Old Boy receives YMCA Peace Medal

By Richard Wills, Publications Editor

Andy Rosenhek 2002 has received a Peace Medallion from the YMCA of Greater Montreal for his innovative efforts to help underprivileged children in Tanzania. Andy was one of four individuals to receive the 2008 medal at an honour luncheon on November 21.

The YMCA says that its Peace Medallion is intended to recognize the achievements of individuals and groups in local communities who—without any special resources—demonstrate in their lives and activities the values expressed in the World Alliance of YMCAs’ 1981 Statement of Peace. “Peace…is not only a state of relationships among nations. We cannot expect to live in a world of peace if we are unable to live in peace with those close to us—even those who differ from us,” says the YMCA.

Andy originally got involved in humanitarian activities as a result of a trip he took to India a few years ago.

“While sitting on the floor of this overcrowded train, a beggar stumbled up to me with no arms or legs, pushing a rusted metal can, asking for money. This wasn’t the first person I’d seen like this in the country, so I asked someone on the train what the story was. He explained to me that some parents deliberately cripple their children by laying their limbs across the train tracks when they are young, so that they will grow up to become beggars and help support the family. The more pitiful they look, the greater chance they have of succeeding in a competitive market that is driven by overpopulation.

“I had seen enough and knew that I had to do something.”

Through an online organization Andy found a project in Tanzania and decided to volunteer. A short time later he found himself in a small rural village in the northeastern part of the Arumeru district on the slopes of Mount Meru. There, a local man named Unambwe Zephania Kaaya, who works part-time as a safari guide, had launched the Matunda Cultural Tourism Project two years ago to build a schoolhouse and orphanage for 50 children aged 3-7.

Schooling is supposed to be free in Tanzania, but orphans and mentally disabled children are basically abandoned when it comes to education, Andy says. “Even though school is ‘free,’ people can’t afford it.”

Andy lived there for more than a month, teaching the children and sharing the locals’ rough living conditions, with a shower that consisted of a bucket of water and a cup, and a toilet that was nothing more than a hole in the ground. “Most of the houses we visited were one-room huts of sticks and mud,” he says.

But he fell in love with the people there, and was struck by the realization that it would be relatively easy to make their lives so much better.

When Andy and Mr. Kaaya compared notes, they agreed that very little of the money donated by people in the developed world ever reaches its target. Most of it is siphoned off to cover excessive administration costs. “It’s hard to make it go directly to the source of the problem,” Andy says.

Back home in Canada, Andy set a personal goal to finish what he started in Africa. He discovered a web-based organization called givemeaning.com, which attempts to channel cost-effective relief for such projects. Andy set out to raise $12,000 to complete the proposed school/orphanage, convinced that individual efforts can accomplish more than wasteful bureaucracies.

Andy is promoting a concept known as “The $5 philanthropist,” in which a large number of small donations can be more effective than a few large ones. “For the price of a coffee, you can do great things,” he says. “Philanthropy does not need to be something that only the rich can participate in. With enough social networking and awareness-raising, the money adds up to a lot and can be used to do a lot of good.”

“Philanthropy doesn’t need to be something that’s reserved for the wealthy who can attend gala fundraising events,” Andy points out. “It can be something that is done by anyone who is interested in a cause.”

Andy has been accepted to McGill Law School, but has taken a one-year deferment in order to pursue his volunteering passions. Now that he has raised nearly $19,000 for the village in Tanzania, he is eager to go back there to see the “big progress” that has gone on there since he left.

But first he must finalize a proposal being pitched to a Canadian foundation that is interested in developing his website idea.

 “It all stems from the Selwyn House Centennial conference [on Educating Youth for Global Responsibility],” says Andy, who was one of four Selwyn House Old Boys who made presentations to the October 2 conference.

At the conference, Andy was approached by the manager of a federation interested in his idea of establishing a Facebook-style social networking website “to bring the volunteering world together.”

“It’s looking like it’s starting to happen.”

Other individuals besides Andy who received this year’s YMCA Peace Medallion are: Dan Bigras, Marguerite Bilodeau, Anne Farrell and Sharon Steinberg. Group medals went to: Service d’aide et de liaison La Maisonnée, Artists for Peace and Young Actors for Young Audiences.

One of the recipients of last year’s YMCA Peace Medal was Alusine Bah, who was keynote speaker at the October Selwyn House conference on Educating Youth for Global Responsibility.