Ashley Bochek
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The World-Spectator
Tanya Birkbeck grew up north of Moosomin on a farm, became a journalist at the University of Regina, and now works for the World Food Program (WFP) in Haiti.
Birkbeck has worked for the WFP since 2023 and continues to visit home when she can.
She talks about her background growing up in agriculture and the long-lasting connection with agriculture in the work she does today.
“I grew up on a farm north of Moosomin. It was a mixed cattle and grain farm, and I had more interest in livestock and in horses—I used to show horses—I loved looking after the animals. I liked working with my dad with cattle, but I also was always was curious in knowing what all was out there.
“I think that is something that runs through a lot of Saskatchewan people when you grow up in a small community, sometimes you have a large curiosity for the rest of the world, and I read a lot when I was a kid, so I definitely knew I wanted to study, and I wanted to explore other places, but in the course of my university studies, at some point it dawned on me that I could get paid to write—I’d always been a writer, I’d always made my own little magazines at home. It was a joy to write and to tell stories, and so I felt if it was something that I could get paid to do, who wouldn’t want to do that.”
Birkbeck completed a degree in journalism at the U of R and completed her internship on the east coast.
“I decided to study journalism at the University of Regina, and I remember when we had to apply for the internships, I looked on the list and looked at which one was the farthest away, because I wanted to see something I’ve never seen before.
“So I did my first internship in St. John’s, Newfoundland. At the time, there was a traveling scholarship at the end of university, and so I applied for the traveling scholarship, despite the fact that I had a baby. I had a baby when I was in university, so at the time my son was almost two, but I had a prof who really encouraged me, and so I applied, and I ended up getting the traveling scholarship. So I was working in London, for Gemini News, and it was an amazing experience because it’s a news service that features stories from all over the world, principally Commonwealth countries. I was a 22-year-old editor, and getting all of these stories from all over the world, and editing them, and putting them in layout, and then we were delivering them to publications around the world, and so it gave me a global perspective.
“I also have a little family connection with East Africa because a part of my mother’s family has lived in East Africa. So I grew up with a lot of African art and African artifacts around our house and my grandparents’ house, so I always felt this draw towards Africa. So I worked, came back from Gemini, I worked for CBC in Regina, CBC Radio at the time, and then I did a stint in Ghana with Journalists for Human Rights, so it was my first experience in Africa doing some journalism training and freelancing as well. I also freelanced in the UK for the Western producer. I did stories about foot and mouth disease.”
Intrigued in international work
Birkbeck says she was always intrigued and gravitated toward agriculture stories internationally.
“When I was in Ghana, I did stories about cocoa farmers, so I always came back to doing these agricultural stories. Then, I really wanted to learn French, so I moved to Montreal in 2005. I didn’t speak French, and I showed up at the CBC newsroom, and said I had worked for CBC in Saskatchewan, I want to work for you, and they asked, ‘Do you speak French?’, And I said ‘No,’ but I learned quickly because I had to, I needed a job, and so I enrolled my son at French school. He grew up mostly in Montreal, and I worked for about nine years in radio, television, first CBC in Montreal, and I always knew that I was going to work internationally, but I was a single mom, so I felt an obligation to give my son a stable life, for secondary school at least, and so when he finished secondary school, I was saying goodbye.
“I went to South Sudan, and I did journalism training there, and I lived in Beirut for a while, and did some freelancing from there, then back to South Sudan, where I was hired by the Food and Agriculture Organization to produce radio programs for cattle keepers.”
Saskatchewan agriculture, long lasting impact on future
Birkbeck says growing up on a farm in Saskatchewan created a long-lasting passion for helping cattle operations all over the world.
“I was really interested in the cattle operation when I was growing up. I was always interested in animal health and medicine, so it was really a natural fit for me. And it was also more of a natural fit because we weren’t just talking about livestock care and well-being and husbandry, but then we also talked about cultural elements, so it brings together farming and culture and religion, and how it all weaves together, because the idea was that it was to supplement a program which offered education for mobile cattle keepers.
“It gave basic education to the children, it gave practical literacy skills to the adults, so that people could read the medication for their cows, or that they’d be able to sign basic documents, so giving them basic literacy—be able to negotiate in the market to get the best price for things—so this radio program was a supplement to that, and so we were in a super rural community in South Sudan.
“Then I ended up working in the FAO office in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, for four or five years, and then I felt like, professionally—I love South Sudan, by the way, because it’s a highly agricultural and highly livestock-driven society—I felt professionally, it was time for me to move on, and I had an opportunity to go and join the World Food Program communications team in Haiti, and that comes back to being Canadian and being able to speak French and English. Sometimes it’s not that easy to find someone who can write a press release, can write social media in English, but also, I run my team of local staff in French, so we’re very bilingual, we’re building a multilingual office because there’s Haitian Creole as well, which is similar to the atmosphere that I worked in at CBC in Montreal. So that’s what brought me to Haiti. It’s been a long and winding path, and it’s often like if you have some particular skills or experience working in certain places, you can end up finding yourself in places you never expected.”
Work in Haiti
Birkbeck explains her work with the World Food Program in Haiti.
“I do four to six weeks where you don’t really come up for breath, you’re working morning to night, in the middle of the night, you’re traveling a lot in that time, so it’s exhausting. Every time you think you’ve got something settled, there’s something else that comes up because in these kinds of environments there’s always a new challenge. You think you’ve got everything lined up, and then in Haiti, there’s suddenly a hurricane, and then you have to have an emergency response to a hurricane, and we do the communications around that, it can be really intense.”
Set up for success on the Prairies
Birkbeck explains growing up on a farm north of Moosomin prepared her for international work.
