Let’s mobilize volunteers
Let’s mobilize volunteers
The Windsor Star
February 18, 2008
Dr. Keith Martin
Canadians are well-travelled, forward-looking and international in our outlook.
Nine out of ten of us think we can strengthen our influence on the world stage, especially in areas like fighting AIDS or improving human rights; so says a recent poll commissioned during this, International Development Week, by the Vancouver based citizens group, Canada’s World. This interest to look beyond our borders and make a difference is even high amongst the usually hard to engage 15-24 year old age group.
Idealism and internationalism fit well with our impression of ourselves as Canadians. So how to we tap into this vital wellspring of human potential and channel it to improve the lot of our fellow citizens?
Travel through developing countries and you are struck by two opposing realities: people with incredible human potential and dignity, living against a backdrop of grinding poverty.
Why this persists even in regions extremely rich in natural resources (Africa, the poorest continent of the world, has 40 per cent of the world’s natural resources) is due to several factors, but one that stands out is simply a lack of skills.
No country can achieve stability and economic growth without the health care workers to heal the ill, teachers to teach, administrators to run capable governments, etc.
Herein lies the core of a plan that Canadians could participate in that would go a long way to enabling low income countries reduce their poverty levels and become self-sufficient.
An interesting nexus is occurring in our country as in all industrialized nations that, if tapped into, could provide the crucial, raw human power needed to build capacity in developing countries.
It is the increasing awareness and desire to assist those who are least fortunate in our world and the availability of an unprecedented number of relatively well-off, healthy retirees (65 is the new 50) with a lifetime of experience and skills behind them who would like to put their talents to use to help the less fortunate.
But how can we link up these skilled, relatively young and passionate retirees to assist those in need in developing countries?
Why don’t we create a corps of volunteers willing to work overseas; a new Canadian Corps.
A few years ago, the Canadian government organized a corps, under the umbrella of the Canadian International Development Agency.
The Canada Corps’ modest objective was to send Canadians abroad to give advice on governance and monitor elections.
However, suppose the mandate of a new Canadian Corps was expanded to tap into this vast pool of Canadians who wish to work abroad and use their skills in developing countries. Imagine a Corps that sends physicians, nurses and veterinarians overseas, who would not only treat the ill but also train new, local healthcare and animal care professionals.
Imagine Canadian teachers filling the huge void of educators in Africa whose ranks have been decimated by AIDS (700 teachers a month are dying of AIDS in South Africa alone).
They will not only teach the children of today but also train the educators of tomorrow.
Lawyers, accountants, and administrators would help build rudimentary tax and governance structures so that the economic benefits from a developing nation’s economy could be targeted in a transparent and effective way for primary healthcare, education and the nation’s infrastructure needs.
To make the plan functional and congruent with the needs of the recipient nations, the Corps could be linked to Canada’s own embassies and high commissions abroad, which would seek from the recipient country a needs list of the skill sets they require. This information would be sent back to Canada where it would be posted on a website for all to see. Prospective volunteers could peruse the site and sign up to be a Corps member to be deployed overseas.
If this plan is adopted, it could directly result in saving the lives of a countless number of people in the world’s poorest countries, while laying a solid foundation of domestic human capacity where peace, security, and sustainable development can thrive.
Canadians want to play a role on the global scene, in tackling what appears to be the seemingly insurmountable problem of poverty.
Let’s give our citizens this noble opportunity.
Dr. Keith Martin is the Opposition critic for International Development and Member of Parliament for Esquimalt – Juan de Fuca. He has traveled widely in Africa, providing humanitarian assistance to the continent.
Let’s mobilize volunteers
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