By CHAT News Today

Medicine Hat Charity, Global Impact

May 10, 2022 | 3:24 PM

The Hues for Humanity Colour Run is coming up on June 11^th this year at Badlands Training Centre in Medicine Hat. This run has been held in Fort McMurray and Medicine Hat for over 6 years, and this year is the first annual Colour Run in Calgary on June 18th. The Colour Run is a 5k walk or run along a mild trail. Colour stations are scattered through the path, and shower runners with coloured powder. Participants are fully tie-dyed by the end of this family-friendly event! When you register for Hues for Humanity, you receive admission to the Park After Dark outdoor movie the same night as the run. Registering for this run helps raise funds for students in Ethiopia to continue their education and change their futures.

Canadian Humanitarian charity was founded here in Medicine Hat with a goal to make a difference in Ethiopia and work toward ending the cycle of poverty. The organization officially began in 2003 when founders Deborah and Richard Northcott received charitable status, but the work they do today began long before that and has very personal roots.

In 1992, Deborah and Richard and their family made the decision to adopt from Ethiopia.

“It was a very difficult process,” Deborah said, “It took around 2 years for the children to arrive to our family.” The entire experience and process engaged the whole family. They gave up Christmas presents or dropped extracurricular activities for a year to help with the legal and paperwork costs “to bring [their] children home.”

Richard traveled to Ethiopia to bring their children home once the adoption and immigration requirements were completed. At that time, Ethiopia was just coming out of a 21-year civil war. Deborah stated that the post-war living situation for people was dire. It was her husband’s first experience in a country with this level of poverty and desperation. What impacted him most was the affect the post war living conditions had on the children.

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This spurred Deborah and Richard towards humanitarian efforts in Ethiopia. There were simple projects initiated before Canadian Humanitarian fully came to fruition, but it was not until 2003’s Canada’s charitable status was granted that they felt they could move forward with larger impact. Before they began building their programs, Richard traveled once again to Ethiopia and met with the Ministry of Women’s and Children’s Affairs and several other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to figure out what they could do to best enact change.

“The answer that we got back was [that Ethiopia] wanted children to be supported to go back to school. To stop children from working, go back to school, be educated – the supports they’d need to get that education.”

This not only helps to break the cycle of poverty but helps “them come back as contributing community members and help build the country.”

Canadian Humanitarian took that feedback to heart, spending the next 2 to 4 years to create their unique program called the Holistic Child Centred Network. This is an afterschool program the offers support systems to help a child succeed in their education journey, primary years through high school and be eligible for either a trade, university or college. They also provide support for the children’s family. This includes providing education and tools that helps improve their standard of living, which in turn affords children more opportunity for their future. This was especially crucial in the last couple of years, when so many people lost their jobs during the pandemic.

“So many adults found themselves unable to work, with little opportunity or no alternative employment to turn to. They simply didn’t know what else they could do. We provide an opportunity for business literacy, business training, and the tools to understand how to create employment for themselves.”

In the last few years, Canadian Humanitarian has partnered with Real Girl Foundation a U.S.-based organization, and their Real Girl programs. These offer leadership sessions geared to helping build confidence in boys and girls and understanding that fosters gender equity values.

Until 2019, it was illegal to discuss women’s rights in Ethiopia, Deborah explained, so partnering with Real Girl Programs, which has been running successful programs in Guatemala, seemed like the logical next step to furthering education horizons in the country. Thus, began an exchange. Canadian Humanitarian’s after school model has the opportunity to give added value to the work being done in Guatemala, and Real Girl provides gender equity awareness in Ethiopia.

Canadian Humanitarian’s focus will always be education. It is a steppingstone to disrupting poverty’s generational cycle. Helping children reach educational dreams, opening opportunities to provide a higher standard of living to adults, increasing understanding of the value of girls and women, and engaging children in change is what makes a better future possible.

To register for the Hues for Humanity Colour Run, click here.