hi. it has been quite awhile since i posted an update!

I had a blast in Hawaii, couldnt have been better, but I am now back in the groove. As for War Child I am directing the International and Youth Programs, so it is quite a challenge, I have never worked so hard in my life, but I am learning a lot and really enjoying the environment. Its also in a super cool building and getting to see free concerts all the time is a perk too :)

As for school I have decided not to go, I think, but I just got awarded a scholorship, so that makes the decision even tougher.Ahhhh!

And TIG, I am still responding to youth reps and other emails, I average about 80 emails a week, so I am still answering quite a few. I am actually a little concerned about the youth reps, I have gotten a few distress emails saying that they feel like they have been deserted. yikes! so I am just wondering what the plan is with the youth reps and TakingITLocal. Anyone?

I am taking Spanish classes right across the street now, so i plan to come in on Monday around 6, so hopefully I can see some of your smiley faces.

Oh yes, Jeni and I are going to do a fundraising workshop again soon, maybe early July, late June?

See you soon!

Vanessa

Africa & G8: Join the Debate with War Child Canada June 2002

Toronto June 8th, 2002 12-5pm
Montreal June 15th, 2002 12-5pm
Vancouver June 15th, 2002 12-5pm

Three youth powered workshops will be also held in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver in the coming weeks. Youth, Government officials and experts in the field will come together to debate the key issues around Africa and the G8. Of course, in the true spirit of War Child Canada, there will be a music element to this project! There will also be a live online chat, at 8pm June 12, featuring special guests who are experts on Africa and G8 issues. Everyone is welcome!

Africa and G8: Join the Debate is an exciting way for young Canadians to speak out and be heard on key issues. Be sure to spread the word at your school! Space is limited so sign up online!

Africa is one of the priority themes to be addressed at the upcoming Group of Eight (G8) meeting at Kananaskis, Alberta, on June 26th and 27th. War Child Canada’s youth committee is organizing the Africa and G8: Join the Debate forum. This will give young people the opportunity to get involved in discussing issues concerning Africa's development, and Canada's role in addressing the challenges faced by African nations.

As young leaders, we encourage you to participate and help spread the word to others about the Africa and the G8 online debate. If you haven’t already, please be sure to register as a site member at www.warchild.ca.

For further information on how you can participate in one of the workshops, or online debate check out the War Child Canada website (www.warchild.ca) and click on the link Africa and G8: Join the Debate. For any questions, contact Nisha at War Child Canada, toll-free at 1-866 WARCHILD or nisha@warchild.ca.

Make an impact!

Hello Everyone!

Life had been chaotic lately as I have been taking on new responsibilities and opening up to new challenges.

Today is officially my last day at TIG :( I am pretty sad to leave, but I will remain a dedicated volunteer! I will be focusing my volunteer time on the devleopment of the new resource for youth reps and local teams, TakingITLocal. So stay tuned for the launch!

I am off to start anew with War Child Canada as the Youth and International Programs Manager. As many of you know, I have been wanting to work to assist war affected youth for many years now. So I now have the chance to work with an amazing organization with a great deal of freedom and room for innovation!

I will continue to check my TIG emails, but I also have a new address at War Child; vanessa@warchild.ca.

Also, I am on my way to Hawaii for 2 weeks, so if I don't respond to your email, I promise to answer when I return.

