30th Anniversary Special Report
SOLIDARITY AND COMMON CAUSE
Just as Inter Pares develops long-term relationships of common cause with people and organizations around the world, we seek to nurture the same quality of relationships with our supporters here in Canada. Rather than spend time and resources on large fundraising campaigns, we have chosen to develop and build a solid core of committed supporters over the years. Inter Pares is fortunate to receive support from 10,000 donors in every province and territory across the country as well as from foundations, clubs, union locals and solidarity funds, religious institutions, and small businesses across Canada. Here are a few examples of our supporters.
NICARAGUAN CHILDREN'S FUND
The Nicaraguan Children's Fund (NCF) is a Manitoba-based organization whose support base and volunteer involvement grew out of prairie roots of concern, developed in the wheat pools, cooperatives, and other community-based organizations. The NCF was founded by several Canadians who worked in Nicaragua as volunteers during the 1980s and who, on returning to Canada, wanted to continue to support Nicaraguans to build a healthy future and improve the quality of life for their families.
They decided to do so by developing a working relationship with a Canadian NGO with existing programs in Nicaragua to avoid duplication of effort and cost. They chose Inter Pares. For almost two decades, NCF volunteers have participated in fundraising activities and public education work in Manitoba in support of Inter Pares' program, keeping Nicaragua alive in the hearts and minds of Canadians.
Over the years, through Inter Pares, NCF has supported day care and rural nutrition centres, and worker-owned and operated organic farms and seed banks. In the early 1990s, they supported a national reconciliation project in Nueva Guinea, one of the areas most affected by the war. Today, NCF is accompanying Inter Pares' program with local community groups in the department of Matagalpa and the shantytowns of Managua. These groups are struggling to participate as citizens in their own development and in the decisions that affect their lives, laying the basis for genuine participatory democracy in Nicaragua.
TRINITY JUBILEE FOUNDATION
Alex McKeague, speaking of his early impressions of Inter Pares, says, "I always thought it was an outfit on the right track". Alex and his wife have personally supported Inter Pares for the past two decades. In 2003, he decided to introduce our work to his faith community. As a Board Member of the Trinity Jubilee Foundation (TJF), based at Trinity United Church in Ottawa, Alex invited Inter Pares to apply for funding, thus introducing us to this remarkable group.
TJF began in 1999, during the international Jubilee 2000 campaign. This three-year campaign, led by faith-based social justice groups in over 60 countries, stemmed from the Biblical concept of debt cancellation after fifty years (the "Jubilee" year). While its international aim was to advocate for debt cancellation for the world's poorest countries and for reform of international financial systems, Jubilee committees in northern countries used the campaign to educate their communities about global economics. In Canada, the campaign's theme in 1999 was "Redistribution of Wealth." Alex suggested to his Church in Society Committee that a good way to start was by redistributing their own wealth.
The Committee endorsed the idea, and worked to promote it to the congregation. Once accepted, the project grew from the original idea of a fund into an independent foundation, and its committee members worked hard to develop TJF's legal and organizational structure and to build up its capital. Since incorporating, TJF has succeeded in building the capital fund to over $70,000. Income generated by the capital fund is directed, along with new donations, to the "active ministering fund," which supports projects that are aimed at empowering people to help themselves toward achieving a better life.
TJF's Board of Directors uses granting decisions as an opportunity to launch a campaign within the Trinity United congregation. Over several weeks, the Board shares information about the chosen organization and its work, and solicits contributions. The strength of the congregation's support is revealed in its response. Since it began granting in 2001, TJF has raised $57,000 for work in Canada and overseas, including Inter Pares' work with Likhaan, a community-focused women's health organization in the Philippines.
Inter Pares is honoured by the trust that TJF and Trinity United members have placed in our work.
MARGARET FLEMING MCKAY
Margaret Fleming McKay died in November 2004. Her story and her belief in the future touched many. Her feminist values and principles - so well ahead of her time - inspire and sustain many of us in our dream of a better world. The Margaret McKay Fund, Inter Pares' endowment fund, is named in her honour.
A social worker for 25 years, Margaret had direct knowledge of the injustices and challenges facing marginalized people in Canada. Working primarily with unmarried mothers and their children in an era when great social stigma was attached to both, Margaret was keenly aware that fundamental change was essential and worked to make the lives of women visible. She worked for change at the community level, and was active in local associations and women's organizations.
Margaret Fleming McKay became a donor to Inter Pares in 1987, in large part because of her concern for the status of women globally. "I've always been interested in the fact that women did most of the work in the Third World, and that their lives were so difficult," she told us. Stories her grandchildren brought back from their travels through Africa about the burden women shoulder and about their central role in their communities confirmed for Margaret that the struggles of women are universal.
In her later years, her experiences continued to underlie her commitment to social justice. In 1995, concerned that these efforts be supported in a sustainable way, Margaret made a major gift to Inter Pares to be invested to support the next generation of social justice activists. Inter Pares inaugurated the Margaret McKay Fund in which all donations received are invested for a minimum of ten years. Margaret explained, "I just thought it was a wonderful thing to have something in the background that you could call upon when you had a bright idea, but no money with which to pursue it".
The Margaret McKay Fund is a testament to Margaret's commitment to a safer, more just, and healthy world for every person alive, and for generations to come.
JOHN AND SUSAN TOWNDROW: THE QUILT OF BELONGING
Last April, John and Susan Towndrow hosted a small delegation of Inter Pares staff and colleagues visiting from Africa at their home in Cornwall, Ontario. Bonaventure Wakana and Sophie Havyarimana from Burundi, Seid Sultane from Chad, and Asha El Karib from Sudan are all staff at ACORD, a pan-African organization based in Nairobi, Kenya. They were in Canada on a visit organized by Inter Pares to deepen links with Canadian colleagues and activist organizations.
The visit with John and Susan Towndrow was one of the highlights of our African colleagues' experience in Canada. John and Susan, Inter Pares supporters for over fifteen years, invited us to see a community quilt project that they were part of in the nearby village of Williamstown. When we arrived to see the project, we discovered much more than a quilt. In the old town hall at the centre of the village, we found a hive of activitysvolunteers working together on "blocks" of a quilt that is 120 feet long, ten feet high and includes a textile art piece from every aboriginal group and immigrant nationality found in Canada.
This Quilt of Belonging was started in 1998 by visual artist Esther Bryan, who explained, "The Canadian fabric is a patchwork composed of aboriginal peoples and of immigrants from every nation of the world. Every group and individual has experiences, stories and values to share. Each has a cultural beauty to add to our national identity. As well, the desire to be included in the overall Canadian family is a recurring need voiced across our nation."
When Sophie Havyarimana saw the block embroidered by an immigrant from Burundi depicting a village celebration, she was moved to see that the image that someone from her homeland had chosen to share with Canada was not the horror of war, but the beauty and community of her people's lives.
The Quilt of Belonging is a six-year labour of love, hope, and solidarity that has involved hundreds of volunteers, including John and Susan Towndrow, who have been at the heart of the project from the beginning.
The Quilt of Belonging is now on tour across Canada. For more information:
www.invitationproject.ca
Telephone: 613-347-2381
Toll free: 877-347-2381
| Reviewed April 28, 2005 |  |
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