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Being a part of the Volunteer Action Network (VAN) has allowed me to develop leadership, professional and networking skills. Before becoming involved with Youth Challenge International, I had the drive and passion for international development but had no experience.
YCI has given me the support and resources to build these skills. After my time overseas in Ghana, I came back to my own community and have started to use the training I got with YCI and translate it in to action here in Vancouver. I have met with many organizations, attended many forums to gain more knowledge about global issues and recruited an extraordinary VAN team that has the same drive as I do.
With YCI’s support, my team and I were able to hold a fundraising event in partnership with a few other organizations. This event alone allowed me to build skills that I may not have otherwise had the opportunity to at this point. I learned to collaborate with other social change organizations, deal with media, communicate effectively (when raising money you have to be clear on where the donor’s money is going and why they should donate), getting sponsorships, planning and coordinating an event, marketing and leading a team.
The VAN network has given me the confidence and skills to pass on my experience I had overseas with YCI. I am proud and excited to be a part of this program.
-Pamy Teja was a volunteer in the fall of 2008 in Ghana. She played an active role in World Aids Day, as well as organizing a campaign to encourage Ghanaian youth to vote. She is currently the Youth & Poverty VAN Action team leader based out of Vancouver. Her team recently raised over $7000 for local and global organizations that focus on youth and poverty.
October 24th was the International Day of Climate Action. Read on to learn about how YCI alumni and youth across Canada are taking action, every day:
Growing up in Alberta, the heart of the oil and gas industry in Canada, I have seen the resistance to cutting emissions first hand. Many equate cutting emissions with cutting their standard of living. I believe this to be a main cause of resistance. Perhaps this also has to do with the inability to associate personal decisions with global impact. This is why I joined the environmental sustainability team of YCI’s Volunteer Action Network (VAN).
While the effects of global warming on weather patterns, animals, water levels, and other earthly features need attention, my team chose to research the effects that global warming has had and will have on humans. We chose to direct our attention specifically on the Global South, as global warming’s effects will be most drastic in these regions. In Canada, we are perceived to live a developed country. As such, the amount of emissions created in our country is much greater than those created in developing nations.
The injustice and inequality that arises from this situation drives me to make change and call for action. In a world that is becoming more and more interconnected, it is increasingly evident that our actions affect others, countries away. We no longer live in a world where citizens are defined by boundaries, but one where global citizenship is coming to a forefront. Because of this, we have a responsibility to reduce the impact global warming has on developing nations. Reducing our emissions is just a start.
Joining YCI has helped me develop into a global citizen and realize how my actions in Canada can affect someone in Ghana. Consciously reducing my carbon footprint by making minor adjustments to my everyday life is not a choice if, even indirectly, it has a positive effect on developing countries. As citizens there is action we can take. Individually, we can take steps to reduce our carbon footprint. As a collective, we can take part in initiatives to pressure the government to take necessary steps to cut national emissions. Reducing emissions is not an individual choice–it is a necessity.
-Sara Walde is a member of YCI’s Volunteer Advisory Council (VAC) and leads the VAN environmental sustainability team. She first became engaged with YCI as a volunteer in Guyana in 2008. To learn more about how to join YCI’s Volunteer Action Network, contact Jessica at jessica.lockhart@yci.org or find out more here.
Let me state an obvious fact: poverty is a huge problem, especially in the developing world. Although developed nations give foreign aid to countries in need, there are always strings attached. State actors don’t really donate aid–political, economic and geo-strategic interests are also motivators for delivering development assistance. Since the 1960s, the absolute wealth of developed countries has increased; however, the percentage of GNI allocated to foreign aid has substantially dropped. This is why it’s interesting to note that there are increasing number of non-profit organizations that work very hard to persuade our elected legislators and policymakers to implement change. Many NGOs recognize that eradicating poverty is in the best interest of western countries. One such organization is Make Poverty History.
This past weekend, Make Poverty History made strides again in making poverty a thing in the past. In hopes of achieving the Millennium Development Goals and eradicating poverty, millions of people around the world took part in Stand Up and Take Action. This campaign called upon all those who are interested in getting rid of poverty and achieving MDGs to organize events in a group to simply Stand Up.
