CFHS opposes the use of animals in all forms of entertainment or displays which may cause them to suffer.
CFHS believes, in particular, that animals performing or on display in a travelling environment will be deprived of a normal existence and may lack proper attention to their physical, social, and psychological needs.
CFHS contends that the following are detrimental to the well-being of animals:
travel or confinement that impairs the animals’ physical, psychological and social needs.
the use of abusive, cruel or stressful training techniques or devices or agents employed to cause the animals to perform.
close confinement, the lack of exercise and other physical requirements, the inability to express natural behaviours and lack of appropriate socialization.
the administration of any drug for non-therapeutic purposes in order to alter the performance or behaviour of the animals.
One thing that grows bigger in our hearts at Covenant House is our gratitude for friends like you.
In a world where beautiful and innocent children are all too often simply discarded and forgotten, it’s your compassion that gives our kids hope.
Your kindness makes the difference between a child sleeping in an abandoned doorway tonight…
…or getting a good night’s rest at Covenant House, eating a nourishing breakfast and then heading off to complete a productive day at school or work.
Indeed, your love and compassion makes it possible for us to offer our kids a decent life off the streets and the promise of a better future.
If you can give a special Christmas gift, it will be a tangible reminder to our forgotten children that you care about them and that they’re not alone this Christmas or any other day of the year.
Thank you for bringing love, joy and hope into the lives and hearts of our kids.
cbm is an international Christian development organization, committed to improving the quality of life of persons with disabilities in the poorest countries of the world.
These are the most forgotten people in the world.
Children who aren’t given the chance to go to school because they can’t see, can’t walk or can’t hear. Moms and dads who can’t apply for mainstream development programs, because disability without support and training makes them a “poor investment”.
These are the poorest 500 million people in the world. We are helping them because God’s wide and deep love calls us to.
Our goal is to rescue and restore these people – giving children hope, taking whole families and communities out of grinding poverty, and building a bridge between them and their communities. Setting them free… for life!
As parents, we need to know about alcohol and other drugs so that we can provide our children with current and correct information. If we have a working knowledge of common drugs, know their effects on the mind and body, and the symptoms of their use, we can discuss these subjects intelligently with our children. In addition, well-informed parents are better able to recognize if a child has symptoms of alcohol or drug-related problems:
At a minimum, you should:
* know the different type of drugs and alcohol most commonly used and the dangers associated with each;
* be able to identify paraphernalia associated with each drug;
* know what drugs look like;
* know the signs of alcohol and other drug use and be alert for changes in your child’s behavior or appearance;
* know how to get help promptly if you suspect your child may be using alcohol and other drugs.
For current information on alcohol and other drug use, the resource section in this guide can help direct parents to clearing houses, drug and alcohol prevention organizations, and parents groups—to name a few.
Since CPAR was founded in response to the famine experienced in Ethiopia in 1984 – our work in that country has remained focused on its most vulnerable communities. In 1999, CPAR started a project with funding from WaterCan to address the lack of safe water and adequate sanitation in one of its most remote regions – Benishangul-Gumuz.
As we know, water – clean water is life.
This project changed lives and resulted in improved water points developed (deep wells, springs, shallow wells, and school-based water pumps) and pit latrines constructed for a huge percentage of the remote communities in Dibate Woreda. By addressing this immediate health concern (especially for children under-5 years of age, who suffered disproportionately from water borne diseases such as diarrheoa communities were better positioned to tackle many of the more long-term challenges they faced.
Street Health is a non-profit community-based agency providing physical and mental health programs to homeless and underhoused individuals in the southeast core of Toronto. Our work is focussed on the neighbourhood around Dundas and Sherbourne Streets, which has the largest concentration of homeless shelters and drop-in centres in Canada. The area is also distinguished by a large number of rooming houses and other forms of low income housing.
We provide our services on the street, in alleys, along the lakeshore, in parks and ravines, and in homeless shelters and drop-ins. The people we work with have lives characterized by extreme poverty, chronic unemployment, insecurity in housing, poor nutrition, high stress and loneliness; they also have more frequent and serious illnesses, and die younger on average than the general population. Our services include outreach nursing, mental health support and case management, HIV/AIDS prevention, a secure mail service, identification replacement, clothing and sleeping bag distribution, and support for those with Hepatitis C and prevention strategies for those at risk for the disease. We adhere to a harm reduction model in our programs.
Street Health works closely with others within and outside the social service sector who want to learn about health and homelessness from our experienced staff. Presentations and training sessions are regularly given to the general public, as well as to workers in the health, social service and government sectors.
Finally, our belief that the services we provide should, ideally, not be required finds expression in our advocacy work, both as advocates for individual clients and in more general advocacy for enduring social and political solutions.
Tanya Hutchens is happy to showcase the work of Meyer School students in raising funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Meyer School students in November raised more than $1,132 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in a fundraiser the school called “Pennies For Patients.” Piggy banks were broken into; spare change was delivered day after day; kids couldn’t wait to add their pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters to the growing pot.
“It blows my mind,” said Principal Alison Gordon who watched all of her pre-kindergarteners and kindergarteners and their families respond so positively.
Perhaps more importantly, it blew the minds of Gretchen and Jonathan Maks, whose 4-year-old son, Griffin, was diagnosed with leukemia well over a year ago. Although the fundraiser was part of a larger “Kids Who Care” program now in its second year at the school, this particular project was selected because of Griffin.
