Category Archives: Health Education

Africa, Central America, Education, Emergency Response, General interest, Haiti, Health Education, Healthcare, Income generation

Rose Charities Canada achievements 2024!

Chair Year End Letter

October 31 st 2023 to November 1 st 2024

A Happy New Year to volunteers, friends and supporters of Rose Charities Canada! We thank you for all your assistance this year -in whatever way that has been– in enabling us to continue working with
people in need across the world.


Our projects have encountered numerous challenges in many of the countries they operate in – factors often unsurmountable and out of their control. Extreme poverty is the number one issue in most
countries bolstered by violence (including gender-based violence), internal conflict, political instability, government corruption, high inflation, and blackouts (Ethiopia, Zambia). Alongside this is the impact of climate change that has been seen, for example, in flooding (Nepal) and in drought (Zambia). Moreover, there is the brutal and ongoing oppression of women in Afghanistan that restricts basic rights such as
education, employment and having a voice to express opinions.


It is hard to see some “light” in these situations and believe that a small amount of help can make a difference. But we can assure you it does and, moreover, gives hope for many individuals and communities. The leaders and volunteers in our projects are putting into action the sentiments of NkosiJohnson (12-year-old AIDS activist who died in 2001) when he said “Do all you can, with what you have,in the time you have, in the place you are.”


It is in the individual stories that we hear about the impact of this“compassionate” action and thedifference it makes in peoples’ lives.
At one of the annual Soccer Camps in the Haiti Children and Youth project a young man who wasparticipating suddenly disappeared after a few days. It was later discovered that he was in severe pain with an inguinal hernia. Arrangements were made by the project for him to receive surgery and follow up care including a ride to and from school so as not to miss classes.

In a training visit to Guatemala by the Safe Motherhood team the benefits of their classes were highlighted in the following story “the day after we taught the technique to help birth a baby with the umbilical cord wrapped around the baby’s neck, we heard one of our students excitedly share that she used the technique with great success at a birth during the night”.


We had hoped this year to send some funds to Afghanistan to set up small scale education classes for elementary school girls. However, this was deemed too much of a risk when the Taliban further restricted any schooling for girls. But to try and “do what we can” the funds will now be used for women to learn some basic skills to develop a small business (sewing, food items) and provide for their families.

An aspect of our education projects worth highlighting has been the importance of going beyond the basic curriculum of learning in schools. Many of the projects working in school settings are providing
enrichment and encouraging creativity with music and art classes, dancing, visits to museums and galleries, playing sports and other games, cooking, going swimming, and adding fun to standard teaching. Our projects are dedicated to helping children thrive despite the environment they find themselves in.

There has also been an exciting initiative in Zambia (Malambo) to provide environmental education for children in several schools with a focus on sustainable practices including tree planting to combat the impact of climate change. To highlight the scope of the projects and their achievements, I am attaching a summary of the outputs for 2023 to 2024. The range of activities is extensive reaching into the unique needs of a particular community. Renovations to schools, enrichment programs, school supplies, soccer camps , homework classes, scholarships from K to University, provision of water filters for clean water, the completion of a Maternal Care Centre, eye care for remote communities in Nepal, birthing skills for rural midwives in
Guatemala, the production of a video raising awareness of sexual violence against girls in Uganda, a school based malaria project providing rapid diagnosis and prompt treatment in Uganda, and tree planting in Zambia. The numbers of recipients are not necessarily the important factor. Some are higher than others but, more meaningful, is the impact of these activities on the life of an individual. “Doing what we can with what we have”.


We look forward to another year of inspiring and creative approaches in the work of our projects. This could not be achieved without the dedication and commitment shown everyday by the volunteers in the field. On behalf of the Board of Directors we thank you all again for your steadfast support in allowing the projects to grow and be a beacon of light in a time of global instability.

Best wishes

Maggie Francis
Chair, Board of Directors
Rose Charities Canada

January 5 th , 2025

Africa, Central America, Community Support, Education, Emergency Response, Environment, Events, General interest, Haiti, Health Education, Healthcare, Income generation, Nepal, People, Rose Charities People, Rose News, South Asia Region, Women focused programs, Youth programs

Rose Charities Canada – Outputs 2022-23 and letter from Chair Maggie Francis

Chair Year End Report

October 31 st ,2022 to November 1 st , 2023

We have come to the end of another year for Rose Charities Canada with many achievements and “good news”. Our projects have carried on amidst global wars and conflicts, earthquakes, fires, floods and the
ever-encroaching impacts of climate change.

The need for humanitarian aid is widespread and as a result it is sometimes hard to know where to help.

As an organization we do step in for emergencies but we prefer to support communities in the long haul. For this reason, many of our projects have been operating over a long period of time with a great
track record and, moreover, they are well established with very positive outcomes for individuals and communities. This often results in a “ripple effect” where the small seed of a project flows out to the
wider community and future generations. For example, indigenous midwives in Guatemala are given skills to promote better outcomes in childbirth; their knowledge is then transferred to future midwives
and thence safer births.


Another example of this is in the planting of tree seedlings in Zambia which over time help to mitigate against erosion and drought bringing agricultural opportunities and food security to local communities.
In my report this year I have chosen to include the results(outputs) that most of our projects have indicated in their annual reports. I have done this because it demonstrates the wonderful scope and variety of activities the projects provide on budgets that are low in comparison to the big aid organizations. The activities can, more or less, be categorized into education, health and community development. However, they seem to offer much more in terms of broader impacts such as hope and
opportunity for the future.


