INDEPTH: A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE
Inquiry: Angels
CBC News Online | February 17, 2004
Reporter: Rosa Marchitelli
In parts of Brazil it's not unusual for a child to suffer from malnutrition; many die before their fifth birthday. Many are illiterate and unemployed.
Then there's the violence in many communities.
Quick Facts
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This year's fundraiser is scheduled for Feb. 21, 2004, at the Westin Bayshore in Vancouver. Tickets are $100 and can be obtained by calling 604-224-2217. People who can't go to the party but want to help should call 604-224-2284.
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Life couldn't be more different for one Canadian living on Vancouver's posh West Side. But Miriam Ulrych has a connection to the children of Brazil that's lasted almost 20 years.
"I did it because I couldn't close my eyes," she says. "My heart simply went out to women whose circumstances in life were totally different then mine. I thought I could do something. That little something kept growing and now it's gotten to be a big something."
Ulrych is the founder of an organization called Street Angels started after a trip to Brazil. Because of the organization poverty-stricken mothers make ceramic angels that are then shipped to Canada where they're sold in Vancouver at a fundraiser.
Along with other donations, the dollars raised go towards building schools and homes, and creating jobs.
Street Angels supports one small Brazilian community of about 2,000 people on the eastern coast of the country. The organization also runs a foster child program. Almost 200 Canadians have agreed to donate every month to a specific child. But the money goes to helping the entire community.
Helen Augustin is one of the Canadian sponsors. She's also a volunteer.
"I'm amazed by Miriam," Augustin says. "Miriam is a real role model. [At] times when you look at different things in the world and think 'what can you do?' she makes it seem very simple... really you can do something. Just do something."
And she has. When Luciano Santos became a foster child he was six, working 10 hours a days selling peanuts on the beach to help support his family. Now 22, he's studying English in Vancouver and hoping to go to university.
"They gave me a foster parent's money to help me keep going to school,"
Santos says.
Ulrych is showing no signs of slowing down. She returns to Brazil every year to continue her work. "It's not good enough. We could do more. We could all do more," she says.
Once a year Ulrych holds a big fundraiser, hoping to raise enough to keep Street Angels going for another year.
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CUSO tracks volunteers from:
AFS Interculture Canada
Canadian Crossroads International.
Canada World Youth.
Centre for International Studies and Cooperation
Canadian Executive Service Organization (CESO).
CUSO.
Oxfam Québec.
SUCO - Solidarité Union Coopération
VSO Voluntary Services Overseas Canada
World University Service of Canada (WUSC).
CUSO Statement
Collectively, our organizations send or receive more than 3,000 volunteers each year and remain in touch with more than 60,000 returned volunteers. These figures include significant numbers of volunteers from the South, but by and large they represent Canadians so concerned about the disparity between life here and life in poorer countries that they are willing to give up weeks, months or even years of their time to improve the world. Through our network of members and volunteers, we reach into almost every community in Canada, coast to coast to coast. Ours is a real, concrete presence for Canada around the world, often the only Canadian presence outside of capitals, or even in some entire countries.
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