March • 2022
globalheroes.com
ADVERTORIAL
Together, Our Neighbourhoods Are Better When you walk through the doors of a neighbourhood house, you are met with a lively diverse community, a buzz of action and activity, and a sense that you belong. Neighbourhood houses are special places in Metro Vancouver communities. The Association of Neighbourhood Houses (ANHBC) is a network of spaces rooted in communities across the region. Together they are eight neighbourhood houses and one summer camp, all building healthy and engaged communities where everyone belongs. With over 300 programs and services tailored to the needs of each community and its neighbours, everyone from youth to seniors, newcomers to long-time residents take part in creating meaningful change in their lives, neighbourhood, and beyond! Neighbourhood houses are many things to a varied group of people. They are tai chi classes, language meet-ups, social justice incubators, intergenerational meals, childcare centres, dad groups, connections for seniors, and so much more! To Rocio,
the neighbourhood house is a place to find a home after a new beginning. During the last two years, meaningful connection has been hard to find for everyone, especially those new to their community. After moving to Canada from Mexico with her husband and young son, Rocio found herself longing for home, family, and a place to meet new friends.
network to help her grow as a parent, partner, and leader in her new community. Because neighbourhood houses provide support for community members to develop connections, grow their capacity as leaders, and make meaningful change in their neighbourhood, we know that together, we are better. To do this important work in our communities it takes strong leaders and donors to all join “In 2021, I was fortunate to the Neighbourhood House attend the Nadie es Perfecto Movement. Donations to – Nobody is Perfect Parenting ANHBC support programs and Program [at Frog Hollow services that ensure families have Neighbourhood House], and access to healthy food, newcomers it changed my life as a mother, develop connections that help wife, and friend. I had the them grow, youth partake in opportunity to meet the most leadership training, seniors have wonderful women and get to access to technology to alleviate call them friends at the end of isolation, and much more! the program.” says Rocio. “The You are invited to walk Neighbourhood House has been through those doors of the my home, my family, and my neighbourhood house in your meeting place. This experience community, develop meanhas helped me find myself again ingful connections, grow as a in learning what the word leader, and support your neighcommunity means: home.” bourhood. Real change can be made in our communities, it Together with her neighbours, starts with all of us and your Rocio has found a support neighbourhood house!
FIND HOME IN YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD ANHBC Neighbourhood Houses are spaces where everyone is invited to build healthy communities together. Here with you neighbours, you can connect, engage and grow. Visit ANHBC.ORG or call 604-875-9111 to donate and find your neighbourhood house!
Conservancy Rekindles Hope for Uganda’s Rhino Population Hundreds of rhinos once roamed Uganda’s sprawling savannas and tropical woodlands, part of a rich heritage of big game and a tourist draw for the East African country. But throughout the 20th century, poachers hunting for the beasts’ prized horns killed them unchallenged during years of political turmoil, including the dictatorship of Idi Amin. Uganda’s native population of northern white rhino and eastern black rhino that once together numbered above 700
was wiped out around 1983, according to the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA). Now a private wildlife ranch that is breeding rhinos is kindling hope for large-scale regeneration of the species and re-introducing them in the country’s national parks. Established in 2005, the conservancy, the 70-squarekm Ziwa Rhino and Wildlife Ranch, started off with four southern white rhinos imported from a Kenyan game reserve. “We received their first male born calf in the sanctuary here,
named Obama, and that was the beginning of the breeding of our rhinos,” the ranch’s 44-year-old rhino specialist, Moses Okello, told Reuters. In 2006, two more rhinos were donated to the sanctuary from a zoo in Florida. Since then, the sanctuary has been expanding its crash of rhinos through breeding to its current stock of 33. “We want to multiply these rhinos, protectively as you guard them, 24/7...so that we can achieve our goal by reaching a number of 40 to 45,” Okello said. “Then we can release these
