Idealism still burns in youth
The Toronto Star
Mon 17 Jul 2006
Page: A16
Section: Editorial
Byline: Carol Goar
Source: Toronto Star

Something in Patrick Johnson's gut told him that young Canadians were yearning to get out there and tackle global problems.

He had no proof other than anecdotes he'd heard and snippets he'd read. He had no mandate to do anything about it, as president of the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation. But the challenge intrigued him.

He was still mulling it over when the trustees decided the foundation - set up 41 years ago by Canada's leading economic nationalist and his wealthy brother - needed a new policy thrust. They chose global citizenship.

At first, the grant-making charity approached its new mission in the usual way, providing money to organizations such Engineers Without Borders, Canadian Crossroads International and World University Service of Canada.

"But something seemed to be missing," Johnson recalled. "We were funding organizations, but we weren't promoting leadership development."

So he began to play around with the idea of offering fellowships to young people who had been active in the international arena and wanted to do more, but couldn't afford to set aside their careers.

As he was preparing a proposal for the trustees, a letter arrived out of the blue. It was from David Angell, Canada's high commissioner in Nigeria. He made a pitch for exactly the kind of fellowship Johnson had been contemplating, outlining why it was needed and how it might work.

"That kind of validation, coming from half-way round the world, made me think, there must be something to this," Johnson said.

He developed a prototype and took it to the trustees, admitting he had no idea how many applications to expect (he secretly hoped for 100). They approved a one-year pilot project.

At the end of April, the call for applications went out. Within days, 1,500 inquiries from potential candidates poured in. The foundation ended up with 270 formal applications.

Initially, it was the sheer volume that overwhelmed Johnson and the foundation's small staff. But as they started going through the applications, it was the quality of the candidates that struck them.

There were two Rhodes Scholars and two Supreme Court clerks. There was a top management consultant. There were young doctors, lawyers, veterinarians and journalists.

"I assumed we'd get young people working for non-government organizations, with a master's degree in international development," Johnson said. "Boy, was I wrong."

What also surprised him was the number of applications from outside Canada. Three of the shortlisted candidates had to be interviewed by phone from Sudan, Tanzania and California.

Choosing six inaugural fellows was both gratifying and heartbreaking. The winners were all exceptional young people. But there were a dozen more equally impressive applicants.

The $20,000 fellowships were awarded last week. They went to Adrian Bradbury of Toronto, who organized the Gulu Walk in 2005 to draw attention to the ordeal of children in war-racked northern Uganda. He hopes to convert the United Nations' vague "responsibility to protect" into practical actions that citizens and governments can take.

Martha Robbins who lives on a farm outside Saskatoon and has studied agricultural techniques around the world. She will look for ways to keep rural communities alive in an era of massive agri-food conglomerates.

Alexandra Sicotte-Levesque, a Montrealer currently working for the United Nations in Sudan. She will explore ways to balance the interests of Canadian mining companies operating in Africa with Canada's professed commitment to human rights and democratic development.

Ross Wallace, who serves as director of corporate strategy for the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto. He will attempt to use the leading-edge research being done by Canadian scientists to combat neglected diseases and fight global pandemics.

Farouk Jiwa of Ottawa, who works as a policy analyst at the Canadian International Development Agency. His objective is to determine whether Canadian-style multiculturalism can be transplanted, or whether Canada needs a more sophisticated understanding of the deeply rooted tensions that rack other parts of the world.

Anuradha Rao of St. John's, who has worked on conservation and human rights projects on three continents. She aims to show that restoring coastal ecosystems offers vulnerable communities their best defence against rising sea levels and extreme weather resulting from global warming.

Some of the fellows will use their award money for travel. Others will need it to make an unpaid leave of absence from work feasible. The foundation's only requirement is that they be able to demonstrate, at the end of the year, that they've made a difference.

Based on this year's enthusiastic response, the fellowship program has been made permanent.

Naturally, Johnson is glad his hunch was right. But he is gladder to have an answer for all those who think Canada has lost its influence in the world, squandered its good name and forgotten how to be a global problem solver.

Just wait.

A commitment to activism: Robbins one of six Canadians to receive Global Youth Fellowship
The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Page: C1 / FRONT
Section: Lifestyle
Byline: Ned Powers
Column: Friends Revisited
Source: The StarPhoenix

Inspired by her family's deep roots in agriculture and politics, Martha Robbins was a natural to become a community activist.

Her commitment has stretched well beyond Saskatchewan borders. She was youth president of the National Farmers' Union (NFU) from November 1999 to December 2003. She has been part of study or exchange programs in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize and Costa Rica and an NFU delegate to the World Trade Organization (WTO) meetings in 2003. From her leadership roles, she was recognized in 2002 by Maclean's Magazine as one of the 25 Leaders of Tomorrow.

Two weeks ago, Robbins was named one of six Canadians to receive a Global Youth Fellowship and a $20,000 prize for internationally-focused research by the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation.

"I am thrilled and grateful the foundation recognizes the work of Canadians who are committed to solving intractable international problems," says Robbins.

"It gives me the opportunity to deepen my work in the international farm movement and strengthen my knowledge of migrant farm worker issues.

"I hope what we do will encourage other young Canadians to join in work on global issues."

Robbins will examine the Canadian policies on migrant workers, given the country's commitment to justice, human rights, cultural diversity and democracy.

"I was at a Via Campesina meeting in Quebec in February when a woman, representing a farm organization in Mexico, told of her struggling community where the vast majority of men left to find seasonal work in (the) United States and Canada. The community is now known as The Village of Widows and I am haunted by that description.

