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CANADEM Notes

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Welcome To CANADEM Notes

You leave home to work in another country, another culture, perhaps another language. There are many rewards – and challenges. You will encounter a new culture and new ways of working, which can bring personal and professional stresses.​

CANADEM Notes is a service to help mitigate those stresses. The four series move from preparing to leave for a mission, through strategies for optimizing effectiveness and dealing with particular professional and personal challenges, to the experience of returning home.

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All Preparing to LeaveGetting the Job DoneManaging ChallengesReturning Home
Preparing to Leave

Practicing Safe Stress: Introducing CANADEM Notes

May 5, 2026
An introduction to CANADEM Notes and the role they play in helping deployees build resilience, manage stress, and prepare for…
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Preparing to Leave

The Home Front: Family and Friends While I Am Away

May 5, 2026
A thoughtful look at how missions affect loved ones at home, with practical reminders on staying connected, preparing well before…
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Preparing to Leave

With Eyes Wide Open: Planning to Stay Safe

May 5, 2026
Practical advice for staying safe while travelling and working abroad, from preparing documents and packing smart to developing the street…
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Preparing to Leave

Take Two Aspirins: Planning to Stay Healthy

May 5, 2026
A practical guide to protecting your health on mission, covering travel preparation, illness prevention, useful medications, and simple habits that…
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Preparing to Leave

What Happens in Vagus: Planning to Stay Sane

May 5, 2026
An accessible reflection on stress, the vagus nerve, and simple ways to calm the body and mind through breathing, movement,…
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Getting the Job Done

Our Reaction to Being There: The Ups and Downs of a New Job

May 5, 2026
A practical reflection on culture shock, adjustment, and the emotional ups and downs that often come with settling into a…
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Getting the Job Done

Imagine an Iceberg: The Impact of Cultural Differences

May 5, 2026
An insightful look at how culture shapes behavior, values, and institutions, and why understanding what lies beneath the surface is…
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Getting the Job Done

Engaging with Others: Being the Newcomer in the Workplace

May 5, 2026
A helpful guide to arriving well in a new workplace, building trust with colleagues, clarifying expectations, and adapting to unfamiliar…
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Getting the Job Done

Working with National Staff

May 5, 2026
A reminder that local colleagues are essential to mission success, offering practical advice on building trust, showing respect, and creating…
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Getting the Job Done

Managing Disagreements

May 5, 2026
A grounded exploration of how cultural differences, personality styles, and workplace pressure can create tension, with practical guidance for handling…
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Managing Challenges

Resilience in Times of Change

May 5, 2026
A thoughtful reflection on anxiety, uncertainty, and resilience, with practical ways to stay grounded, healthy, and effective during seasons of…
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Managing Challenges

Sleep on It!

May 5, 2026
An encouraging guide to why sleep matters so deeply for health, resilience, and professional effectiveness, along with simple habits that…
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Managing Challenges

The Road to Burnout Is Paved with Good Intentions

May 5, 2026
An honest look at burnout in humanitarian work, how it develops, what it feels like, and the everyday practices that…
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Managing Challenges

When Trauma Happens to Someone We Know

May 5, 2026
A practical and compassionate guide to recognizing stress injury in others after a critical incident and offering the kind of…
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Managing Challenges

If Bad Things Happen to Me

May 5, 2026
A reassuring overview of how people may respond after a traumatic event, with guidance on healing, seeking support, and understanding…
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Returning Home

Coming Home and Moving On

May 5, 2026
A reflective look at why returning home can feel more difficult than leaving, and how re-entry can become a meaningful…
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Returning Home

Tools for Re-Entry: Process the Past … Plan the Future

May 5, 2026
A practical guide to processing difficult memories, letting go of what no longer serves you, and taking the first steps…
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Returning Home

Now What – Moving On

May 5, 2026
A thoughtful closing reflection on moving forward after mission life, with encouragement to care for yourself, build community, mentor others,…
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CANADEM

CANADEM is an international not-for-profit NGO dedicated to advancing international peace and security through the rostering, rapid mobilization, and mission.

