"Based in West Vancouver, HEAL is a grassroots organization that partners with local and African NGOs with whom we have established strong and trusted relationships. Together, we work to empower women, children and their communities through initiatives in Health, Education, community Action and Leadership development."
- healcanada.ca
Ideally, there would be no need for the work Amanda Halliday and Deborah Woodley do with HEAL Canada but as things are, these caring West Vancouver residents are making a positive difference to the lives of vulnerable people in a troubled part of Africa.
In 2014, they plan to target their efforts toward supporting the challenging but successful work of local peer-educators in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and, shortly before Christmas, they shared some of their own experiences and those of fellow board member Judy Anderson.
Halliday and Woodley both witnessed the tireless work of Congolese doctors and visiting physicians at the 400-bed Panzi Hospital. They told me that when one woman is helped to recover her health and given the skills she needs to care for her children, we create a hundred similar voices in her community.
This is no easy task in a region where, according to the Fistula Foundation, "rape of women is widely used as a tool of war."
Simply referred to as DR Congo or DRC, the region is still dealing with the chaotic ebb and flow of millions of internally displaced people who have been fleeing ongoing violence since October 1990 when the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front first invaded the territory.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, IDPs "are among the world's most vulnerable people" and UNHCR statistics show that DRC's refugees represent more than 10 per cent of the estimated 26.4 million IDPs worldwide.
These are people who "have not crossed an international border to find sanctuary but have remained inside their home countries."
As noted by HEAL, by fistulafoundation.org and by workers in local nongovernment organizations, the most vulnerable of all are the women.
Obstetric fistulas - painful holes torn between organs - can occur during unattended, difficult childbirth. Such births, many of them agonizing and days long, are common among DRC women - some as young as 13 - who have no access to the prenatal care we take for granted in most parts of Canada.
Even more disturbing is that, although rape was made illegal under the Congolese Constitution in 2006, many of the fistulas are the traumatic result of rape, especially gang rape.
However caused, fistulas allow continual leakage of infectious, foul-smelling bodily fluids.
Is anyone surprised the sufferers are shunned? The good news is that, free-of-charge and supported by HEAL and the foundation, highly trained Congolese and visiting specialists are able to provide their patients with the surgeries and medical treatment they so desperately need.
Just as encouraging is that, during their lengthy recovery from the repair of their fistulas, the women have an opportunity to learn from peer educators who give them information about hygiene, sexual violence, diseases and fire safety.
"Thank you for HEAL Canada's support of HOLD's peer educators," Anderson wrote to Halliday on her return from Goma.
HOLD - Humanitarian Organization for Lasting Development - is another non-profit group working to improve the lives of IDPs, this one focused on life-skills training and other educational goals.
What followed was Anderson's word painting of Congolese people who are determined to survive turmoils not of their making, and to return to the simple homes they'd fled.
Paraphrased for brevity, one of the most poignant quotes Anderson provided by phone was this: The educators came and taught us hygiene ... but how can we have hygiene when so many people live in our small shelters?
They might also have asked, "How can we prevent fires when we must huddle together around our cook stoves under leaky but flammable tarpaulins that are our walls and roofs?" Or, "How can we prevent rape when the men come into our shelters to use their weapons of war?" These are simple needs for people who are doing their best to fend for themselves - many of them on less than $1.25/day. So simple, I was ashamed to read it and then look around me. So deserving of far more help than local groups can hope to offer alone.
In 2012, the Fistula Foundation spent 85 per cent of its funds on its programs that included 2,919 fistula surgeries. Management, operating expenses and raising funds took only 15 per cent.
Heal.ca is updating its website where you can find its financial statements.
In short, these groups have their priorities straight and they're up front as to how their dollars are spent.
Last time I checked, roughly 190,000 people called the North Shore home.
Imagine what Halliday, Woodley and Anderson could accomplish with a $1 gift to HEAL from each of us - for people a world away by distance but who, by their very existence, are our sisters and children under the stars.
Could we do that? [email protected]