"Now that the Saskatchewan government has begun accepting migrant workers through Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Workers program, I want to explore the policies, implications and the far-reaching global effects. I am interested in Saskatchewan's motivation and rationale for adopting the program," says Robbins.

She wants to determine whether food sovereignty is a viable policy alternative.

"Via Campesina, the international peasant and small farmer movement, argues that food systems should be localized and that communities and countries have the right to sovereign decision-making over the land and resources to produce a nutritious, safe, diverse food supply. Consumers have the right to know how and where their food is produced and farmers have the right to make a living."

Robbins grew up on a homestead near Laura and attended elementary and high school in Delisle.

She was one of four children in the home of Jim Robbins and Nettie Wiebe. Her father served on many NFU committees and has been a longtime president of the Delisle Credit Union. Her mother was women's president of the NFU, then president of the NFU, and has been an NDP candidate in the last two federal elections. Her grandfather, Wes Robbins, was a prominent NDP member and cabinet minister in the Saskatchewan legislative assembly.

Robbins admits she learned much from "the lively discussions around the dining room table in our home, all of which seemed to stress the values of supporting the local community."

She attended the University of Saskatchewan, graduating with a bachelor of arts in international studies.

An early trip as NFU youth president was to Costa Rica in February, 2000, where she participated in a two-week exchange and then organized the return by the Costa Ricans to Saskatchewan. She also helped arrange visits for farmers and government officials from Brazil and Southern Asia.

She was a member of the Via Campesina at the WTO meetings in Cancun, Mexico, in 2003.

"Because there had been dramatic incidents and protests at previous WTO meetings, we wanted to negotiate a peaceful march with the hundreds of civil society organizations from dozens of countries. I had the responsibility of persuading busloads of young people from Mexico City and elsewhere to agree to disciplined protocols. The peaceful, well-run and focused demonstrations confirmed just how effective collaboration and trust-building can be," says Robbins.

The recurring theme from witnessing the international scene was "how important it was for farmers to work together and not be divided, and learning that farmers all over the world face similar struggles, although to vastly different degrees.

"Each time I come back to Saskatchewan, I am struck by the huge inequalities which exist in the world. It really makes a difference in which nation you are born.

"When I come home, it is a reality-check time. I am conscious how much I can consume and how much I and others could conserve. I am always struck by what a gift it is to be a food producer."

Robbins is currently the fair travel co-ordinator for the Saskatchewan Council of International Co-operation and she works on NFU fundraising initiatives. She has been politically active, especially during her mother's campaigns. She has lent her voice to Oxfam, the Saskatoon Peace Coalition and Child Hunger and Education Program, among others.

As a young person, she is a staunch defender of the profession and lifestyles of farming.

"I don't think there are any quick fixes to the declining rural population. You can't build communities without maintaining their services," she said.

"We have to find sustainable ways for communities to develop. There are many young people, and some from the city, who find less intensive types of agriculture attractive, and want to be part of community-building."

MUN grad trying to save the world one beach at a time
The Telegram (St. John's)
Thu 27 Jul 2006
Page: A5
Section: Metro/Provincial News
Byline: Alisha Morrissey
Source:

Newfoundland transplant Anuradah Rao combined her love of the ocean and her ideas on conservation to win a fellowship worth $20,000 to study how climate change can affect shorelines in this province and around the world.

The 31-year old Ontario native said she was thrilled when she'd heard she was chosen for the Global Youth Fellowship from the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation, which distributes grants for innovative public policies.

The grant will help Rao study how climate change affects beaches and shorelines, as well as what can be done to recreate natural conditions in those places.

"A couple of things that I've looked at so far are caplin spawning beaches and how they might be affected as wave energy increases. Another topic that's come up for me recently is location of eel grass beds and how they might be impacted as the sea level rises," she said, adding that she's choosing topics and trying to decide whether to include an international component in her studies or focus solely on this province.

Rao, who's travelled to more than 20 countries working and volunteering in conservation capacities, spends much of her time campaigning to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which are a major cause of climate change.

Climate change is a hot-button issue as the world has been facing tidal waves in southeast Asia and major hurricanes in North America.

"There is a lot of talk about climate change, but we know what kind of actions we need to take and people just aren't taking them, " she said, pointing out the number of parking lots on Memorial's campus and how many cars we see every day with one person in them. "I think its easy for people to not think about it in Canada because a lot of extreme impacts have been happening in other places, but these impacts are partially due to our actions because our actions here are actually impacting the entire globe."

When it comes to coastal climate change, Rao said places like Indonesia, which was hit hard by a tsunami two years ago, are perfect examples of the study she plans to do with the grant.

"On the north coast of central Java, people have cleared a lot of the mangroves (shrubs growing in waters along the coasts) that were there to put in shrimp aquaculture and then because the mangroves are gone the waves come in and wash away the shrimp pots," she said. "So then, they clear another row of mangroves and put in Round Two of the shrimp pods and then the waves come in and take that because there's nothing to stop them coming in."

Hurricanes, too, have destroyed coastal communities, like hurricane Katrina, which rocked the eastern seaboard of the United States.

"There's increased storm frequencies in a lot of places around the world ... and one of the things that people are just starting to put together is that some of the natural systems along the coast in these tropical areas ... actually act as a barrier to waves and a barrier to storm surges."

Rao is convinced restoring natural habitats in these areas could prevent some of the not-so-natural disasters affecting people around the world.

"Slowly, we're starting to see the impacts of our actions here as we're getting heat waves and temperatures that are higher than they've ever been before and coastal areas eroding because the sea is coming in and even the fact that there are fewer icebergs in Newfoundland today.

"I've never seen an iceberg and some people are telling me that it might be too late to see them and I might not ever be able to see them and that's kind of sad. There are a lot of things that individuals can do."