Smiles :)
Vanessa

-> fixed up people's budgets and compiled them
-> met with ANdy and Jennifer to discuss the budgets, the next steps to creating the corporate/sponsorship packages
-> compliled visions statements for each project which were sent to staff to review and edit
-> went to the breakdancing workshop :P
-> met with SUsh to clarify the next steps for the volunteer program, we complied a list of static positions for each program which were sent to staff to review
-> going through the youth reps emails and adding them to the admin, if they weren't already added
->chatting with differnt reps on MSN about their projects
-> finalizing the content for the Takingitlocal site
-> met with Jen to talk about my contract and the next steps for me at TIG...still to be decided
->approved volunteers
->speaking with a few organizations about parnering with TIG
->answering all of my emails...i am on top of all of them so that is great!

hmm.. i am having a mental block about what i did on thursday...if i think of anything else i'll add it
:)

Tuesday, April 2, 2002 Urgent: Eyewitness report from Ramallah

Ramallah, Occupied Palestine -- My name is Tzaporah Ryter. I am an
American student from the University of Minnesota. I currently am in
Ramallah. We are under a terrible siege and people are being massacred by both the Israeli army and armed militia groups of Israeli settlers. They are shooting outside at anything that moves.

I am urgently pleading for as much outside help as possible to help
save lives here.

I arrived in Ramallah last Thursday. I had come back for a visit to
the Palestinian city where I had been previously living and studying.
On Thursday afternoon, the Israeli army began sealing off each
entrance to Ramallah and there were rumors that they planned to
invade.

People were rushing back home from across checkpoints and also people
were trying to flee. People were not allowed to go out and many
working people -- with homes and children to return to -- were not
allowed in, everyone was trying to take cover. Those traveling in
began desperately searching for alternative ways and traveling in
groups, but the Israelis were firing upon them and everyone was
running and screaming.

Women carrying their children were trying desperately to flee from
Ramallah, carrying infants and toddlers, and their young children were running along in the rain through the fields, slipping and
falling on the rocks, trying to reach safety. Israeli jeeps were
speeding across the terrain pulling up from every direction and
shooting at the women and children, and also at me, as we ran in
opposite directions. They were chasing down people, hunting them like
that in the fields.

When I reached Ramallah, people were panicking and trying to buy
bread, rice and milk from corner stores, but most supplies were
already gone. We bought what we could and went inside to wait for what was coming.

When night fell, Israeli tanks began to invade and also we saw Israeli troops coming on foot from the valley, and surrounding our
house. I could hear them calling to each other in Hebrew. They were
against our door and all around. They were firing everywhere a barrage of bullets and there was tank fire. We had to lay on the floor
and keep silent. We stayed there, on the floor, for nearly four days
in the darkness.

We knew that our circumstances were better than others because old
people or infants or people with medical emergency needs had no help.
It was very cold, with most families packed all in one room. Some
people are without life sustaining medicines like insulin, and they
are altering their doses dangerously if they have any medicine left to take. People are becoming dangerously sick from lack of food and water and heat. The fear and terror only makes things worse, but it
cannot be avoided.

In the daytime, we heard them shooting people in the streets, and
could hear them screaming and screaming. No ambulance was allowed
through. Then their screams stopped and there was just silence.

We had a telephone and would receive calls from all over telling us
what was happening. Everyone is in grave danger and Israeli soldiers
were killing people everywhere. They are arresting medics and
ambulance drivers, including foreign volunteer medical workers.

They keep taking doctors and medics, just now another call. Again,
this time the wife of a doctor telling us her husband has been taken
from the ambulance.

Large groups of people have been found in rooms, shot dead, there are
blood marks where they have lined people up on their knees and shot
them, with their ID cards laying on top of them. They are taking
people from their homes, blindfolding them, removing their clothes,
taking them away or lining them up and shooting them against the wall.

People are making phone calls and saying that these soldiers and
militia have come in and are shooting people and then the line cuts
off. The numbers of these killings I fear are much greater than the
numbers confirmed in the press, because the human rights offices and
the media centers have been stormed, and everything is shut down. No
one can move without almost certain chance of being shot by the
Isreali snipers, who are everywhere.

The Israelis are demanding that all journalists leave Ramallah and
today another foreign journalist was shot. They do not want any more
internationals here and are deporting people. It seems quite clear
that they do not want eyewitnesses which is only heightening my own
fears.

