NGOs, or Non-Governmental Organizations, generally try to make the world a better place through any number of ways, particularly if they are non-profit NGOs. NGOs can make or break a community in a world, provide aid to disaster ridden countries or advise countries in creating policy that could benefit hundreds of thousands of people. They can even collect valuable data which can lead to breakthroughs in science or policy. These NGOs have existed for a long time, but thanks to how interconnected the world is today, many NGOs have the ability to help those all over the world. This works particularly well when it comes to developed countries, who have the ability to provide funding easier than developing countries do, giving funding to NGOs so that they can help communities and people in general in the world. This can be applied specifically to Canada, and so I am going to inform you, the reader, on three Canadian NGOs that work to make the world a better place.
This NGO, formed in 1984, focuses on low income housing in the developing world and helps governments and other organizations deliver affordable housing microfinance to the poor. It is the international wing of the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada. This federation works to provide non-profit housing to people across Canada. Rooftops Canada works 38 countries around the world to improve and provide non-profit housing. They have done many things across the world, particularly in Africa, since their inception and so naming them all would be redundant, but they work with both providing the houses themselves to people who need them, as well as providing them with policy change and finance for non-profit housing in the developing world.
War Child Canada works within countries that are suffering from war, internal or external, in order to help children that are within the environments. In their words: “War Child envisions a world where no child knows war.” Since 1999, this NGO has worked to change the lives of children in these areas of conflict for the better by providing support to children and protecting their rights, such as the right to education, shelter and the unspoken right to a community that loves and comforts them in the terrible world they face. They are supported by UNICEF, UNHCR and several countries around the world, as well as being a Canadian NGO.
3. PEN Canada
PEN Canada is an NGO that focuses on the freedom of expression and freedom of speech in Canada as this is a basic human right. It supports writers who are unable to write due to censorship and other forms of suppression. It educates students in Canada about the importance of freedom of speech, as well as runs a Freedom of Speech Week program in partnership with the Toronto Public Library. In terms of helping refugees to Canada, it supports them by helping writers find residences at universities as well as provides them with numerous other opportunities. PEN Canada also promotes the literary tradition through promoting novels and books.
These three NGOs are very different in what they are trying to accomplish, but all of them have something in common. They all want to help people and allow them to access their basic human rights. I would recommend you, the reader, check out some of these NGOs to see what they do in more detail, so that you can see there are many ways that people can help people across the globe.