CARE International

Food glorious food

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Dark green forests and plantations, rolling hillsides dotted with the metallic roof tops of local sugar cane farms and homesteads.  Uneven tarmac, and battered shop awnings displaying adverts from bygone eras for hot chocolate, soap powders and cigarette brands.  School children, immaculately dressed, walking hand in hand along the roadside, taxis, bicycles and spluttering trucks whirling inches past them.

I could be back in Uganda 15 years ago, but in fact am in the Philippines city of Davao.  

It is the largest city in the world in terms of sheer geography, but where I am, more towards the outskirts, you do not feel much of the effects of urban sprawl, and the comparables here with the sights and sounds recalled from time spent in Africa are striking.  

The tropical latitude shared by the Philippines and the part of East Africa that I know best, mean that from the moment you step off the plane in Davao (located in the south of the country, an hour and a half flight from its capital, Manila, in the north) you experience the uplifting smell of equatorial life, its warmth, moisture and its connections with nature.  A permanent background noise of birdsong and grasshopper symphony follow you about, day and night. Continue reading →

Incredible India

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There is nowhere quite like India to make you appreciate living life in the present tense.  Cherishing the moment, and worrying not what tomorrow might bring.

This appears to be the case at all levels of Indian society (in general, sweeping terms) and plays out 1.2 billion times a day in the words, actions and exploits of the second most populated country on the planet.  It is also why writing this post whilst I am still in India seems apt.

It is currently Tuesday 13th September, and I am at Chennai airport awaiting my flight to Bangkok.  My mission here for the past 9 days has been to partake in discussions about CARE’s future role in India, and to visit CARE projects in rural communities.

On this very same day, 5 years ago, I walked into CARE’s offices in London and started work that would take me to various countries in Asia, but none so bombarding on the senses, and so dichotomous in every aspect, as India. Continue reading →

lendwithcare

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I read that, on average, adults in the UK will make over 90 visits per year to a cash point machine, withdrawing an annual total of £2250 and spending around 6 hours (including waiting time) for the privilege of doing so.

No doubt if you drilled beneath the surface of this you would find plenty of people who never require a hole-in-the-wall experience, save for the occasional domestic emergency (in my case this used to be at 2am when the Colonel’s credit card machine had stopped working at my local KFC), and then there will exist a whole swathe of the public who frequent them on a daily basis, and are prepared to endure the ritualistic queuing part of the whole process.

As with other equivalent queuing experiences, it was usually me – impatient and late for my train – who ended up stood behind someone from this second group of people, who was intent not, it would appear, on using their debit card and the cash point for their primary purposes (as indicated by their names) instead using every other option available, vacantly tapping away at the keypad, and finally withdrawing their card and no money, only to summon another one from their pocket, and start the process all over again. Continue reading →

CARE Project Visit, Sóc Trăng

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I was fortunate enough to be taken on a CARE project visit this week, 5 hours drive south of Saigon, into the heart of the Mekong Delta Region to the Province of Sóc Trăng.

CARE have been operating in Vietnam since the end of the Second World War (for the fact seekers amongst you, the very first “CARE packages” were sent from the USA to war torn Le Havre in France, on May 11 1946, which I make to be 65 years ago this week…) 

After 14 years out of the country, following its Reunification in 1975, CARE returned to Vietnam and, for the past quarter of a century, has supported interventions designed to improve the lives of thousands of vulnerable and marginalised communities in many of Vietnam’s provinces, Sóc Trăng included. Continue reading →