The hospitals have also been surrounded and invaded and Israeli troops are taking the injured people and interrogating them. Today a
woman, a patient, tried to walk out from hospital. The Israelis shot
her in the neck and killed her.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health is saying that they fear the spread of diseases because of the number of unburied corpses.

The numbers are only growing in reports of the mass killings here and
Israeli troops continue to round up people. People are calling
frantically, missing a relative and we do not know where they have
been taken, including children.

The numbers we have now exceed 600, and we are estimating between 700
and 800. All human rights groups and legal advocates are being denied
any information of where the detained are being held. From what we
know confirmed is that 10% of those taken so far have been children
under age 18.

On the fourth day I decided to try to move. People were running out of supplies and I also was so worried about people, and had to check
to see if they were okay. If I didn't, I feared panic would overtake
me so badly that I really had no other choice but to try and go.

It was not safe where I was in any case and at least if I left I would still have my sanity. It was really terrifying as there are some internationals here, usually traveling in groups, and the
Israelis are saying on the radio that they will arrest or shoot the internationals. They did shoot some yesterday and regardless, it's not as if snipers differentiate and they are everywhere.

My friends told me not to go, and were really scared for me, but I had to go. When I went outside, there were cars all shot up and hit by multiple bullets and shells in the middle of the road, unparked. There must have been people in them but I don't know where their
bodies are. There are no reports of them, but they must exist.

I got to the corner trying to go to the bakery for bread and food for
people. Some people were calling and calling with only one cup of rice left. I made it to the corner but they opened fire on my first
try, and shot at me, so I had to turn back.

After that I tried again and it took me one day to make it a block
because I had to start over again and again. I had to climb through
the valley, and as I passed house by house, people were warning me and pointing out what path seemed safest for these two minutes. In the next two minutes, it would be something different. They really
helped to keep my path safe.

Today is Day Five and they are still rounding up people like this and
we hear them shooting all day long.

This afternoon the Israelis suddenly lifted the curfew, suddenly
announcing that everyone had two hours to go out to get food. However, the Israeli soldiers also took food from many of the stores,
looted, and there is no bread or things. People went to get whatever
they could.

Even though the Israeli army said it had lifted the closure for two
hours -- in which we still were not able to transfer medical supplies
and still was not long enough to everything that was badly needed --
the Israelis continued shooting people in the streets indiscriminately on their way, so people were running around trying to make it to the store or find a safe route only to have to run back
home again. It was an added cruelty and terror tactic in this macabre
situation, a sick joke: starve people and then shoot them when they
try to find food with your permission.

In an apartment building in Beitunia neighborhood where I used to
live, they took 60 people who were my neighbors, including several
familes, and pushed them into one room since last night. The Israelis
told them that they are to be used as "human shields", as the
apartment building is across from a building that they were invading.
One child needs to go to the hospital since last night and, initially, the families were able to call outside. Now, the Israelis
have taken their phones.

There are reports that they are rounding up men between the ages of 14 and 45 in that neighborhood, and these civilians, from these same
Palestinian families trapped in that building, were just used to walk
in front of an Israeli tank as it invaded the Preventative Security
Compound. Reports also have alleged that the Israelis were saying that some could leave but shot them when they attempted to leave. The
buildings there are burning, and people are trapped inside.

We keep calling to try to find people but there has been no
electricity and most people's phones are dead now. I do not know what
is happening to many people. The only solution to this is to try to
brave the deadly streets in order to check, but its almost impossible
and terrifying to leave the house at all.

Each place I come to, I am afraid to leave not only for myself but for everyone else in this horrifying position. Israeli death squads
have been yanking people into the street. I also hear only shooting
and shooting, with no return fire. This suggest that unarmed civilians are being gunned down mercilessly everywhere and I am so scared for
everyone. I feel like maybe if I leave one place, one area or
neighborhood I will never see the people again alive.

There are more explosions outside now and more shooting. Another
explosion. More firing, it just doesn't stop.

