Please ask the Canadian government to fulfill an important promise to effectively address COVID-19, the climate crisis and conflict. During the federal budget consultation period, ask your MP to urge the government to increase its overseas development assistance to reach the international standard by 2030, meet its international climate commitments, and ensure that funding reaches grassroots women’s rights and peacebuilding organizations.  

Black, Brown, and Indigenous peoples—particularly women—are indispensable in confronting the climate emergency. They hold the traditional ecological knowledge of agriculture and biodiversity, and are powerful peace builders at the critical grassroots level. The Hill Times op-ed.

Recent key events pertaining to land and water defense in Canada and worldwide point to the importance of a human rights and feminist approach to corporate accountability. The timing is critical as Canada sets to formalize a feminist foreign policy, and the climate crisis and long-term economic impacts of the pandemic will most likely increase interest in large-scale mining in support of renewable energy in the years to come. Rabble op-ed.

A new online community learning series

For individuals and groups who want to make change happen. Participants will read Matthew Bolton’s book How to Resist: Turn Protest to Power, take part in exercises to help think through the steps to making change, and engage in conversation with other change-makers. Spring dates to be announced soon. If interested, please email Shannon (sneufeldt [at] kairoscanada [dot] org) to be put on the list. Look for Matthew Bolton’s book at your local independent bookstore, Abe Books, thriftbooks, or other online book sellers.

KAIROS actions to build a better world, such as e-petitions, letters to elected officials, and advocacy events are housed on the KAIROS Advocacy page. Take action today!

KAIROS has supported the agriculture program of its West Bank partner, the Department of Service to Palestinian Refugees, for more than 10 years. The program seeks to strengthen agricultural conditions for farmers in the West Bank by improving vital water supplies such as water pipelines and reservoirs to farmers, construction and rehabilitation of agriculture roads, provision of greenhouses with irrigation systems, and some processing machinery to farmers.  

Teófilo Acuña Ribón and Jorge Alberto Tafur, well respected human rights defenders working for land rights in Colombia, were killed on February 22. Teófilo and Jorge Alberto are two of 33 human rights defenders murdered in Colombia so far in 2022. Violence continues unabated in Colombia as armed groups coalesce in the context of stalled and ostensibly thwarted peace accords.

A joint proposal for presentation of a “World (KAIROS) Blanket Exercise” at the World Indigenous Conference on Education (WIPCE) in September 2022 on Kaurna land in Adelaide, Australia has been accepted! Submitted by KAIROS and KBE partners in Australia, and selected from more than 700 proposals, the World KBE will be a unique, collaborative, and interactive workshop that amalgamates KBE adaptions developed by partners in Australia, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, the USA, and the Philippines. Interestingly, the exercise was introduced to KAIROS’ KBE partners in Australia at the 2017 WIPCE conference in Toronto.

2022 marks the 25th anniversary of the KAIROS Blanket Exercise. Developed in response to the landmark 1996 Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, the KBE has evolved into an impactful and empowering teaching tool used globally to help people understand the impact of colonization and the importance of land to Indigenous peoples. As pandemic restrictions are lifted and we get closer to once again delivering in-person KBEs safely across the country, and as we draw encouragement from the strong and growing interest in the virtual KBE, which is already booking into June, we thank you for helping us get this far and hope you will join us as we set our sights on the next quarter-century.

When the pandemic hit, Niagara Migrant Workers Community Partners was there for migrant workers. A partner of KAIROS’ Empowering Temporary Foreign Workers During COVID-19, this organization supplied emergency food, clothing, spiritual care and welcome kits to approximately 700 Caribbean men and women working  in Niagara on the Lake.  

A cornerstone of the ETFW project, welcome kits offer vital resources about COVID protocols and services for the workers, as well as water, snacks and other essentials. “They are a fun, practical way for individuals, families, schools and community groups to connect with temporary agricultural workers who contribute so much to our community,” says the organization.

This wonderful video highlights the spirit of this project.

Kaji’ Ajpop, a new Indigenous Rights organizations in Guatemala, undertook a project supported by KAIROS in 2021 to increase Indigenous women’s participation in locally and nationally oriented community decision-making spaces. Kaji’ Ajpop held 12 local assemblies in and around Solola, Guatemala. In total, over 1,200 Maya Kaqchikel women participated in these meetings.