While millions of people are shopping in free, capitalist society that is Canada, Queen’s Health Outreach volunteers are buying books for students in a school in Kibera, Kenya. Last summer, Christina Guzzo travelled to Kenya with six other QHO (Queen’s Health Outreach) undergraduates to implement a peer education program among students in primary and secondary schools. QHO worked alongside six other students from Kenyatta University, working under the name of YESS (Youth Empowerment Strategic Schemes) a CBO (community based organization). This partnership was the keystone that enhanced cultural sensitivity throughout their six-week project.

Honduras is a Caribbean country located between Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. It is a country of dusty red shingles, wet cobbled streets, and laughter. I went there this past August, to volunteer at Dr. San Manuel Hospital in the town of Gracias, in the department of Lempira. As the plane flew over Honduras, my eyes inhaled the sight of proud green hills and loyal valleys which stretched beyond my sightlines. Just before we started descending, I looked up to see a pearly crescent, basking in the early afternoon sun. Turning to the elderly woman beside me, I said, “Your country is beautiful.” She nodded, as if to reply, “Yes, I know.” Past customs, baggage collection, and reception, I walked out of Toncontin International Airport. And for the second time, I saw the green hills, this time, from a different angle. Towering around the capital, it would be unfitting to call any other structure a skyscraper in the presence of these hills.

The Congo has been a site of repeated crisis and foreign government intervention is not new to the country or its people. Rebels recently began an armed struggle in opposition to the current government claiming it was corrupt. The Congolese army, or FARDC, are at this time fighting against this resistance force. As a result humanitarian aid is finding it a challenge to maintain their efforts, and health conditions are on the decline for many displaced people. Peacekeepers’ and aid workers’ actions are being limited by the conflict. The people who are suffering the most from poor politics and from violent military operations are innocent citizens. They are the ones who are threatened most by this crisis, and it is a global priority to not forget their anguish in this strife. The assistance of these people relies on not the generosity of foreign nations but the awareness of the citizens within those said nations. A government requires its peoples’ support to intervene globally, so let’s continue to ask questions, find answers and grow collectively.

A woman walks into the clinic wrapped in an elaborately colored woolen blanket that hides her malnourished body beneath it. As she closes the door behind her, the eyes of her newborn peek through the folds of blanket on her back. She takes her spot in the queue and waits as there are many ahead of her packed into this tiny hallway. She has been up since three a.m. and without money for the taxi, she walked the 20kms to the clinic. A few hours later her name is called and she walks into the counselor’s room. They tell her that she is HIV positive just like 390,000 adults and children in her tiny country. She thinks of her children at home, of her husband who will likely disown her or worse, and the challenges of finding work while trying to live with this disease. Pills and return date in hand, she walks out of the clinic as dusk settles over the mountains. She begins her long walk home wondering how she will feed her family that night, contemplating her husband’s reaction and the knowledge that she is facing a disease she feels little control over. At Tšepong Clinic her story is repeated daily.

Every child dreams. The unique fact about Canada is that, as a country, we try to indulge the dreams of every child equally. Here lay the significance of Canada’s system of equal-opportunity education, universal health care, and social services. It is for these opportunities that people emigrate from every corner of the world to make better lives for their children in Canada. Yet, when it comes to North America’s original people, our Aboriginal peoples, neglect and inequality are an understatement.