This is a massacre. The foreign delegations tried to get in but were
turned back, the International Committee of the Red Cross is trying to help but they are being ignored. Please help.

I am not only scared for myself and for people here, but if this
cannot be stopped, I am truly scared for all of humanity, for a world
in which we send men to the moon but cannot stop ethnic cleansing.

On the news in America, we see hardly anything of demonstrations. What are you doing over there?

There do not seem to be any reports of what is happening. In truth,
it's got to stop. Please go out to the streets, please demand a
response from your representatives. Be loud, march up to the capitals, refuse to leave until the Israelis withdraw. Act now! Tell
them the Israelis are murdering innocent people whose only crime is
being born in their own homeland, a Palestinian under a military
occupation.

Demand international protection for the Palestinian people, scream
that this is an affront to humanity and that it is time that the US
not only stop supporting Israel, but that the US stop its abuse of
human rights within its own borders. This is about all of our
struggles. For the love of God, please stop this slaughter. Please
help.

Below find testominies of children from besieged Palestinian city of Ramallah. These testimonies were collected from a group of children 8-12 years old and live in Ramllah. The co-ordinator of Kahlil Sakakini Cultural Center in Ramllah (www.sakakini.org) encouraged those children to write their testimonies. The children will continue to give their testominies as long as teh city will remain under occupation.

Tareq
--

Saturday, March 30, 2002

My name is Alyyan Zayed, I am 9 years old. I cann't play on my back yard. I can't step outside of my home front door, because of the curfew. I've hided my toys because I am afraid that the Israeli soldiers will take me away, for having toy guns and toy tanks. I can't even walk to the store to buy candy because of the curfew.

This is a letter from Rana to the whole world:
During this situation my father is faraway. When I first noticed my sister and mother crying upon watchin TV where the Israeli soldiers are shoting the arrested men. I imagined my dad might be one of them. I started crying and crying and after a minute I said to myself why do I cry for, this is our destiny. My father is a police man and we should resisit. Rana Burkan, 9years.

I am Lema Zayed, 11 years.
I want to go to school to finish my study this year. I want to be free during Summer, to go swimming and playing. I want the Israeli soldiers to leave our land and stop the occupation and stop using these heavy tanks. We have nothing to confront them by. I don't want them to occupy our schools, or shelling them.

I am Ahmed Tuqan, I am 7 years old. Since the Intifada had started we started moving from one home to another. Every week we live in a home. The Israelies enter homes and frighten people. When they enter Jrusalem we move to Ramallah and when they enter Ramallah we move to Jerusalem.

Mustafa Mulhem, 8 years: I want to thank the foreign countries for they intend to help the Palestinian children. We are in a very bad and poor situation. Our towns are occupied. I am in Ramallah and we are under a total occupation by the Israeli soldiers and the city is full of tanks and military vehicle. I feel sorry for the dead (martyers) and wounded people, but our hospitals and doctors will protect us.

I am Ala' Jibrin, 12 years. I live in Ramallah in an old house consisted of one room. It doesn't include a bathroom. Our neighbours and us use an outside doors bathroom. It is 30 meters far from our home (room). The Israeli soldiers prevent us from using it, or going to the kitchen which is also outside our home. We cann't even prepare food. We are 8 siblings live in a very difficult situation. We are confused and don't know what to do, if we went out they might shot us. What's more the Israeli soldiers throw their rabbish in front of our house door. They use the bathroom in front of our home door. Light is cut off since yesterday. We are nervous and in a very difficult psychological situation. We ask God, and everyone who has human feelings over this earth to interfer and put an end to this nightmare prevailing over the lives of the Palestinian children.

I am Yanal Zayed, I am 4 years old. I want to swim. I want a home, a house and a window to look through.

I am Sara Atrash, I am 5years, I love you Mom.

Heba Burkan 12 years: we're longing for peace and security. We want love and affection. Give us childhood, and freedom.


