From Canada to Paraguay
Chris-Beth Cowie, 16, president of her school, North Park Secondary, Brampton, Ontario, spent four months with some of her classmates in Paraguay as part of her curriculum studies, combining learning to speak Spanish, teaching English as a second language, learning the geography and culture of Paraguay, one of South America's poorest countries.

Learning Cross-Cultural Skills
AFS Paraguay co-ordinates the work placements and studies of the visiting students. It begins with a cross-cultural retreat to help acquaint students with Paraguay's unique different cultural realities and how bet to remain sensitive while living, working and studying there.

I don't want to say good-bye!
Chris-Beth Cowie, like many of her class-mates who had work placement during their stay in Paraguay, became very close to the young students to whom she taught English as a second language. Chris-beth's students were amongst the most economically deprived in Paraguay.

Friends for life
Laura Thompson and Sam Fuakye met as first year students at York University and soon became close friends, with Sam often visiting Laura's family near Orillia, Ontario. Sam grew in Tema, Ghana as a member of an SOS Village there and soon Laura wanted to know all about life in Ghana. When Sam heard from the SOS Village organization in Canada, asking him to help get the story of the organization out to people in Canada, Sam thought Laura might like to help out.

Making Children Matter
Laura Thompson has had a lifelong interest in children, particularly in helping them express themselves through art. Thompson spent her time at SOS Village in Tema, Ghana, learning how the village is run and what its priorities are for the children under its care. Thompson was soon engaged in the Village's art department helping them create an exhibit of children's art for her to bring back to the children of her own community near Orillia, Ontario.

All the way home
A highlight of the trip to Africa for Laura Thompson and Sam Fuakye was the side trip to Yawkrom where Sam was born and where all of his extended family still live. It was an emotional trip for everyone concerned: Sam and his family had not seen each other for seven years; Laura encountered for the first time in her life the realities of poverty in a remote African village: No electricity, running water, little health care and educational opportunities for children

Back to work
Sri Lanka lost tens of thousands of people to the tsunami of December 26, 2004. In the months since it has been the survivors that have been the focus of a massive international aid and relief effort and for Sri Lanka, the first focus was on its fishermen who in losing their boats lost their livelihoods.

Playing amongst the ruins
Sri Lanka's beeches are still marked by the debris left behind the tsunami; the destroyed hulks of fishing boats often providing an improvised playground for children.

Getting ready to supply the world's need for coir
Sri Lanka's tsunami survivors, through the efforts of such organizations as South Asian Partnership and World Accord, are organizing to meet a worldwide market for coir. Coir is a coarse fibre obtained from the tissues surrounding the seed of the cocoanut palm tree, a native plant of Sri Lanka which currently produces 36% of the total world coir fibre output which is used in twine, brushes, doormats, mattresses and sacking. A major proportion of brown coir pads are sprayed with rubber latex which bonds the fibres together to be used as upholstery padding for the automobile industry in Europe. The material is also used for insulation and packaging.

Touring the housing ruins
World Accord (Waterloo, Ontario) executive director, and university masters student Sara Maki tour the thousands of wrecked housing left behind by the tsunami of 2004 along Sri Lanka's southern coast. Maki, from Waterloo, Ontario volunteered at World Accord as a student, inspiring her to specialize in international development. Throughout her student years she has volunteered through World Accord with a number of organisations in Central America and last year, five months after the tsunami, she worked for several weeks with one of World Accord's partners in Sri Lanka, South Asian Partnership, in the early stage of post-tsunami recovery.

Filming the Lace-makers
Lace-making, a longstanding art form for Sri Lanka's women, has become a strong focus of post- tsunami recovery. Recording some of their experiences and losses because of the tsunami is Villagers director of photography Steven Deme who has filmed in some forty countries around the world. Seeing international development through the eyes of the young people of the new TV series World Class has been a great experience, he says. "The phenomenon we are covering with this series really has two parts: the young people becoming involved and the willingness and enthusiasm of the established Canadian development community to find ways to channel this new energy."

Tasting the food
Tsunami reconstruction volunteer worker Sara Maki takes time out to taste Sri Lanka's local food, a unique blend of many cultural traditions.

The sea is quiet
Thailand's southern coastal waters among the world's most popular tourist spots. Today the sea is quiet but a year ago, gigantic waves roiled in and took the lives of tens of thousands of tourists and local people, destroying housing, infrastructure and livelihoods in its wake. Today a huge international effort is helping southern Thais survivors get back on their feet.

A Buddhist country
Thailand is 99 percent a Buddhist country, with one percent Christian and five percent Muslim populations. During the post-tsunami reconstruction efforts, the Thai Buddhist monks have opened up their temples for shelters and feeding stations to peoples of all faiths.

Digging for water
Lauren Clarke join ADRA Canada's search for water to help out local Thai people who had lost all their drinkable water supplies as a result of the tsunami.

Life goes on
Visitors to Uganda's war-torn northern territories see suffering that is removed from any points of comparison from their regular lives at home in Canada. Yet they also see signs of strength and courage to match. The people of Uganda, including the children, believe in a better future and are taking steps to ensure it happens.

School goes on
More than 1.6 million people in Northern Uganda live in internally displaced camps, often waiting for more than 10 years to go back to their village. But school and many other parts of life go on.

The children of HIV/AIDS
Losing their parents to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Northern Uganda is another aspect of war for the country's children. HIV/AIDS and many other transmittable diseases flourish in the camps of displaced people.

CPAR's annual study group trip
Within hours, the study group organised by CPAR (Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief) are facing grim realities of life in a war zone. The themes began to establish themselves. War. Destruction. Survival.

Landmine victims
Landmines are everywhere in Northern Uganda and the victims number in the thousands, both in deaths and for the survivors, in amputations. CPAR study group member and university student Layal Sarouh encounters some of the survivors in a displaced peoples camp.