NOTES FROM AN ABANDONED VILLAGE

I'm still asking: Where and why did they go? Here is the story: the Bories village is composed of seven groupings of huts, each having a very precise function: houses, stables, barns, goat shelters, tanning mills, bake houses - the whole social and economic system build laboriously from limestone, and it all was abandoned by its inhabitants about 150 years ago. Classified as a Historical Monument by the French Government, it includes an impressive collection of archived documents none of which tells WHY??? The Bories village in France isn't the only abandoned place on Earth: Brochs, Trullis, Cabanes, Cleits, Giren are scattered around the world. Wherever you spot them, you are hit by the patience and dexterity of those who created them and the enigma that surrounds their abandonment. Visiting abandoned places - ancient but also modern - is becoming more and more popular tourism nowadays. Ghost towns in the former USSR and in the US, orphaned mine sites in Canada, post-Chernobyl villages attract by their macabre beauty. As the DirJournal blog says, "There are mainly two reasons why people suddenly or little by little leave the place where they used to live for years or even generations: that's the danger and economic factors."
My blog is dedicated to
"These were thy charms - but all these charms are fled."
Oliver Goldsmith, "The Deserted Village"

Monday, May 24, 2010

Operation Come Home




This was my first time attending their event: “Operation Come Home” Annual General Meeting, St. Brigid’s Centre for the Arts and Humanities, May 12, 2010. Typical order of business: reports, budget, administrative questions, thanks to supporters… “Operation Come Home” would like to thank the homeless youth of Ottawa who in their struggles courageously hold out a beacon of hope for their future. We strive to support your dreams,” – says Elspeth McKay, its Executive Director. I’m sitting behind them: those who identified “eviction by parents or guardians, parental conflict or conflict with family as the most prominent reasons for their homelessness” (“From Homeless to Home”, research by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Alliance to End Homelessness, Carleton University and U Ottawa). According to the data provided by Alliance to End Homelessness, the number of homeless youth grew by 27% since 2008 and continues to grow.

“Operation Come Home” (OCH) is a non-profit charitable organization working to help more than 350 street-involved and at-risk youth, ages 16-30 from all over Canada, preventing them from homelessness. “Preventing homeless youth from becoming homeless adults,” – Elspeth often says: it reflects the OCH mission very clearly. She said this when I first met her as our guest speaker at Algonquin. She was talking during our CSR class about two social enterprise ventures for OCH: BottleWorks and BeadWorks, successful both financially and socially. The enterprises employ more than 100 youth. Many of the youth that have started working have found a place of their own to live and have had the ability to find a steady job as a result of working in one of the enterprises. BottleWorks was short listed as one of the top 12 social enterprises across Canada.

Originally called Operation Go Home, the organization recently changed its name to Operation Come Home to emphasize the need to maintain its original mandate: OCH remains the only organization in Canada to reunite youth with their families through its Reunite program.

Sitting behind these young men and women I was so emotional that I forgot about my camera. I wouldn’t've been able to take pictures anyways, as at some point I found myself crying. Thanks Ashley for sharing yours.
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