rhinos to the national park, as it used to be their natural habitat.” Located in Nakasongola, about three hours drive north of the Ugandan capital Kampala, the ranch is set amid lush green grasslands and permanent marshes where hippos wade. Ziwa also boasts a range of other animals, including kobs, waterbucks, bushbucks, cats, birds, and small primates. On a recent day Kori, one of the oldest matriarchs at the ranch, trotted off in the verdant bush, metres behind her fourmonth-old calf, the youngest of
her seven offspring. The intense watching of the rhinos, crucial to prevent a reprise of the past experience, can be exhausting, according to ranger Patrick Opio, 29. “First of all, develop the love for these rhinos and then you can manage monitoring them well,” he said. “If the rhino is resting, you will be resting, if the rhino is moving, you will have to move with it. So, even if it’s raining, you have to be there with a rhino...it’s something hectic, but we have the love for it.” —Reuters
ZIWA RHINO SANCTUARY MANAGER SALEEM AHMED TALKS TO RANGERS AT WALLOWING POND FOR RHINOS
KORI, THE OLDEST RHINO, RESTS WITH HER FOUR-MONTHS-OLD BABY UNDER A SHADE AT THE ZIWA RHINO SANCTUARY IN KIRYANDONGO DISTRICT, UGANDA © ALL PHOTOS: REUTERS/ABUBAKER LUBOWA
A SOUTHERN WHITE RHINO GRAZES AT THE ZIWA RHINO SANCTUARY IN KIRYANDONGO DISTRICT, UGANDA
ADVERTORIAL
Help Within Reach for Cariboo’s Youth Imagine…16-year-old Theodore lives six hours north of Vancouver, in the Cariboo region of B.C., near Williams Lake. Intelligent and resilient, Theo is quick to offer a smile and a laugh to his friends, but the last 12 years have been a struggle. In 2008, the downturn permanently closed several local mills, and
although Theo doesn’t remember it well, he knows it caused a lot of stress when both his parents lost their jobs. Stress that led to his parents often arguing, especially on days when they would plan to visit the Food Bank, and eventually, to a divorce. By Theo’s 12th birthday, the trauma and ugliness of it all
© BIGSTOCK / RIDO81
Caribioo Chilcotin
seemed mostly behind him. But then the 2018 B.C. Wildfires had hit, forcing the entire town of Williams Lake and all the surrounding areas to evacuate. Leaving his home was surreal, but driving down the highway and seeing all the burned land and fiery hotspots on both sides of the road was worse. People he
knew had their houses burned down, and seeing the carnage brought Theo to tears. It was a stark reminder of how savage the fire was. Although glad to escape the smoke and danger, Theo was scared about what he would return to. For weeks, Theo and his family lived at the Evacuation Centre in Kamloops, feeling trapped and hopeless. He had thought that returning home would right all things, but it didn’t. Being off work for so long had put his mom in a precarious financial situation, one that she wasn’t sure she could get out of. Theo tried to put on a brave face and be “Cariboo Strong” like the bumper stickers said, but then COVID hit. Resilient as ever, he sought out the help that he knew he needed, but every door he tried seemed to be wrong. From months of waitlists to requirements that Theo didn’t quite meet, what was a boy to do? And then, as if an answer to his question, The Cariboo Chilcotin Child Development
Make a positive difference in the lives of youth. Donate today at ccchild.org
Centre announced that they were bringing a Foundry to Williams Lake, set to open in 2022. Cariboo Chilcotin youth aged 12-25, like Theo, can ask for help there—mental health, sexual health, counselling and other supports will all be there in one place—and thanks to generous donors, all services will be free and easy to access. Theo’s experiences mirror so many young people in the Cariboo region, which is why the work of the Cariboo Chilcotin Child Development Centre is vital. With 25 percent of youth in the Cariboo region living in poverty, life has been tough for many, but help is finally going to be within reach. Children like Theo can look forward to the coming days when they won’t feel so alone. Bring on the help… If you want to be a donor for Foundry Cariboo Chilcotin so that youth can get the help they need, please go to ccchild.org Donate and change a youth’s life today.
