Welcome to the Garden of Eatin’, a project of North House in partnership with St. Paul’s United Church, Leaksdale, and community sponsors. The garden is comprised of 12 individual plots and a community garden where food is grown for the Loaves and Fishes food bank in Uxbridge.

The men of The BRIDGE Prison Ministry often talk about community and accountability. Don told me that the first step to becoming a community in which members are accountable to one another is talking about values. “School didn’t teach me anything about values but here we talk about values all the time. We talk about difficult things like guilt, shame and hardship in connection with others who have the same experience. I learned that change is a choice and that awareness of who I am and how my actions affect the others around me is a great agent for change. The BRIDGE helps me stay on track.” Don has a hope that, in the future, successful reintegration programs like The BRIDGE will be able to “change the minds of the media and the justice system. We are people, too.” For more information about The BRIDGE and its community reintegration programs, please visit their website.

One of the greatest challenges to people who are homeless or at risk of losing their home is the lack of healthy and nutritious food to eat. I recently spoke to Ann Watson, Program Manager of North House Transitional Housing. “North House is known throughout North Durham Region as a provider of transitional housing, rent supplements and wrap-around support for people who are under-housed in Uxbridge, Brock and Scugog townships. We quickly came to realize that not only do our clients need a stable place to live, food security is also a major issue for them. In response, we’ve developed partnerships with churches and community organizations to provide healthy food options to people in need in our communities. We offer a weekly community lunch program that provides delicious home-made soups and desserts on a pay-what-you-can basis. Our Garden of Eatin’ community garden includes 12 individual plots and one community plot where we raise food for the Loaves and Fishes Food Bank. We’ve also developed a social enterprise, North House Catering, which offers seasonally-inspired, healthy and home-cooked meals at an affordable price.” Continue reading “Garden of Eatin’ Volunteers – North House” →

When Hajar became a Canadian citizen two years ago, the immigration judge told her that it was her job to help others. She took these words to heart and became a volunteer at Flemingdon Park Ministry. Hajar’s friend, Mary, served as a translator for our conversation. Mary explained that Hajar is learning English, slowly but surely, but still needs help and would very much like to take a conversation course. “I am thankful for all of the help that I receive from the women’s group. I would like to have a conversation class so that my English will get better.” Hajar’s faith in God gives her hope for the future. “I am happy when I am helping people. My God helps me to help the people.” Hajar has a large family here in Canada. Her wish is that they will all be together.

My name is Elizabeth Membreño and I was born in the Mesa Grande Refugee Camps in Honduras. During the Civil War, when I was very little, my family returned to their native lands located in the conflictive zone of Cabañas, El Salvador.

When I was 15 years old, I and some of my friends founded the youth organization called the Asociación Comité Contra El Sida, Cabañas (CoCoSI). There was no HIV education or prevention in our rural communities, and we saw that we had to do it ourselves. At that time there were no educational opportunities. My family did not believe that an education was important for their children. The only alternatives for us youth were to become mothers, housewives and work in the corn and bean fields.

Continue reading “Elizabeth – PWRDF” →