like to thank them for sharing their time, expertise and passion and for being real catalysts for change. They are an example for all of us and their dedication and work deserve to be praised and celebrated.

Federal Budget demonstrates commitment to women and international cooperation – now we must continue to build on our progress

Crossroads International welcomes the 2018 federal Budget as a positive investment towards empowering women and girls in the global south. Announced earlier this week, the Budget reiterates the government’s wider approach to equality and commits to gender-based budgeting, something Crossroads and other women’s rights organizations have been seeking for years.

Of particular note for our community, there was significant news regarding funding for the international aid sector. There is $2 billion in new money for international development assistance over 5 years, a significant increase compared with recent years. This new funding comes with an added commitment to transparency which is important not only for aid agencies but for all Canadians. The money will support Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy.

Crossroads International is encouraged by this Budget, especially following our discussions with Members of Parliament and staff from the Prime Minister’s Office and Minister of International Development and La Francophonie’s office at the launch of Crossroads 60th anniversary celebrations on Parliament Hill on International Volunteer Day, December 5th.

Global Affairs Canada has made decisive, innovative strides in directing its development focus to women and girls. Now we must commit to a path to meeting our overseas aid funding commitment to ensure we can achieve our ambitions. As welcome as this new funding is, it is still far short of Canada’s global commitment to spend .7% of Gross National Income on overseas development. We must set out a detailed plan to reach this funding level if we are to truly be a global leader and maximize our potential to defend the rights of women and girls in the South.

With the support of Global Affairs Canada, and through partnership with organizations in the global South and Canadian volunteers, Crossroads International is making an impact. Consider:

• Volunteers contributed 54,077 in-kind hours valued at more than $1.9 million in 2016-2017
• 8,850 people in the South improved their income and more than 20,600 increased their capacity to access their rights in 2016-2017
• 17,000 women and girls increased their access to justice, developed leadership skills and became more financially autonomous in 2016-2017

Imagine what we could do together if Canada met its global funding commitment on overseas development.

For now, we celebrate the good news in Budget 2018, and we look forward to building on our work with our partners in the years to come.

Celebrating 60 years of change

In 2018, we celebrate Crossroads International’s 60^th anniversary. We celebrate the thousands of volunteers South and North who changed lives, theirs and the lives of others. And we celebrate the Canadian and Southern partners who worked alongside Crossroads and our volunteers to create one equal world.

In 60 years, Crossroads International evolved to respond to the changing needs of communities, but we never stopped working together with partners as equal, following the vision of our founder, Dr. James Robinson.

Partners drive our work, guiding the design of cost effective interventions that answer their needs and the needs of their communities. These programs involve the different actors of the communities to ensure long lasting results. In Togo for example, with our partner Groupe de réflexion et d'action Femme, Démocratie et Développement (GF2D), we launched Boys Clubs in schools, knowing boys need to be involved early on if we want to achieve gender equality. With our Ghanaian partner WILDAF, as part of our Access to Justice Program, we are engaging religious and traditional leaders as advocates for women’s rights, knowing they have the power and influence to change their communities and therefore improve the lives of many women and girls.

Our partnerships are having an impact and we are glad the new Feminist International Assistance Policy launched last year by the Canadian government recognizes the importance of partnering with local civil societies as well as the private sector to achieve the right results. This new feminist direction is well aligned with the work Crossroads and its partners have been doing for 10 years to advance equality for women and girls and overcome poverty.

Celebrating our 60^th anniversary in a context where advancing gender equality is made a priority by the government but also by part of the society is special and gives us hope for the future.

Every success is a new step taken on the way to gender equality and that’s why, now more than ever, backed by the lessons learned in the past 60 years, our volunteers’ devotion and enthusiasm and our partners’ determination we will keep being a catalyst for change.

We all have a role to play to achieve ONE WORLD where poverty is eliminated, equality prevails and the rights of women and girls are fulfilled. It can be through volunteering or donations, through advocating for women’s rights in your community or taking a stand and speaking up. You can also take part in the Charity Challenge Trek we are organizing in Tanzania in August 2018, host an event in your community to raise awareness about the challenges women and girls face in the countries we worked in or participate in the conversation by joining our upcoming Facebook Live about women’s economic empowerment. A lot can be done at every level, here in Canada as well as overseas. Now, the question is, what role are you going to play?

Working together to overcome global challenges

I’ve just returned from the International Volunteer Co-operation Organizations (IVCO) conference in Seoul.  It was inspiring to be part of a global community united in strengthening partnerships to address today’s global cooperation challenges.  At a time when countries are growing increasingly nationalist and withdrawing from international collaboration, I witnessed in Seoul a civil society movement committed to strong international cooperation and eager to accomplish more together.  IVCO Chair Chris Eaton summed up this commitment well: “We need to go out of our comfort zone; we need more room for our partners at the Forum and on the ground.”

