Ohhh Canada!

http://www.amnesty.org/

Check out this link and really appreciate that we live in such an extraordinary country.


I saw footage tonight on CNN of haunting unimaginable circumstances that face refugees all around the world... in particular Africa.

- In Congo its legal for soldiers to rape women. Countless victims.... including one women gang raped for 8 straight days and nights by 15 soldiers now is crippled and forced to walk with a cane. Another women gang raped for 3 days and nights straight while her husband and children were forced to watch. In the end her husband was slaughtered by the soldiers.

- Rwandan women repeately victims of rape from the genocide, left with AIDS and children, who will shortly die and leave AIDS orphans behind.

-Images of children with their heads bandaged because they were attacked with Macheties.

-Gangs kidnapping hundreds of children at a time for the last 20 years because they are more vulnable and can be brainwashed and intimidated into becoming killing and raping machines.

-A great grandmother and her bowl of leaves she's crushed up and will boil later to feed dozens of family members.... unfortunately the children don't get enough nutrition from the leaves and between 20 and 30 of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren have passed away due to malnutrition.

- An airplane dropping bags of grain to a refugee camp gets rationed out to families..... the rations looked to be the size of a 2L ice cream container... it could be months before another plane makes a drop.


It certainly is harder to relate to circumstances in Africa and we think the Western world seems to be on top of things, abiding by Humanitarian laws. I was shocked to read a few months back that in France a woman dies every 4 days after being beaten by her partner. When women file a report against their husbands, they are more than likely returned to their husbands and welcomed with an even more severe beating than they received in the first place.

It's disheartening and surreal seeing and reading about all these different cases... wondering if there is anything you can do to create change and make a significant difference. I feel overwhelmed with gratitute knowing that I have a healthy family who is always there for me ensuring a have a roof over my head, food in my belly and love in my heart.

Cheers to all you Canadians who make this country a a great place to live in!