In the midst of a global financial crisis, many leaders are too focused on appeasing domestic actors while the poor – the ones that did not contribute to the economic mess – feel the repercussions the most. In its fourth year, the campaign’s major focus was to emphasize the fact that time is limited, and decisive MDG-oriented policies and programmes must be implemented. The progress made in the last several years could simply unravel. A valid point that the campaigners made is that the financial crisis can’t be used as an excuse for overlooking MDG commitments. Moreover, Stand Up and Take Action understood that we all live in a global society and so, simply addressing domestic concerns during a time of insecurity is not the answer for a peaceful and prosperous world. To Stand Up and Take Action is one way to ask our leaders to stand with us to make poverty history. Is that really too much to ask for?
-Ahila Poologaindran is a student in her final year at McGill University, with a focus on International Development Studies. She has acted as a Community Connector for YCI, as well our 2008 summer intern.
Okay, so Google headquarters we are not. But in honour of Blog Action Day, here are all the little ways that we are fighting climate change here in the YCI office:
- Printing everything double-sided. And those accidental print jobs or scrap pieces of paper? We turn them into one-sided notebooks for our daily to-do lists.
- Brewing our own coffee. It’s fair-trade, inexpensive and best of all, there’s no paper cups involved in the process.
- Walking/cycling/TTCing to work.
- Since school started up again this fall, we’ve been using Autoshare or public transit to get to career fairs and outreach events.
- Communicating online with volunteers to reduce our environmental impact.
- Consume less. Do we reuse our paper folders until the names have been written over ten times? You bet we do!
- Work potlucks! Okay, to be honest, I’m not sure they have anything to do with climate change, but they sure are delicious and probably one of my favourite parts of working at YCI. So they must be good for the environment.
- Sharing. (Most recently, in fact, all the women in the office passed around all the books in the Twilight saga. Somewhat embarrassing, but true. Gabriela’s currently working on the last book. We’re all waiting for her to catch up so that we can determine whether we’re all Team Jacob or Team Edward.)
- Each YCI staff member is allocated time off that they can commit to another non-profit organization. Global citizenship will always place a key role in climate change.
- Finally, although it’s not specifically in our office, let’s not forget all the YCI volunteers who work on eco-tourism projects in Central America, host environmental education workshops in the South Pacific, and work with environmental sustainability clubs in Tanzania.
But it’s still undeniable that we could be doing a lot more. While our composting experiment failed miserably, there’s always room for other improvement. For example, while we were at the Centre for Social Innovation for last month’s VAC retreat, we noticed there was fabric grocery shopping bags and Tupperware available by the door for take-out lunches. At the YCI office, we definitely bring back our fair share of Styrofoam containers. So, while we certainly aren’t in a position to buy solar panels or goats, investing in takeout containers is certainly not beyond our reach.
-Jessica Lockhart, Program Coordinator
This fall, we have a number of projects headed overseas, including one to Costa Rica in November. Want to read more about what a YCI project in Costa Rica looks like day-to-day? Check out today’s featured volunteer blog: Po-Yi’s Diary.
“Organizing events in an unfamiliar setting was difficult. We always had to keep in mind the ‘Tican’ time, meaning that locals can come whenever they wanted to even two or three hours after the start time. In spite of the challenges (that was why we were there!), our ’social projects’ were very successful since they opened our eyes to the difficulties that Juanilama have been facing. The knowledge we gained from the events and activities we planed will help the next YCI group to sustain whatever development we and the Juanilamans have left off with. . .“
Happy Thanksgiving! Want to hear more from our volunteers in Morogoro? Check out today’s featured volunteer blog, Michael Without Borders.
“The family I am staying with is very nice, though basic English is a bit of stretch. Still, I am learning a bit of Swahili and we understand each other mostly (my Swahili-English dictionary comes in handy often). The food they make me is edible and tastes good. I probably won’t be seeking it out often when I return, but I am pleased. There is a strong emphasis on white bread and white rice, but surprisingly I am feeling mostly healthy and energetic. . .”