“Every day they would bring pennies and quarters and whatever was called for,” Gretchen said. “I know kids emptied their piggy banks. One student brought in more than $70 in quarters. It was just amazing.”
“From a fundraising standpoint, it’s amazing that this amount of money can be raised through coins, through spare change,” added Jonathan who is an adult internist. “It’s so much more meaningful to me as the father of a child going through chemotherapy who will benefit from this fundraising effort.”
The Maks’ comfortable home, located blocks away from the school, is filled with the laughter of children. Griffin, his brother, Hudson, and his sister, Kailey, are triplets who have an older brother, Everest, 7.
They laugh together and play together. Everest flips on a computer game on the television but reminds visitors that this is not his favorite one. And Griffin wanders over with pen in hand as though he wants to be the interviewer rather than the subject of an interview.
“He loves to write,” Gretchen said. “He always has a pen in his hand.”
It’s easy to recognize that this is a close-knit and loving family. Gretchen said that she has let Griffin’s hair grow long — a shaggy look of sorts — since his chemotherapy first began. But to anyone on the outside, Griffin looks healthy and happy with a full head of hair one might even describe as thick.
Gretchen says it was once thicker. No one would ever know. Just as they would never know how the normalcy of this family took such a sudden detour when Griffin was only 2 1/2.
“He told us his leg was hurting and I asked what happened,” Gretchen recounted. “He said his sister closed the door on his leg. He was limping so we went to get it checked.”
Referred to Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Griffin was eventually diagnosed with leukemia.
Jonathan was the first to be told of Griffin’s leukemia in a doctor-to-doctor phone call, he said. “The pediatrician was actually crying. I think everyone was surprised.”
“Usually kids are very, very sick when they first get diagnosed,” Gretchen said. “They have fevers and it’s really, really bad.”
The Canadian Cancer Society is very concerned about the shortage of medical isotopes, as isotopes are used for some cancer-related tests and treatment.
It’s imperative that:
effective short-term solutions are developed quickly so patients can be helped now
a long-term strategic plan be put into place. This plan must guarantee a constant, steady supply of medical isotopes for all Canadians. Canada must not face this type of shortage again.
Patients are the priority: Patients must be the primary focus when determining solutions to the shortage of medical isotopes. During an already difficult time, not having access to appropriate care can be stressful and trying. This is simply not acceptable.
Are you a patient affected by the medical isotope shortage? The Canadian Cancer Society would like to hear from you.
Dr. Keith Martin questions handling of medical isotopes in Question Period
Fred was born with cleft palate in Uganda. In poor communities, most children like Fred die of malnutrition or infection. It’s only through the sheer, loving determination of Fred’s mom, Sissy, that her boy has survived.
Even at 6 years of age, Fred still has difficulty eating. He’s smaller than other children his age. He also suffers many more ear and throat infections than most other children do.
Sissy’s fierce love and care could do a lot to protect her son’s body, but it couldn’t protect him from the mockery and rejection from other children – because of how he looks … and how he talks. His cleft palate affects his speech.
For Fred’s mother, her heart broke every time her son came running home crying. He held his hand over his mouth to hide his malformed lip. The other children made fun of him.
Fred was too afraid to go to school. This is tragic. If he is to have any hope of escaping from poverty, he desperately needs his education.
Together, we help children like Fred. By finding them (children with disabilities are often hidden away and forgotten). Next, giving them an operation their family cannot possibly afford.
The wonderful news is, Fred has been found. And he’s received the surgery he needed to correct his cleft lip and palate.
At last he has a smile! No more bullying or cruel taunts.
Fred’s operation is just the start our 12-month plan for him. His plan includes special training to improve his speech and extra help to catch up at school. Also, his family is desperately poor. They need options and support for a better income.
Scientists have determined in a new investigation that high levels of physical activity may be some of the triggers for the unforgiving disease that is arthritis. The condition manifests itself by deforming the joints inside the body, and causing excruciating pain in the sufferers. At this point, there is very little that Science can do to cure the people who have it, e! Science News reports. Details of the new research were made available to experts during the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), held in Chicago.
“Our data suggest that people with higher physical activity levels may be at greater risk for developing knee abnormalities and, thus, at higher risk for developing osteoarthritis,” Christoph Stehling, MD, explains. The expert holds a joint appointment as a University of California in San Francisco (UCSF) Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging research fellow, and a University of Muenster Department of Clinical Radiology radiology resident. The findings, he says, are especially true for middle-aged men and women.
“The prevalence of the knee abnormalities increased with the level of physical activity. In addition, cartilage defects diagnosed in active people were more severe. This study and previous studies by our group suggest that high-impact, weight-bearing physical activity, such as running and jumping, may be worse for cartilage health. Conversely, low-impact activities, such as swimming and cycling, may protect diseased cartilage and prevent healthy cartilage from developing disease,” Stehling reveals.
The German scientist adds that more comparative studies to evaluate the influence of low-impact versus high-impact physical activity on a person’s chances of developing osteoarthritis should be undertaken. He believes that such research has the potential to establish a set of recommendations that could see less people developing arthritis. The condition significantly reduces patients’ quality of life, and, in serious cases, confines them to a bed or wheel chair, causing massive deformities in limb joints.
Exercises for Arthritis Pain Relief : Hip & Knee Stretches for Arthritis Pain Relief
