Month: May 2017

The Fascinating Life of Dr. Florence Nichols

by Jill Campbell-Miller

Blog Cross-Posted with American Medical Services (AMS) as The History of Canadian Healthcare Aid to India in the 1950s.

 

I came across the name of Dr. Florence Nichols while doing research for my dissertation, which examined the history of Canadian aid to India during the 1950s (you can find a link to the full dissertation on the University of Waterloo’s website: https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/handle/10012/8756). In 1955, Escott Reid, the Canadian high commissioner in New Delhi, toured southern India, leaving a detailed record of his trip. He visited the Christian Medical College (CMC) in Vellore. There he encountered Dr. Nichols, a Canadian psychiatrist and Anglican missionary, whom he briefly mentions in his account of the trip. Nichols complained to Reid that there was no psychiatric ward, and that “many of [the patients] are kept in chains in local hotels where they are looked after by their relatives.”[1] Continue reading

Humanitarian Photography and Refugees Abroad: A Virtual Exhibition CNHH Call for Canadian Stories

Deadline: June 30, 2017.

 

Printer Friendly Call for Photographs.

Photographers and aid agencies each frame photographs according to their own politics, experiences and goals. These, in turn, shape spectators’ interpretations of people’s lived realities around the globe, and contribute to formulating responses to humanitarian issues. How have photographers and agencies represented refugees? How have refugees been pictured? In what way does the photographic version change when it has been published?

 

See how “Refugees on the road between Gisenyi and Ruhengeri,” a photograph of a Rwandan child made by Canadian photographer Roger LeMoyne’s in 1996 for the CIDA International Development Photo Library and published in 2000, can help answer these questions.

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Canada’s Legacy of Gender Equality Support in Pakistan: Malala’s Speech in Parliament, A Symbolic Reminder

by Rhonda Gossen

“Women and girls will be at the heart of the Government’s development policy”, Canada’s Minister for International Development, April 12, 2017

 

2017-05-02 19.20.26

CIDA’s 1980s and 1990s Women in Development Strategies for Pakistan.

Malala’s moving speech in Canada’s Parliament last month on the right to education for girls is a poignant reminder of the ongoing struggle for gender equality in the country of her birth, Pakistan. It is also a symbolic reminder of Canada’s history of support for women’s rights in Pakistan built over more than three decades. Canada’s legacy as a global leader championing gender equality actually began in Pakistan in the mid 1980s. Looking back at that legacy, it is hard not to view it against the rise of violent Islamic extremism that developed inside Pakistan over the same period. These two opposing forces- those working for women’s rights and those working to restrict them, have both consistently gained strength since.  Decades later, one can trace the path from the Pakistan women’s movement in its struggle against the Islamic laws affecting women’s rights in the 1980s, to Malala today as a symbol for human rights and peace.

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