Respect for the environment
An ever-increasing awareness that caring for the environment is the responsibility of us all, regardless of our area of expertise or profession, has propelled CANADEM to place more focus on our own global footprint as well as that of our sector. During this Period, we have embarked on a challenge to enhance our learning regarding the environment and how we interact with it – including efforts to create a baseline and targets for improving how we deal with our natural environment. We are therefore making a conscious and transparent effort to measure and manage the way we affect the natural world around us, hopefully becoming better caretakers along the way.
Impact Driven
CANADEM has always valued the positive impact we make in the world as a foundation of our work. It is this guiding principle that has led us to form lasting partnerships, in support of other entities, if we feel they can add greater value than we can at CANADEM. Searching for our comparative advantage, while avoiding falling into a simple race to find funding opportunities, is therefore essential to CANADEM. As we see an increasing number of individuals suffering from the consequences of conflict in the world, and prepare for even greater numbers of environmental disasters, the need to prioritise the areas where we can make a real difference and combine our efforts with like-minded entities, is vital to achieving success.
Efficiency
The objective of CANADEM’s leadership has always been to find the most innovative and cost-effective ways to contribute to communities in need, and not to place the growth of numbers and our budgets at the centre of our efforts. As a result, we have adopted a light footprint in terms of our human resources complement and infrastructure, making use of the latest technology, and empowering our small team to be as innovative and flexible in solving problems as our procedures allow. Our structures allow us to scale up and down as required, and for staff to work in different teams, according to the needs of the moment. Our 30 years of experience has taught us what our core capacities are and how to allocate precious resources.
Accountability & Transparency Values
From CANADEM’s earliest beginnings as a Government of Canada project, and during its rapid evolution into an independent NGO with its roots in international service, the principles of accountability and transparency have been a component of CANADEM’s DNA. Accountability for the use of public funds has been incorporated into procedures that needed to respond to the high standards of government. Transparency has been the vehicle to ensure the vital accountability that CANADEM maintains. CANADEM’s headquarters team is a well-trained group of committed individuals who believe in the important work they do – including the conviction that providing the best value possible to the communities and donors we serve is a primary component of our job. CANADEM’s rules and procedures are therefore established to ensure that every step of the way we are confident of our work, and can demonstrate its efficiency and effectiveness.
People-Centered Values
Our work is about deploying people to help people. It is therefore of paramount importance to us that we are all relating to individuals in our chain of service delivery in a way that is respectful, understanding, considerate, and that brings out the best in us. Our internal working context is designed to foster humanity, fairness and support among our staff, which in turn aims to foster those same qualities among the experts we deploy. We have invested in a team of individuals (our Duty of Care Team), who provide a safety net for those experts we deploy. By taking care of our staff members and our deployed experts, we ensure that we have an effective flow of communication between all aspects of our operation. Our experienced and motivated staff feel supported, and are in turn able to support our experts in times of stress and prevent any potential problems from occurring.
Diversity & Inclusion Values
Ensuring an inclusive workplace that integrates diversity in terms of gender, language, culture, ethnicity and religion, is of prime importance for CANADEM both internally and with regards to our work with partners. We have made significant progress in attracting experts from 178 countries around the world – including from countries that are recipients of international assistance – so that a diversity of perspectives, understanding and expertise may be integrated into all operations that CANADEM supports. From our fair and transparent selection process, to our supportive Duty of Care Team (which ensures that individuals deployed have the resources they need to feel comfortable and confident in their work), we have invested significant energy in fostering diversity and inclusion within our roster system, in our election monitoring deployments, and in our own direct implementation of programming, at headquarters and in the field.
Partnership Values
The majority of our experts work within the assistance operations of our partners. Partnership is therefore of primary importance and value to us, and is key to the way we operate. Our many long-term relationships with other actors have been forged by promoting trust and understanding. The ability to work together with other actors, and not in competition, has allowed CANADEM to enhance the work of governments or organizations by injecting vital expertise, and targeting it where it is needed most. We believe that we can create a greater impact, when we work in partnership.