The theme of this year’s conference was Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) through transformative partnership in volunteering.  Crossroads International took the theme to heart, kicking off the conference with Sustaining Girls’ Empowerment, a joint presentation with the Director of Educational Testing, Guidance and Psychological Services of the Swaziland Ministry of Education, Ms. Lindiwe Dlamini.  We presented our work with local partner Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA) that is empowering thousands of girls at risk of gender-based violence.  Most importantly, we demonstrated that a program nurtured and supported by volunteers is now expanding across the country, with growing engagement, and ownership demonstrated by the Swazi Government which ultimately will be key to sustainability.

Crossroads volunteers have worked alongside local people and partners for decades.  Working together as equals is a value we have held since the first volunteer served overseas in 1958.  On International Volunteer Day on December 5^th, we will launch our 60^th anniversary celebrations on Parliament Hill.  In the company of our partners from Togo and Burkina Faso and our volunteers, we will share with MPs, Senators and Ministers successful stories of 60 years of partnership addressing poverty and advancing equality across the world.

After six decades of activity and more than 9,000 volunteer placements in the South, the One World vision of our founders remains relevant, not only to Crossroads but to the entire international volunteer community.  I am positive that we can unite to overcome global cooperation challenges and see better times in which the values of solidarity and equality regain their importance.  Thank you to all volunteers for offering their time, skills and enthusiasm in pursuing this goal!

Planting seeds of hope for the new generation

103,318. That’s the number of people who crossed the Mediterranean Sea to get to Italy from January to August 2017. 103,318 people, most of them youth leaving everything behind, country, wives, families, to seek a better future, a quest that cost many their lives.

 

This is what poverty looks like with its intense despair that makes people risk their life for an Eldorado that often doesn’t exist. Europe’s promise hides a sad reality for migrants. Most of them end up in the streets or in migrants’ camps without better prospects than before.

Faced with growing poverty and food insecurity, Senegalese youth are among many African youth who lack hope for the future and are making the choice to leave. This situation is dramatic. The Senegalese economy relies deeply on cash crops and fishing and the growing exodus threatens the future of theses sectors.

What can be done to stop the flow of youth leaving their country? We can revalue agriculture as a viable career and lifestyle choice attractive to youth.

On my recent visit to Senegal, I met proud youth working in agriculture, growing a rotation of crops that allow them to have revenues all year long. These youth took part in the Farmers for the Future project launched by our partner RESOPP with Crossroads International’s support. One hundred youth, half of them women, were trained in modern farming technics, agroecology and management and now understand how it can work. This model is inexpensive and has a high retention rate with youth who now have steady revenue and activity.

Projects like this one are inspiring and have proven their worth in other countries like Bolivia, Togo or Tanzania where our partners, with Crossroads’ collaboration, developed new farming models that now provide sustainable revenues to youth and their community. I’ve seen promising results and those projects are real catalyst for change that can transform the way youth see agriculture and can help them find new sustainable prospects for the future.

Why Day of the Girl should matter to Canadians

On Oct. 11 the world will recognize the sixth annual International Day of the Girl Child. The question many Canadians may ask is: Why does it matter here?

The answer is simple. Our words matter.

Read the full op-ed in The Vancouver Sun

What the Ouagadougou terrorist attack means for our work in Burkina Faso

By all accounts, it was a calm night in Ouagadougou when terrorists targeted the Istanbul Aziz restaurant and left 19 people dead and many injured. Among the victims was Bilel Diffalah, a long-term volunteer with Uniterra.

When I learned of the attack I was on vacation in France with my family and my heart sank. For those of us supporting Canadian volunteers abroad, it is our greatest fear.  Within a few hours I learned of Bilel’s death. 

This heinous attack raised many questions among our volunteers, supporters and partners. A lot of people asked me: what does it mean for Crossroads International and its work in Burkina Faso?

Burkina Faso’s experience of terrorism is not unique. Citizens in Barcelona or London also endured senseless acts of terror in the last few months. Poverty and inequality fuel these acts in countries where we work and the citizens and those working alongside them are among the most vulnerable.   

For Crossroads, the safety of our volunteers is paramount.  We are keeping a close watch on the situation in Burkina Faso as well as in any other countries where we are working and are adapting our work to this new reality. I am heartened by the commitment of our volunteers and their strong desire to continue their mandate alongside the citizens of Burkina Faso. That is why, Crossroads must redouble its efforts to advance equality for youth, strengthen women’s economic empowerment, fight forced and early marriages and increase women’s leadership and political representation. Despite positive actions taken by the Burkinabe government, a lot of work is still needed to improve women’s and girls’ rights in Burkina Faso. The country has, for example, the sixth highest rate of early marriages in Africa with 52% of girls married by the age of 18, half of them already mothers at that age. 

We know that, with the threat of terrorism, we are facing an additional challenge. However, as long as the safety of our volunteers is not compromised, we will continue to work together to give youth hope for a better future and to advance equality and women’s rights. Let’s not forget that the rise of extremism often leads to women’s rights violation and that’s why it is essential to advance women’s rights to fight this ideology.

International development is fundamental in times of crises. I believe that by working collectively to create one world where poverty is eliminated, equality prevails and the rights of women and girls are fulfilled, we will also help advance peace.