What I enjoy about Kevin McCort, is that you can tell he genuinely loves his work. When someone’s passion shines through to that extent, I think we can all agree that’s when we get excited about a cause.
The work that CARE Canada does around the world to empower and equip a generation of women and girls to better themselves and their communities, is one of the most noble efforts in the aid community out there today. I’m so thrilled that Kevin offered to share the work of CARE Canada with our readers.
This is part one of a two part blog. Read, absorb, and support CARE.
ME: For those of us who don’t know, what is CARE Canada’s vision and mission?
Kevin: In essence, it can be summed up in four words – Defending Dignity. Fighting Poverty.
CARE is a global force dedicated to defending dignity and fighting poverty by empowering the world’s most vulnerable and greatest resource for change: women and girls.
We seek a world of hope, tolerance and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and people live in dignity and security.
Recognizing that women and children suffer disproportionately from poverty, CARE places special emphasis on working with women to create permanent social change. Women are at the heart of CARE’s community-based efforts to improve basic education, prevent the spread of HIV, increase access to clean water and sanitation, expand economic opportunity and protect natural resources.
Another very important part of CARE’s development philosophy is participation, consultation and empowerment. We believe that, in order to be successful, our job is not to tell communities what they need and what they should do. When CARE goes into a community we ask them what they need, and we help them build their own solutions. That’s why 96 per cent of people who work in CARE field offices and on CARE projects are not foreign expatriates, they are people hired and trained from within the communities themselves. By working in this way, CARE: creates programs that respect and adapt to the unique needs and culture of the community; builds the economy of the community through employment; and ensures that when CARE leaves, the skills and knowledge stay in the community and do not leave with us.
ME: What is the history of CARE?
Kevin: I’ll bet most of your readers, at one time or another, have heard or used the term “care package”. A basket of food, some clothing, or just some money for a son or daughter away at university. We send our loved ones “care packages” all the time. But I’ll bet most of your readers don’t know that every time they use the term “care package”, they’re talking about us.
Over 60 years ago, at the end of World War II, much of Europe was almost destroyed. Millions of people had no homes, no income, no way to feed or clothe their families. So Canadians and Americans began filling boxes with food, clothing and other basic necessities and sending them to needy people in Europe. The first CARE Packages. That’s how CARE was born.
When the immediate need in Europe was over, CARE spread out across the globe. Over the years, CARE’s work has expanded as it addresses the world’s most threatening problems. In the 1950s, CARE expanded into emerging nations; in the 1960s, it pioneered primary health care programmes. In the 1970s, CARE responded to massive famines in Africa with both emergency relief and long-term agro-forestry projects, integrating environmentally sound land-management practices with farming programmes. In 2004, CARE was one of the primary emergency responders in an unprecedented natural disaster, the South Asian tsunami. Today, CARE works in over 65 countries, focusing on global issues like HIV and AIDS, economic strengthening, women’s empowerment, adaptation to climate change, development and relief.
ME: You just returned from a trip to Kenya and Zimbabwe. Could you explain what the purpose of that trip was, and what the situation there is like right now?
Kevin: I’ve started a blog of my own, where stories and pictures can be found: http://care-kevinmccort.blogspot.com/. The trip was undertaken because we know at CARE that we are working with many individual women, families and communities, but the stories of our success are often not told. If I had a dollar for every time someone told me “CARE is doing great work, but people just don’t know about it”, I’d be the greatest fundraiser ever! We are working at a vast scale, aiding 55 million people last year. But this trip was all about telling individual stories, not bulk reporting. How did we change one life, one family? I was gathering this kind of evidence and proof so my stories and testimonials would be fresh, compelling and vivid.
Kenya was incredible. I had the opportunity to visit Kibera and Dadaab. Kibera is often referred to as the largest urban slum in Africa, and Dadaab as the one of the largest refugee camps in the world. When we do hear about them here in North America, we tend to hear stories that are terribly negative. And to be fair, the need and the poverty in both these places really are staggering. But what I also saw was a lot of hope, and a lot of positive development that is happening. For example I met one woman, Pauline Muthoni, who has built her own successful scrap metal business in Nairobi thanks to a micro-finance program in which CARE is a partner. You can read her story in my blog.
In Zimbabwe, Zimbabweans themselves are hopeful. They have come through a very difficult period, and think the only way for them to go now is up. They really are an amazing people. They have faced economic and political challenges we can’t possibly comprehend, and they’ve done it with resiliency and with optimism. They are innovative and just like in Kenya they embody the spirit of entrepreneurship.
In Masvingo province I attended the graduation ceremony for 113 women and 2 men who were involved in a CARE village savings and loans (VS&L) program. At the ceremony the participants set up tables to show the livelihoods they had created and the pots and pans, livestock, and all manner of goods that were the fruits of their work. It was an incredible display in a country where inflation is so high the government is issuing banknotes for one hundred trillion dollars. And beyond the economic impact, that program is successfully changing societal attitudes about gender. This is what woman at the graduation ceremony, Tsungai Shimbuya , said to me: “My husband initially did not approve of my participation in this program. He saw it as a waste of time. When he realized that I could buy household goods, seeds and fertilizer during the farming seasons and pay for my children’s school fees, he came around. He is now one of my biggest supporters.”
I think Canadian donors are often nervous about giving to support Zimbabwe because of the politics. But the country really is at a turning point now. Canada can make a difference if we just make the investment.
Kevin washing plastic with Somali women in the Dadaab refugee camp. These women are in a CARE plastics recycling program that helps control solid waste and gives these women an income.
A deaf student and the woman who is the only teacher for special needs students in the Dadaab refugee camps. There is a desperate need for more resources to support special needs education in Dadaab.
Women showing the water and sanitation kits they have received as part of CARE’s anti-cholera efforts.
Friday we’ll be posting the second half of Kevin’s interview, where he speaks out on the foreign aid debate, and how you can get involved with CARE.
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