Global Community Partners: March 2009

Saturday, March 28, 2009

"I Am Because We Are"

I just thought I'd alert you to this documentary (you can click on the title to go to the YouTube video). It is called "I Am Because We Are", written and narrated by Madonna. For some reason it passed me by last year when it came out, but it has now been released on YouTube so that people can watch it for free. I watched it and I think it is a great documentary. It is about Malawi and the HIV/AIDS issue that the country faces.

Please watch it when you have an hour and a half to spare (the running time is about 1 hour 26 mins). It's a lot less than what you would spend at the movies - including saving you some $ in your pocketbook; and you won't even have to leave the comfort of your own home if you're watching it on your computer at home! And to top it off, you will come away with some more understanding about Malawi. You will understand a bit more about the country we at GCP have chosen to work in. It certainly serves as a reminder for me as to why I am back in school and what I am working towards.

And by the way, Malawi is not the only country in Africa that faces the devastation of HIV/AIDS....

I'd be interested in what your thoughts are after watching this, if you'd like to share them with me.

Our Vision

Global Community Partners’ vision is to build partnerships in developing community around children all over the world. Supporting this vision are our guiding values that are integral to our organization. All our guiding values are based upon a way of work and life as followers of Jesus. We are a Christian organization that believes in one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and believe further that Jesus lived, died, and rose again. We believe that Jesus is an integral part of our lives and in Him, we see the example of how we are to care for those around us. Our work is guided by the following principle beliefs:

Children’s Rights

- We believe that children are vitally important to the improvement of our future. As delineated in the UN Convention of Children’s Rights and other such documents, children have rights that must be valued and protected, particularly in those places where poverty and crises exist.

Child-focused Community

- We believe that his/her environment, immediate, and removed, influences every child. Therefore, focus on children must also include education of the immediate community and raising the awareness of the global community. We believe in providing tools for the immediate and global communities through education, support, and training.

Community Partnership

- We believe in partnerships, partnerships with existing communities to help build a stronger, empowered community that can in turn help empower their children. We believe in building relationships in these communities and we believe in long-term goals rather than short-term goals, or one-time trainings, meaning that we are willing to work on an on-going basis with communities to provide input, education, and training on a long-term and on-going basis. These community partnerships include governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, and other entities.

Respect for Culture

- We respect the cultural diversity of the global community and therefore believe in working with each community on an individual basis to incorporate cultures and traditions in coming up with a viable way to improve community. We believe in being responsible and maintaining respect for the communities we work with, the culture, the traditions, and the environment.

Overall Principle

- We believe that people, particularly children and their families, are integral and central to our work and to that end, we commit to uphold these guiding principles in the presence of God and of each other. We believe that there is no substitute for the manner in which we think, work, and live and our commitment to these guiding values must be evident in our interaction with each other, the communities we work with, and the global community at large.
Targeted beneficiaries will ultimately be children, but beneficiaries will also include the community around these children – families, immediate and extended, as well as other adult community members. Activities that GCP will undertake include research, program development, and implementation of programs as well as monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of program.