Making a difference

When asked how War Child Canada has made a difference, the organization's co-founder and executive director, Dr. Samantha Nutt, shares the story of a young woman named Nadia she met in a refugee camp in Darfour.

Nadia had hidden in the bush behind her home, holding her infant son, as her husband, mother and father were killed by the militia. She and a dozen women walked for two days to reach the refugee camp.

However, even though she was now relatively safe, Nadia was unable to take care of herself and her son because she had so little education.

“She couldn't even go into town and barter the few possessions she had and use them to buy food and other supplies,” Nutt said, speaking to Northern Life during a recent trip to Greater Sudbury. “She didn't understand currency. She couldn't do simple mathematical equations.”

War Child Canada had set up education and skills training for the women and children in the camp, and Nadia attended the sessions every evening for three months.

“I asked whether anything we'd done had actually helped her,” Nutt, who is also a staff member at Women's College Hospital in Toronto and an assistant professor at the University of Toronto in the department of family and community medicine, said.

“It was amazing. She was sitting on the mat on the sand with her little boy beside her. She leaned forward and wrote her name. She very defiantly said to me 'Now that I know how to write my own name, I'm going to learn how to write my son's name.'”

She said she thinks about Nadia and other people like her as she goes about her work with War Child Canada.

“For me, Nadia is an example of the courage and determination that people have all around the world, despite great adversity and witness to great atrocity,” she said.

“They really want what we all want in life, which is to live with dignity, and to make the kinds of investments in their own education and in their careers to benefit their children and give them a good future.”

Nutt was the guest speaker at Celebrate Women 2012, which was held at the Fraser Auditorium in Sudbury March 22.

The yearly event, put on by the Sudbury chapter of the Canadian Federation of University Women, YWCA Sudbury and the Women's Legal Education and Advocacy Fund (LEAF), features presentations from female Canadian authors.

The proceeds support the work of all three organizations.

Nutt said she helped to set up War Child Canada in 1999 to help children and families affected by conflict.

The organization provides services such as education and skills training in nine different regions around the world, including Afghanistan, Darfour, Congo and Sudan.

The idea for the organization came about after she had worked for a number of years for the United Nations as a doctor in conflict zones.

“We were seeing a lot of the short-term needs being met, but not the longer-term needs,” she said.

For example, child soldiers would be disarmed, only to join criminal gangs because they'd missed so much schooling, and had no way to support themselves, Nutt said.
Thanks to the education provided through War Child Canada's work, many former child soldiers are now in college, and aspire to be doctors, lawyers and businesspeople, she said.

“It's amazing to me,” Nutt said.

In terms of what Canadians can do to help those living in conflict zones, she has a number of suggestions.

The first step is to stay informed about what's happening overseas, Nutt said.
“Make a piece of international news part of your reading, even if it's one piece of international news,” she said.

People should also think about how their actions are affecting those living in conflict zones.

For example, many Canadians have invested their money in arms manufacturers, without even knowing it, Nutt said. She advises people to ask some “hard questions” before investing in anything.

“Many of the same people who manufacture our fridges and toasters and microwaves are also manufacturing land mines and cluster munitions, even though we, as Canadians, have signed onto the cluster munitions and land mines treaties,” Nutt said.

“Virtually every provincial teacher's pension funds in this country has holdings in arms manufacturers, as does the Canadian Pension Plan.”

Nutt is the author of a book called Damned Nations: Greed, Guns, Armies and Aid. The book chronicles many of her experiences, and speaks about how war affects women and children around the world.

She said she wrote the book to be able to tell people what's happening in the world in her own words.

“I want to enable people to to meet some of the extraordinary individuals that I've had the privilege of knowing over the years, who inspire me and who have educated me,” Nutt said. “Their stories really do need to be told.”

Mary Ann Roscoe, chair of the Celebrate Women 2012 committee, said having Nutt speak at the event was a real “coup.”

“She is internationally known, she's extremely accomplished, she travels constantly, and that we were able to get to come to Sudbury is just awesome,” she said.

“She's very inspiring. I'm about two-third through her book. It's very hard to put down. It's gripping, to say the least. The work she's doing is phenomenal.”

For more information about War Child Canada, visit www.warchild.ca.

Posted by Arron Pickard