Canada Day 2021
Forty-seven years ago, I arrived in Canada. I was 16 then, still just a child. Every Canada Day, I look back at the years and what amazing opportunities Canada and the people of Canada have given and continue to give me: health, clean water, the right to an education, and the opportunity to advance economically. Along with those rights come responsibilities – responsibilities to remember the needs of others and respond together in a meaningful way, locally and globally. I am fortunate to have known so many that have held up their responsibilities to make this world a better place.
I am also mindful of building a better Canada and upholding the values on which this country should be built: respect, justice for all, understanding, and love. All of these values are now under a shadow with the recently discovered graves of Indigenous children. As we mourn the loss of so many young lives, let’s remember the potential we have as a people for change, and call on all Canadians to strive for truth, justice, and love for all people.
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Fathers Day 2021
Why 19 million children in the USA will not be able to say Happy Father’s Day?Because they have no dads in their lives. In Kenya over 6 million have no fathers and in Afghanistan 1 million fathers died in the war. In Canada there are 9 million fathers and 28.3 years is the average age of the father at the time of their first born. This Father’s Day celebrate by being a silent father to the fatherless. Find a fatherless child and do some extra things throughout the year to show that you care.
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Ray and Kelly Loxdale at a Children’s Home in Kenya on A Better World trip
Mothers are like farmers
Mothers Day 2021
Mothers are like farmers: They plant seeds, nurture them, never keep track of their time and expect an abundant harvest in the lives of their children. If there is a crop failure, they don’t look back but continue their work hoping for a better year. When I was 6 years old, my mother planted the seed of music and “made me” take violin lessons. Interestingly, when you become a parent you continue planting seeds and nurture your children. When Brenden was 6, Candi also “made him” take violin lessons. Recently, I picked up my violin and played with Xander Rondael who has been taking violin lessons for 4 years. Every week I see his mom Xyrish, who works in our office take him for lessons just like my mother did for me. Candi did the same for Brenden. Playing the piano is another mother, Alice Wombold who is always willing to nurture the young and the old. Due to COVID, we played from two different locations and put it together. Regardless of how we sound, the music will be heavenly for our mothers. Here is our tribute to mothers.
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Every Knock on the Door Was a Rejection
My father had been in Canada for three years before his family joined him. He worked hard, saved, and borrowed money for us to come to Canada. But soon after my mom, my two brothers and I arrived, he lost his job. He would get up every day and go knocking on doors. At supper time, he would tell us how many doors he had knocked on and end with this sentence: “Every knock on the door was a rejection.” It weighed on our entire family like a stone that got heavier each time he spoke that sentence.
Thirty-four years ago, when I opened Advanced Systems, the policy was and still is that anyone who comes looking for a job would always, on the spot, get an interview – whether there was an opening or not. Most of the time I didn’t have a job, and I would tell them that but meet with them anyway. If I wasn’t in the office, the receptionist was to tell them that I would call them back and invite them to meet. They often told me that these interviews gave them the energy and hope to keep knocking on doors. Beyond that I circulated their résumés to my colleagues and talked about them and tried to connect them with possible opportunities.
This year, find ways to give people hope: talk to those that feel rejected and tired, be polite in your rejection of the telemarketer, reply to email requests (not the mass ones or spam). Be a door of hope and not of rejection.
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Not Everyone Will be at the Arrivals….
December 22, 2019
I was at the Edmonton airport to pick up my son Jaden. At a “not so busy” area was a lady waiting as well. As I got closer to the same area, I saw she had tears (quite a bit). After some debate in my mind I went up to her and asked if I could be of some help. I learned that she was waiting for her daughter. Her son had drowned fishing off the coast of Newfoundland. “He won’t be arriving any more”, she said. For 15 years she had come to the arrivals to meet them. I started thinking about many who won’t be at the arrivals this year. Death, illness, separation, jail, finances are just a few reasons why there will be no arrivals. For some, text messages, phone calls, emails won’t arrive. Relationships are replaced, divorce, children and parents unable to reconcile are just a few reasons. Today, I think of those who are serving and can’t come. A former worker at A Better World is in Palau this Christmas. She teaches there and left these words on a card a year ago. So take a little time for those waiting at arrivals. Be open to new arrivals in 2020 – make new friends, create new opportunities and find new ways to care and make the waiting easier for others.
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Walking is a Gift
December 5, 2019
The Holidays are a great time to reflect on all the gifts we have. There are many aspects of life that we end up taking for granted. Like walking. Walking is rarely something thought of as a gift, but for a child that can’t, it is their only wish. A donation of just $300 can provide a child with life-changing surgery as well as all the post-care needed to fully recover. Help Children take their first steps.
Visit www.abwcanada.ca to learn more.
How Three Children Taught me Kindness
December 1, 2019
Some years ago I was at an orphanage in Kenya. Dominique, in the middle, needed surgery on his foot and would be coming back with a cast for six weeks. He would be needing help to move from place to place within the orphanage compound. Within minutes, two of his friends ran up to him, carried him, and began practicing on how they would move him from place to place. They didn’t understand surgery and casting. They understood that he would need help when he came back. They understood that they had a role to play. They had to act out kindness. In this world we need more people to act out kindness. In 2020, think about your role to be more kind and make life better for others.
Eric Rajah, Co-founder, A Better World Canada.
Eric Rajah 