CIDA Gets It Right

It was my very first speech in the House and when I was done, I knew it likely wasn't very good. But it was passionate and well-meaning. Only two weeks following my election, I had journeyed to south Sudan to oversee our projects there. It was then that we discovered some 100,000 refugees from Darfur who had flooded out from the eastern border seeking protection in the region where we worked. They were largely naked, starved, tragically sick following a long journey, and they threatened to overrun the meagre resources we had been able to build up over the years.And so I returned to the House as a brand new MP, offering a maiden speech beseeching the Prime Minister and then-CIDA Minister Josee Verner to fund a $6 million proposal to assist the International Organization for Migration provide basic services for these most desperate of people. Michael Ignatieff had helped me with the proposal research and I thought it might add some clout to my presentation. The speech received a warm response from the Conservatives and Stephen Harper himself appeared to listen intently. To my shock, though falling short of the hoped for total, CIDA granted $3 million in assistance.A week ago today, my wife and I accompanied a team of Canadians to assess the impact of that Canadian financial commitment. I was hardly prepared for what I saw. The IOM had taken that investment and produced some modern miracles. In 11 different Darfuri refugee communities they had constructed women's centres and women's micro-enterprises, complete with generators, equipment for grinding grain and groundnuts, and even provided expertise to assist these dedicated entrepreneurs to get their goods to market. They sang songs for us as we arrived, wearing tee-shirts with the CIDA logo on it, along with the words "gift of Canada." As we drove away, many of them ran after us shouting words of thanks in their Dinka and Arab languages. I couldn't hold back the tears.And then there were the enclosed water systems. The IOM had moved into numerous Darfuri refugee villages, dug huge bore holes for water, and used solar power to pump the water up to substantial holding tanks, gleaming silver in the sun some 30 feet above the ground. From there the water was distributed to various water stations around the villages where families could access clean water through simple faucets. The villagers had dug the trenches themselves, leaving it the IOM contractors to construct a system that was sealed and provided the water of life where before there had been only death and disease. I couldn't contain my enthusiasm and immediately vaulted up the ladder to the top of the water tower and cast my gaze out over the entire village we were visiting. There was now hope where last year there had been merely devastation. And as I looked directly down, the villagers clapped their hands together for a country half a world away that now offered them a chance at a future.Later that day, we crossed the river Kiir in rugged dugout canoes into Darfur proper. We discovered from local officials that tens of thousands more families are fleeing the ravages of Darfur for a more promising beacon of hope provided by the good people of Canada in south Sudan. IOM officials briefed us on the emerging challenges and gave me another proposal to present in the House in March. But for now, some of the desperate families from Darfur have happened on some good fortune and feel they might actually build a future for themselves.CIDA is struggling, internally and externally, but in this particular case it invested its resources and in a people in ways that not only saved lives but actually also provided opportunity, not just for aid but for economic generators as well. Everything is Haiti right now, as is only natural, but for this brief moment I thank CIDA for showing what it can be. The House might be silent at this time, but in the most remote regions of Sudan the compassion of the people of Canada can be heard and seen by hundreds of thousands.