Co-operative Development Foundation of Canada (CDF) is our Charity of Choice!


Co-operative Development Foundation of Canada (CDF) Our Charity of Choice.

CDF, in partnership with Canadian Co-operative Association (CCA), helps people to work their way out of poverty we have seen it for ourselves. Like the 440 disabled workers in the Philippines. Their co-op jobs mean the difference between a life of dignity, supporting themselves and their families, and a life of supreme indignity, many begging on the streets to sustain a miserable life of poverty. Last year the funds contributed helped over 2.6 million families in 15 countries. Over the last four years, credit union members in Africa and Asia accumulated $140M in savings and this is fueling economic and social development in the community – development with lasting results with the help of CDF/CCA. Please support us and help these families and their communities. For more information see CCA or CDF

Thursday 31 May 2012

Climbing mountains

Mount Kilimanjaro

We are four career co-operators with more than 100 years of combined co-operative experience. Each of us has contributed countless work and volunteer hours toward poverty reduction and co-operative development. We are passionate and committed to succeed. We wish to make a special  contribution to International Cooperative Development in this year, the International Year of Cooperatives as declared by The United Nations. We also wanted to mark this incredible milestone with a significant personal challenge.

We have been training for the climb in a number of ways including weight loss programs, walking, toning, yoga, walking, cardio, extreme walking like backpacking and hiking, biking, and we threw in some more walking for good measure. Unfortunately we live in different parts of the Canada, and for one of us a different part of the world, so while we can't always kick each other into gear in person we know we can find the motivation and support we need via skype and e-mail. 

We researched a few different routes for our climb and after some deliberation decided on the longer route which affords the greatest potential for success (age may have been a factor but we also didn't want all that walking to go to waste!!!). The challenges of this adventure has definitely changed our lives and it has attracted quite the attention!  We are committed to succeed both individually and as a team.