While we currently have volunteers in the field in Ghana, Tanzania and Costa Rica (and a group headed out to Kenya next week), it seems that our volunteers in Tanzania are the most active bloggers. Today’s featured volunteer blog is My Tanzanian Adventure, coming from Stephanie, one of our volunteers in Zanzibar.
“Monday afternoon I facilitated my first Girls’ Health Club meeting. We talked about what the girls wanted to learn about and discuss. Most of the girls want to learn about puberty, health pregnancy, underage pregnancy, malaria, and family planning. At the end of class, I had the girls role play some scenarios that I had made up. It was funny because the girls were very shy when discussing topics but they jumped at the opportunity to act!. . .”
Today’s featured volunteer blog comes from another volunteer in Tanzania. To read more about our programming in Morogoro, check out Melissa’s in Tanzania!
“The work that YCI does is to provide various programming geared towards youth that helps give them the skills and knowledge they need to become empowered and create real change. All of the staff have great respect for the Tanzanian culture (4 of the 5 are native to Tanzania). The programming is contantly evolving thanks to feedback from the participants and partners and extensive monitoring, evaluating and reporting on our part to ensure our programs are effective. . .”
While YCI hasn’t exactly been active in our blogging pursuits over the last six months, our volunteers have been more than making up for it by writing about their own journeys with YCI across the globe. (And let’s face it–reading about our partner’s work in Tanzania is probably far more interesting than reading about our Toronto office’s favourite lunch spots.)
Check out Trip to Africa, today’s featured YCI blog, to learn more about our programming in Tanzania!
“The final time we met, he asked us “Is there anywhere around here to get tested for HIV/AIDS? I have not been tested for a very long time, and it is important that everyone get tested every few months.” We told him our partner organization conducted tests, so we went with him and his friend to the center to get tested; the results for both, thankfully, were negative. It goes to show that the message here is spreading, and that people are not only aware of HIV/AIDS, but that people know that there is somewhere for them to go for help. . .”
Hey folks! It’s been a while since YCI has updated our blog. Half a year, in fact. But, it’s not what you think. It’s not because we haven’t had tons to write about–but rather because we’ve been so busy that we haven’t had time to write about it!
Between May and August, we sent 87 volunteers to work on projects in Guyana, Vanuatu, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, Costa Rica and Guatemala. (In other words, to all of our project countries except for Nicaragua.) The result of their work over the summer months was impressive; volunteers worked on the Earth Charter in Costa Rica, built water tanks in Vanuatu and facilitated gender and active citizenship workshops in Kenya. (And that’s just a brief summary of the activities they completed overseas.)
We were busy, too. While our volunteers were working with our partner organizations globally to meet development goals, learn new skills and make connections with youth overseas, we were active in our Toronto office preparing for our fall and winter programs and producing a number of new communications tools.
Now that September has rolled around and school is back in high gear, YCI is too, with one of those new tools—t-shirts! I got my first opportunity to rock the new YCI look at Volunteer Action Council (VAC) retreat in September. The VAC is the body that administers and managers the Volunteer Action Network. It’s composed of team leaders, a guiding council and YCI staff members. For two days, VAN team leaders, mentors, YCI staff and chair members gathered at the Centre for Social Innovation and the Youth Challenge International HQ to goal set, plan activities for the year and, for many of us, finally get the chance to meet one another face-to-face.
It was a great weekend and inspiring to see the work that our alumni and volunteers are doing across the country. It was also amazing to have conversations about different ways to make the local-global connection and how we can get the Canadian public involved. (Want to get involved with the VAN or learn more? Check out http://www.yci.org/html/inCanada/)
Next up, Nucci (YCI’s Program Development and Marketing Manager) and I both wore our new t-shirts at the University of Toronto Mississauga’s Get Experience Fair. While it’s always refreshing to hear what our alumni are doing to put their global perspectives into action, it’s also a welcome change from my computer to get face time with prospective volunteers. (And of course, I always like the opportunity to talk about my own involvement with YCI from an alumnus perspective.)
So, where will you see the YCI t-shirts next? On the volunteers who are headed to Tanzania, Ghana, Kenya Costa Rica and Guyana in the next two months. Want to get your own YCI t-shirt? Consider volunteering. You can check out more information on our website at www.yci.org.
-Jessica Lockhart, Program Coordinator