Sunday, March 31, 2002

Ahmed Atrash, 8 years: this is a very difficult situation, I got bored. My parents do not allow me to play in the back yard. They don't allow me to watch TV, for they're watching the news. I am sad for the martyres but my sorrow increased when I heared the number of martyres is increasing also. But I am playing with my friends in neighbourhood. My only wish is the Israeli soldiers to get out of my land, and this is the best wish I make to mm population.

Ala' Jibrin, 12 years. While we were sleeping, we heared the sound of broken glass. We peeped through the window and saw the Israeli soldiers breaking cars' glasses and stealing the record players. They broke our car windows. Thank God they didn't steal our record player. On the morning, 15 soldiers entered our home shouting. They turned over the house up side down, arrested my dad, and kept us in our small kitchen, which is located outside the house. I think they took away my dad, because of having a Palestinian flag. We saw them beating up the arrested men very hard. Isn't that terrorism itself, oh my God!

Mizer Jibrin, 15 years. (Ala's brother)
"Unforgettable Pictures"
The Israeli soldiers prevented us from going out to the kitchen or bathroom. We were in unbelievable situation. Since the bathroom was far from our home (the room which we live in) my younger sisters used an empty garbage can. I refused to, and insisted to go to the bathroom outside. I wanted to front the soldiers, and my parents tried to prevent me, and due to my insistence they agreed warning me to take care. When I finished using the bathroom, the soldiers were sorrounding the place and asked me to rise my hands. One of them pushed me forcely, and started questioning me: what are you doing, what's your name, how old are you" I answered them, and they were about to beat me, when my father cried "stop it, stop it, he is a child went out to use the bathroom". They released me and broke into our home. They imprisoned my sisters, brothers and me in our small kitchen. And sabotaged our home. They arrested my father and beat him with the other men. Then they coverd their heads by plastic bags, taking them to unknown distination. I experienced the occupation and I will never ever forget. I want to say stop your occupation, stop your tyranny and stop your killing, stop..

Alyyan Zayed, 9 years. The Israeli soldiers are killing the young men and frightening the children. They are imprisoning the Palestinian soldiers and killing the pressmen. Support us and protect us.>
--

Fundraising:

HRDC summer positions: Jeni Rosenthal and I have been working on this, it is do next week and we are almost done, just some finishing touches

Gov't Proposal: This is somehting Nikisha secured and I wrote a few months back, so I spruced it up and it is ready to be sent out.

Budgets: Got my budgets finished and I am waiting for everyone else's which I am hoping to get today. Then we can have a big strategy/fundraising meeting with Andy :)


Volunteer Program:

Lots of new volunteers, which is great

Working with a few great volunteers who are helping with research

Finished recieving responses from volunteers intersted in helping MAria, so I think she has them all organized and working hard now....if anyone else needs help with anything let me know and I can work to find the volunteers you need!

hoping that everyone has a chance to also think of the volunteers that will help in their "departments" (tee hee) this will help Sush and I plan for the volunteer program.

TakingITLocal:

Working to get everything ready for the site..which has been quite a bit or work. All the descriptions and resources.

TakingITLocal new Team Guide is finished, which is exciting

Working on Jen's Action Plan to make it a bit longer

working with lots or youth reps on their individual initiatives...i try to post most major conversations in the relationship manager..and with the new tool, this will get easier, i hope.


Other:
worked with Sush and Martin to help Lan Anh with her award application

Working on a few partnerships, with particular TIG teams and individuals interested in working with TIG

:P

This has been a crazy week for me! I was away the end of last week and over the weekend for a War Child confrence and on Tuesday and Wednseday in the WC office. I have been at TIG Monday, Thursday, Friday. This is raising new challenges for me as I have less time to work on TIG things then I am used to. SO I have started to answer most of my TIG emails in the evening so my time in the office is cleared up.

