Unpacking Development

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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? [...]

I can’t wait!  Don’t really see how they’re linked, (just like I also don’t really get what cupcakes have to do with earthquakes either) but I love a good charity gimick, and I love a good group fitness class! Running for a Reason is proud to present Black 2 Basics for Haiti. This fun, high [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Tuesday January 19 FILM: Earth 2100 Film screening and discussion on climate change, peak oil and population growth. 6:30 pm. Free. Annette LIbrary, 145 Annette. green13toronto.blogspot.com. Wednesday, January 20 LECTURE: Build Social Capital with Robert Campbell. 6:00pm-9:00pm. Centre for Social Innovation, Suite 120. LECTURE: Allies In Protecting The Environment: First Nations And The Land Lecture [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]