It can be difficult to know where to begin when you are working in poor, remote areas. That's why the Canadian Hunger Foundation maps out the communities where we work, and tracks their successes over the course of a project. This way we can target our support to where it will have the biggest impact and make adjustments as we go, depending on need and new opportunities.

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." -John Quincy Adams

What's available for free everywhere and can forever change you, your community and even your country? The answer: volunteering.

The chaotically busy New Fruit and Vegetable Market on the outskirts of Manserah, Pakistan is a thriving, frenetic place of commerce. Farmers come from miles around to sell their fruits and vegetables to wholesale buyers who noisily auction them to restaurants, hotels and supermarkets. 

What do farmers grow in rural Cambodia?

Cassava is a starchy crop that is a lot like a potato (also called a manioc) and is consumed in many parts of Africa.

The term ‘project’ comes from the latin word ‘projectum’, “something thrown forth”. I have always been fascinated with this definition; very likely because I really feel this is what we do when designing a new project. It is not a simple task.

I recently travelled to my old stomping grounds in Bati to visit the weekly market.  This was the site of the Partnership for Food Security Project that CHF ran in Bati district of central Ethiopia from 2005 to 2010.  I lived in Ethiopia for the final 3 years of the project working with our local implementing partner, ORDA, to bring the project to a successful conclusion—I am always glad to get back and see friends and familiar faces. 

Jasmine Hamilton was a Global Education Lead Volunteer in Vancouver with CHF. She will be reporting on her visit to a CHF project in rural Cambodia and documenting her experiences as part of an ongoing series called 'Going Global'.

When I first read about CHF’s Global Education program, I was at the beginning of my graduate degree in blood research. I had very little experience, and even less knowledge in the field of International Development. Although my South American and Caribbean heritage allow me to appreciate some of the challenges faced by the rural poor in developing countries, it was still a fairly new world for me. Yet, there was something so intriguing about learning about the challenges faced by people from all over the world and using that knowledge to engage Canadian students, and people in general, on the idea of Global citizenship. I couldn’t resist what seemed like one of the richest experiences that I could have outside of my academic life as a scientist. 

In the Benishangul-Gumuz region in Ethiopia bamboo is an important resource and currently, and when I visited Ethiopia this fall, I could see that the bamboo was flowering. One of the challenges for bamboo farmers is that bamboo dies immediately after it flowers, and because huge crops of the same type of bamboo flower at the same time, a lot of bamboo in the region will soon be gone.

On a recent trip in early December to Southern Africa, I found myself engaging in the typical pastime of waiting for the rains. And talking about the rains. And celebrating the rains when they did come.

More so than in North America, in Zimbabwe the rains are critical to a successful agricultural season and to the future availability of food. It’s essential to people’s income in a country where Agriculture represents a significant portion of of GDP.