It is also interesting to look at the numbers of lives benefiting from each project. Some of these numbers are large for a relatively small organization. For example, the development of a Maternal Care
Centre in Ethiopia will provide services to a community of 157,00 people. Or the production of a music video raising awareness of sexual violence towards girls in Uganda has likely reached thousands of
people. But numbers do not tell the whole story. We work from the premise that every life matters. Our understanding is that “If you concentrate on small, manageable steps you can cross unimaginable
distances” (Hick)

If you look at the outputs from Nepal you will see that nine girls were helped with their education. One of these women, married at a young age, had been unable to finish her schooling due to responsibilities
at home. The scholarship enabled her to complete her high school with the chance of lifting the family out of poverty. In fact, she obtained her certificate alongside her daughter!


In addition to individual successes, we also support whole schools – Stand Tall (200 students); Volset (250 students) and the indigenous Mayan school (37 students) in Guatemala. And then there are theenrichment programs in Ecuador, Haiti; health education workshops in Uganda with Grassroot Doctors; educational supplies; food security support and the list goes on.


When I look at the year end annual reports, I am truly impressed and inspired by the work of all our projects. And I know the board joins me in thanking everyone – volunteers, donors, supporters – who
have helped to make them a success.


With very best wishes for another productive year ahead!

Maggie Francis
Chair, Board of Directors
Rose Charities Canada
January 23rd, 2024

Africa, Community Support, Education, General interest, Health Education, Healthcare, Rose Charities People

Rose Charities people….. ANDREW MACNAB (Canada)

Brighter Smiles Group. Unsurpassed understanding. Unparalleled friend to Uganda.

Prof. Andrew Macnab (Brighter Smiles ) and Ms Joanna Thompson (Rose Rehab Australia) receiving the prestigious Charity Rose Awards for outstanding charitable service to their fellow women, children and men.
Andrew in Uganda 1960s

Andrew first went to Uganda 60 years ago (image) and has returned an almost uncountable number of times since. As a paediatrician, Andrew has over half a lifetime been able to improve child health in Uganda by employing school-based health promotion. a concept that he originally developed in collaboration with Canada’s First Nations for their school system. The model seeks to creatively engage school children and their teachers to enable each child to acquire knowledge and practical life-skills that benefit their long term health. It is an approach now endorsed globally by WHO.

Tooth examination for a Ugandan child

Andrew’s approach met its first success in the dramatic improvement of oral health among Ugandan children. Andrew points out that .. It is notable that number one reason a child in Canada requires a general anesthetic, with all its risks, needs for specialized staff and equipment and its fear for a child, is for badly decayed teeth !.

Andrew, a Consultant at UBC both in Pediatrics and Urology founded his ‘Brighter Smiles’ organization to promote and implement his programs from a Canadian base and in the early 2000’s merged it as a member program of Rose Charities (bringing a huge panoply of experience, innovation and scope to the latter) and remains one of the most distinguished, internationally focused members of the Rose family

Health Promoting Schooling Uganda. Andrew Macnab’s and Brighter Smiles great success.. !

Andrews Africa programs (both Uganda and elsewhere) are, significantly, collaborations with local communities. Oral health (as mentioned above) led on to nutrition. Andrew promoted school health-nutrition plants plots and now many Ugandan schools now plant gardens and use the produce to benefit malnourished pupils through lunch programs. Malnutrition weakens children’s resistance to common infections and restricts their ability to learn. Andrew points out how much anemia and delayed reading age are remediable by the addition of vitamin A and iron to children’s diets, which in Uganda were regularly deficient in such. Researching this, his teams found that the innovation of combined planting in school gardens of a new, vitamin A and iron rich yellow sweet potato rootstock with the maize and beans traditionally grown was a highly effective solution.

Malaria in Schools program. One of Andrews major successes to date has been his malaria in school alleviation program. Seeing the problem of endemic malaria as much as an education as a health problem (days missed with stress on child and family superimposed on the danger of the illness) Andrew introduced highly monitored and personally researched program of early diagnosis and treatment, actually carried out by teachers, specifically trained to do so.

Andrew writes.. ‘The solution offered, although simple, was novel at the time. Supported by the Hillman fund (another Rose Charities member group) , our teams taught teachers how to ‘test and treat’ malaria by using a rapid screening test on a drop of blood and artemisinin combination therapy. This safely makes available WHO advocated tools to fight malaria available in rural areas with limited or no access to clinics. A two year evaluation documenting the change in duration of absence from school due to malaria has shown that this school-based approach significantly reduces morbidity – the prevalence of disease in the school area. . Pre-intervention, children used to miss an average of 6.5 school days with each bout of infection, but this has fallen to less than 1 day where teachers are able to screen all the children found to be sick at school (photo 3), and promptly treat those testing positive.’

The extent of Andrews charitable achievements considerably go beyond those above and include urological assistance to rural Uganda seniors (and in Canada, technological invention), promotion of anti-violence-on-women. ( an ongoing campaign has seen a partnership with one of Uganda’s leading popular song studios with their star performers in the development of a song ‘Tekawo Enjawulo’ – We can make it better). Andrew is constantly researching data to find novel or unrecognized ways to improve the wellbeing of communities and the women, men and children who constitute them.

Andrew Macnab, is a truly outstanding member of the Rose Charities ‘family’ who devotes vast experience, academic and practical ability for the benefit of others and has, and continues to both save and improve the lives of tens of thousands, directly and by linkage, to millions. He makes the world a better place