Black History Month offers the opportunity to reflect on the history and achievements of Black people and communities. That history for us in Canada is deeply connected to the Caribbean: Canadians of Caribbean origin makes up one of the largest non-European ethnic-origin groupings in Canada. Over the last 70 years, Caribbean diaspora have made a huge impact on Canadian business, education, healthcare, the arts, sport, social justice, government, the charitable sector and more.
As the Executive Director at Food For The Poor Canada for the last 12 years I have seen this impact firsthand. Food For The Poor Canada is fortunate to be supported by members of the Caribbean diaspora here in Canada and our work in international development empowers communities in the Caribbean and Latin America (LAC) through five areas of programming: food, housing, education, health and livelihood.
The Caribbean is 95% black and in the Caribbean Black people see themselves well represented at every level of government, in the private sector, and in the arts and in sports. In North America, the opportunity and representation of Black people in most sectors has been a long hard fight, and that fight continues today.
Many new Canadians make up a large part of our racialized communities in Canada and some have been impacted by Canadians efforts in international development, to help lift people up through poverty alleviation, education, and investment in sustainability. When you educate someone in a country far away and give them opportunity and a hand up, one of the tertiary benefits is that you are educating someone that may touch your life later on. The number of Caribbean doctors, nurses, lawyers, community leaders, singers, farm workers, athletes, entrepreneurs we count as part of our Canadian experience grows every year, and we are a stronger country because of this immigration.
If we support education and economic development in countries that need our help, a combination of help for right now and growth for the future, you make their country better to live in, your raise their standard of living and their opportunity to thrive, but you also improve the education level of the immigrants that we need in Canada as part of our economic policy. You prevent mass migration from countries that are not thriving, and it is in the best interest of every country that the world thrives.
As we look at the distribution of vaccines to rich countries, we realise that they will be ineffective unless we take care of people across the globe. We need the virus to stop spreading and mutating, coming back to our country, leaving the vaccinated population unprotected from new strains. This is just a tangible and current example of how not educating, investing, feeding and helping other countries thrive has devastating global consequences.
Food For The Poor Canada works with Canadians to support communities in the Caribbean and Latin America. In 2021, the biggest threat to the health of the LAC region, for their people and their countries’ economic health is the pandemic where there is little reserve and infrastructure to take care of their citizens. When we consider how to dismantle anti-black racism it is imperative that we consider the racial injustices both nationally and globally. While here in Canada the Black population is relatively small the disparities are clear, in the Caribbean and Latin America where the Black populations are largely the majority the disparities are evident on a global stage. And now more than ever the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how inextricably connected we all are.
And what is clear and more self-evident everyday is that it is in all our best interests to take care of the world. Everything that happens across the world, affects us in Canada.
Born in Kingston, Jamaica to a Lebanese-Jamaican family, Samantha Mahfood has lived in Canada since 1988. In 2008, she opened Food For The Poor Canada (FFPC) the Canadian arm of the non-profit organization dedicated to empowering communities in the Caribbean and Latin America through food, housing, education, health care and sustainable development. FFPC has built 32 schools and 123 homes in Haiti and Jamaica, and shipped over $32,000,000 worth of donations of medicines, school supplies and food over the last 11 years. They have also responded to emergencies in Haiti, Dominica, Bahamas and Jamaica, providing clean water, medicines, temporary shelter and food, followed by rebuilding. Samantha was named the recipient of the Black Business and Professionals Association (BBPA).Harry Jerome – Humanitarian Award for her work with FFPC. Samantha sums up her life, charitable work and community involvement in one sentence: “If you can share, you should; choose something and get involved.” To find out more about Food for the Poor Canada, visit www.foodforthepoor.ca.