So what I have accomplished in the last few days:

.I have been answering quite alot of responses to youth reps who have been replying to the individual progress report I sent out to all 40+ of them. if you want to read their responses they are in the admin section.

.I have been approving the tons of new volunteers we have been getting and trying to get about 8 others to help with the fundraising research

.working with Jeni, a volunteer, on the HRDC grants for summer positions

.working on the documentation for the TakingITLocal sight including, responsibilites of a youth rep, fundraising, becoming a youth rep, starting a local team and encouraging Martin to work on a guide to using the new admin site. this is a lot of work, becuase most of the docuemnts need to be re-written to account for the manual. I also want improve the resources to make being a youth rep a lot easier!

.working with Andy to plan out the fundraising stuff for TIG, including getting all TIG core team to prepare budgets and project goals for the next year.

.preparing the budgets for the areas I am responsible for

.speaking with lot sof people over email about differnt initiaives, including CIDA, an organizaiton from Kenya etc.

.working with Susheela on the volunteer program

.working with Maitreyi, a youth rep from India, on her IBelieve project.

Thats all I think...accept for the million other things that aren't mentioned here.
Super excited for a break this weekend! Yeah Amanda's birthday!!

:)

For Immediate Release
March 8, 2002

Three Die in Protests Against Canadian Oil Company Project in South America

(Toronto) Today, Canadian environmentalists called on the Alberta Energy Company to halt construction of their controversial pipeline in Ecuador following the death of several protestors, including children.
“People should not be killed to protect oil company profits” said Keith Stewart, climate change campaigner for the Toronto Environmental Alliance and personal friend of some of the some of the environmentalists under attack in Ecuador. “We are calling on the Alberta Energy Company to withdraw from this project before more people are killed or wounded.”
Local newspapers report that three children have died by asphyxiation from tear gas and dozens are wounded after demonstrators erected roadblocks and occupied over 60 oil wells and five refineries - halting all construction on the pipeline and bringing oil production to a near standstill. The blockades were part of a general strike called by workers, residents, and local government leaders in two Amazonian provinces.
Ecuadorean President Gustavo Noboa, who has warned that he will "bring war" to anyone in the way of the pipeline and fight them "trench by trench," initially declared a state of emergency for both provinces-- suspending basic civil rights and giving maximum power to the military to break up the demonstrations. The state of emergency was lifted March 5, but tensions remain high.
The Alberta Energy Company is the largest shareholder in proposed 450,000 barrel-per-day oil pipeline would double oil production in the ecologically-sensitive Amazon basin and result in new encroachments upon indigenous lands and ecological reserves, as well as more contamination of water and air in the region. Once pristine rainforest, Sucumbios and Orellana are now the largest oil producing provinces in the country, but they have not benefitted from the oil revenues. Communities surrounding oil operations have the highest rates of cancer in the country due to three decades of chronic contamination of their rivers, ground water, soil, and air, while larger towns still lack basic health services and infrastructure such as sanitation and potable water.
In July 2001, the Toronto Environmental Alliance, Greenpeace Canada, the Sierra Club of Canada and the David Suzuki Foundation called on Alberta Energy to withdraw from the project, but the company has yet to respond to their letter.

- 30 -

For more information:
Keith Stewart, tel. (416) 596-0660

If anyone would care to join me in calling on Alberta Energy to withdraw from this project, e-mail me at keith@torontoenvironment.org, or give me a shout at 416-596-0660.

For more info, see www.amazonwatch.org

Keith Stewart, Ph.D.
Smog and Climate Change Coordinator
Toronto Environmental Alliance
30 Duncan St., Suite 201
Toronto, Ontario M5V-2C3
tel. 416-596-0660
fax 416-596-0345
e-mail: keith@torontoenvironment.org
webpage: www.torontoenvironment.org

"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot
murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate.
. . . Returning violence for violence multiples violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: Only love can
do that."
-Martin Luther King, Jr