Kate J has been hard at work for the past few months for Fife House on preparing for the launch of HealthyHousing.ca, a National HIV/Housing Portal, which is a space for people living with HIV/AIDS (PHAs), service providers and researchers to learn more about issues related to HIV/AIDS and housing. The website is the result of a community partnership between Fife House, a supportive housing provider located in downtown Toronto, and the Ontario HIV Treatment Network, a collaborative network to promote excellence and innovation in HIV treatment, research and education …

The conversation about “What’s Best for Haiti?” is one that everyone is weighing in on.  It seems that the post-earthquake devastation is seen as a “crisi-tunity” for a country that was already facing poverty, corruption and debt before the natural disaster.  There’s hope that maybe the influx of aid and interest can lead to improvements that should have been in progress before the earthquake hit.  Here’s 8 mainstream opinions of how the rebuilding should happen to take advantage of the crisitunity:
Now is the Time to Fix Inequalities in Haiti
Anthony Jenkins/The …

This year, Pepsi decided to forgo its annual Super Bowl commercial in favour of supporting an social media charity initiative called Pepsi Refresh.  Obviously, Pepsi’s interest is the bottom line, so the idea that a social media charity project is on par with a super bowl commercial in terms of advertising value is AMAZING to me.
But, at first glance, I wasn’t super impressed with their approach.  Apart from the usual debate about whether corporations can truly participate in charity without changing some of their own business practices (namely, a focus …

While conducting an HIV/AIDS and gender workshop for a group of women in a rural and predominantly Christian Orthodox community in Ethiopia, I encountered what I call a classic clash between traditionalism and modernism within development work.
After a two day workshop on preventative measures to transmitting HIV, I asked the ladies in the workshop what they thought was the best method to preventing HIV, and whether there was a cure. A response from a young woman sitting in the corner of …

February 7-13, 2010.
It’s International Development this week in Canada. Join in Toronto, for lots of Interesting and Challenging discussions, films and of course plenty of benefits for you to go and donate your money to a worthy cause while having a fun time!
FEATURED EVENT:

TED 2010 live at CSI
Join us at CSI for three promising days and listen to world visionaries’ dreams, fears and hopes for the year ahead. TED 2010 features an amazing line up of speakers including Jamie Oliver, Bill Gates, Andrew Bird, David Byrne, Eve Ensler, Ken …

After working for years in youth development internationally (Ethiopia and Kenya), last year I worked with a group of youth in the Rexdale area of Toronto for the first time. As I worked with these youth in this marginalized and impoverished community, I began to ask myself the question, what does “development” mean to youth? Especially youth who are being “developed”.
My job as a Youth Program Manager had me working with youth to understand issues of poverty, racial discrimination, confidence building and mentorship last summer.  The more involved …

People are being so generous in supporting the people of Haiti and the relief work going on there. I would encourage individuals interested in providing support to consider becoming monthly donors with charities rather than giving larger one-time gifts.
In a nutshell, sign up to be a monthly donor because:

it allows charities to provide immediate relief when an emergency occurs
it helps the charity budget effectively
the admin fees are as low as possible
small amounts every month are affordable for the donor

Allow me to explain.
Small monthly gifts provide stable, reliable funding for the …

Learning about all the stuff that’s happening around text message donations during the Haiti crisis.  It seems to be getting a lot of press!
This is the first humanitarian disaster where this type of micro-donating is taking a really big roll.  Plan Canada (who I work for blogging at Because I am a Girl) have raised over $3000 using Text to Donate technology so far.  This is nothing compared to the millions that the American Red Cross has managed to raise since Jan 12 using the same technology.
I’m not sure that …

A couple of interesting articles designed to help Canadians deal better with the Haitian tragedy came out this weekend.  It may sound silly - why do we need help to deal with a situation from which we are so far removed?  These articles look at what the best way for us to give is, and also how we can take advantage of this teachable moment for our kids:
The Haiti Talk: How to Discuss Disasters with your Kids
So You Want to Help Haiti…
I decided to support Partners in Health, a health …

Just before the New Year I signed up at GetInvolved.ca to help them reach their goal of 2,000,000 volunteer hours this year (through the Power of the Hour initiative).  Companies, individuals and organizations can join and set their goals, and then use the GetInvolved.ca platform to keep track of their time spent volunteering over the year.  I’m a huge fan of lists and metrics, so its awesome in that way, and of course the general social engagement of it!  So, I’ve pledged 250 hours for 2010, which might be a …