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Catherine Clark: What Mother’s Day means to me

By Catherine Clark, CARE Canada board member

My mother has always been a seminal influence in my life – strong, courageous, intelligent and committed to a better world – she set an example for me from a young age that complacency in the face of injustice was simply not an option.

I had the opportunity to travel extensively with my parents as I grew up, and my mother made a point of always visiting local programs in countries where Canada offered international assistance. Whenever possible, she took me with her on those visits, teaching me that the way I lived was not the way most people lived, that the opportunities I had for education, equality, health and well-being were not guaranteed to every person. That was an important lesson for a young person to have.

Following in my mother’s footsteps, and as a mother now myself, I champion causes that support the empowerment of women and girls, which is one of the reasons I serve so proudly as a board member of CARE Canada. CARE is dedicated to helping lift women and girls out of poverty, to give them opportunities to be educated, to earn income, to be respected, and thus to succeed within their communities. I firmly believe that if you give a woman the opportunity to improve her life, she will do so, and improve the lives of everyone else around her at the same time.

As Mother’s Day approaches, I always remember that any one of us, at any moment, could be struggling to ensure safety, health and opportunity for our children. Mother’s Day provides us an opportunity not just to celebrate with the people we love, but to remember our duty to help other moms around the world as they work to create better lives for their families too. That’s why I support CARE and the programs it offers women globally – because when you extend a supportive hand to one woman, you lift up an entire community – but when you extend that hand to many women, you have the chance to change the world.