Program gave focus on developing nations

By Colleen Dane, Shachi Kurl, Sean Mcintyre, Sarah Petrescu, and Rob Shaw, Times Colonist

A Malawi orphan eats a desperately needed meal because of money raised by Vancouver Island volunteers.

A Rwandan woman, raped during the genocide and infected with HIV, finds hope and inspiration to live through her pen-pal friendship with an HIV-positive Victorian.

A Cambodian woman, her leg lost to the landmines of civil war, re-builds her life, employing other amputees in a thriving silk-export business whose biggest buyers are on Vancouver Island.

These are among the most powerful and inspiring stories published in Vancouver Island newspapers and aired on TV newscasts in the past four years. They were only possible because of a fellowship that supports international reporting through the B.C. Jack Webster Foundation.

As the reporters responsible for those stories from Malawi, Cambodia, Vietnam, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, we know full well their unique value and community impact.

You, the readers and viewers, flooded us with emails, letters and phone calls to express your support for our work. You encouraged us to do more. But it is unlikely you'll see such stories again.

Last month, that fellowship, called Seeing the World Through New Eyes, was cancelled because the federal government's Canadian International Development Agency withdrew its funding support.

CIDA's decision has deeply disappointed us as journalists. We believe our readers and viewers will be disappointed as well.

The harsh reality is that it's very rare for journalists working for Island media outlets to dedicate two weeks to international development reporting. In smaller communities, travel expenses usually only extend as far as a late-night town council meeting.

Few employers are willing or able to send journalists to the ends of the Earth -- even if they see the value in bringing to light stories about local-global relationships and connecting readers to long-forgotten places.

Yet even the smallest communities are now linked with countries around the globe.

When people in the Gulf Islands heard a Saltspring Island reporter was off to visit a community project overseas, they launched an island-wide campaign to deliver notebooks, pens and clothing to a classroom full of kids in rural Malawi. Today, the community-to-community relationship fostered by the trip is stronger than ever.

Islanders rallied behind a Victoria African Aids Angels project by starting their own angel-making groups and raising tens of thousands of dollars for Malawi food projects.

Times Colonist readers helped create a blog for Rwandan women and funded a project to build a lavatory in Mozambique. A touching story of a Rwandan woman and her Victoria pen-pal, both dealing with the difficulties of HIV, garnered a Times Colonist reporter more community feedback than on any other article she'd ever written.

In the Comox Valley, readers rallied around one of their local reporters as she examined the role of agriculture, tourism and non-profits in Mozambique and Rwanda. One story focused on a village that shed its desperate poaching past to launch a thriving eco-tourism industry.

Across Vancouver Island, the impact of an

A-News report on Kong Chim's silk factory in Cambodia kept her business going through a global economic downturn. Viewers here valued the fair trade between a struggling nation and a rich one. Thanks to her customer base here, amputees who would have been left to beg in the streets live with dignity and a modest income.

Since 2006, Seeing the World Through New Eyes has helped 25 young journalists produce more than 150 stories from developing countries.

The cost for CIDA was negligible -- $35,000 to $40,000 a year from a

$3.25-billion budget. When we asked CIDA why it had pulled support, the agency said it had reorganized its spending priorities to "discontinue programs that were a duplication of other activities, or that did not achieve strong results and value for money."

Some have questioned why the federal government has any role in helping pay for media to travel abroad.

But the feedback to our Island stories proves CIDA's money wasn't being spent on mere junkets; the fellowship gave small-town stories a global perspective and provided readers access to more informed and broader-minded journalism.

Nor was the source of the funding a guarantee of positive coverage for federal projects.

Many of our stories highlighted how Canadian funding didn't always translate into success.

Still, our audiences embraced international issues, started conversations and donated their time and money. They helped CIDA fulfil its stated mandate to "lead Canada's international effort to help people living in poverty."

There are many reporters waiting and willing to tell new stories that will inspire Islanders to redouble their international efforts. But we need the support and assistance of a fellowship like Seeing the World Through New Eyes to make that possible.

CIDA should restore funding to the program. And if it can't, or won't, we know there are other organizations out there who would see the value in stepping up to correct what we believe is a regrettable decision.

Colleen Dane is a former reporter for the Comox Valley Record who wrote stories from Mozambique and Rwanda in 2008. Shachi Kurl is a reporter at A News who shot and produced stories from Cambodia and Vietnam in 2007. Sean McIntyre is a reporter at the Gulf Islands Driftwood who wrote stories from Malawi and Tanzania in 2005. Sarah Petrescu is a reporter at the Times Colonist who wrote stories from Mozambique and Rwanda in 2008. Rob Shaw is a reporter at the Times Colonist who wrote stories from Malawi and Tanzania in 2005.