“I feel like the Prairies have really prepared me because it’s a really interesting combination of intellectually very rigorous work, and physically very challenging. A lot of times you’ll find yourself in a field where it’s hot, it’s dry, you have to walk a lot, you have to be comfortable around livestock, you have to be comfortable in a field, you have to be comfortable at a site for Internally Displaced People, where you have thousands of people who are living in really quite horrific conditions, and you have to know how to navigate bad roads.
“One of the questions they asked me when I first went to South Sudan was, ‘Have you ever driven on a road that’s not tarmac?’ And I said ‘heck yes!’ There’s so many elements that tie together, coming from a food producing family. When I’m working with a family in Haiti, or in Lebanon, I’ve created that link of saying, ‘I also am a farmer.’ Particularly with livestock in South Sudan, I would tell people I’m here because of cows—cows paid my university, so livestock can be a means to growth as well, and to show people how it doesn’t have to be one or the other, you can be part of both worlds, like in an agricultural world, and then also you can go on to go to university, you can get into whatever international work, politics, and take your place in the world.”
She believes food is essential for everyone in the world.
“I truly believe this, food is fundamental. If you have access to food, then you can start to think about educating your kids or you can start to think about how do we stop early marriage, or you can start to think about health care. It’s fundamental to everything that we do, and so there’s that thread that has always run through me. I come from a farming family, my son lives in Montreal, which is a big food city and he ended up becoming a chef, and so I think it’s very fundamental, and it brings us together.”
Grateful for home in Saskatchewan
Birkbeck says she is grateful to have grown up in agriculture in Saskatchewan.
“I think the biggest thing that comes from the work that I do is a sense of gratitude because I see people struggling and people dealing with much less than what we have. In Haiti, at the end of the day, I go home, I have a very comfortable mattress, I have a shower, and I have a clean apartment, and I have something to eat in my fridge, and I have electricity that keeps the food cold. So I’ve had this very strong sense of gratitude. Also when you look at security situations—because most of the areas that I’ve worked in have been areas where there are security issues—something as simple as walking down the street or walking down the grid road and being fairly well assured of your security is something that I don’t take for granted, and one of my greatest joys when I come here is simply walking down the grid road. Being able to safely walk two or five kilometres from your house is a real privilege.”
Sharing global stories to Canada
Birkbeck has always been determined to share the world’s stories for Canadians to learn global perspectives.
“I always wanted to tell the global stories, and I really believe that there’s a link between the local and the global, and there were times when I had this idea that I wanted to work internationally, and that I wanted to be able to somehow bring a message back to people in Canada about other things that were happening in other places of the world, but it wasn’t clear to me how that could happen. We’re often so limited by our thinking, that you can’t even imagine what you could possibly do.
“A few weeks ago we organized a press conference for the Secretary General, which is really cool. I’m really honoured that our team was asked to work on that visit, and to be able to contribute. It’s literally at the highest level, there are times where you still have pinch yourself moments.”
Message to Canadians
Birkbeck says international work has taught her people all over the world have similar ambitions.
“People are people and everybody has the same desires. Everybody wants their kids to be safe, well-nourished, and have access to education and health care. Don’t assume that because somebody is in Haiti or Sudan or Palestine or Afghanistan that those people have less a desire for their children to be well taken care of than you do. Everybody has those same desires, and I understand that. We’re in a very complicated world with a lot of different demands, but just to understand that the humanity is common, I think that’s probably to me the most important message.”
Eager to chase stories
Birkbeck explains she has always had a drive to chase the world’s stories.
“I’ve always kind of chased—I like the feeling of witnessing something historically important, and to be able to tell that story to show where there’s been true impact. My job is to encourage donors, donor organizations and donor countries, to fund the work that we’re doing.”
“It’s about being able to show the impact—when you can see that you’ve really been able to make a difference for people—that can be what I’m looking for,” said Birkbeck.
“It can be seeing somebody who’s able to grow crops who wasn’t able to grow crops before. On the other hand, we also do emergency assistance. People who have been displaced come to us, and they either get cash assistance or food assistance, and I’ve seen people burst into tears and say, ‘Thank you, thank you!’
“You can be cynical about aid because you know giving one bag of food does not change the system which caused that problem in the first place, but it does give immediate relief in an emergency situation, and I think that is the humane thing to do. It is gratifying to see people saying, ‘Okay, even if it’s just for this week, I can breathe and I can feed my kids.’
“We have this thing called Zinley now, which is a new pilot project, and it is a credit card, like a prepaid visa, and a lot of people who have received this, it’s the first time they have ever gone to a supermarket to shop, and then they can buy whatever they want. There was a lady who started crying because she was so happy to be at a grocery store and buying food for her kids. In Haiti, it’s a bit different because, in some other context, going to the grocery store could be way more expensive than going to the public market, but in Haiti, even the public market is pretty expensive.”
She says she enjoys her work in Haiti and seeing the impact of her help upon individuals.
“Giving the people the dignity to go to the grocery store and hand them a card, just like anybody else—these ladies were so proud, and I felt so happy for them. It also teaches them how to use a card and how to use a bank account. So, it helps them be part—we call it financial inclusion—of a world that we take for granted. They don’t have cards, they see that as something for rich people, and then suddenly they’re like, ‘Wow, I have a card too!’, they feel really proud.”
Future plans
Birkbeck enjoys working in countries affected by crisis and is open to more international work in the future.
“I definitely want to do another what we call emergency country. I like working in zones which are affected by conflict and crisis. It comes with a new challenge every single day, but that’s part of what I really enjoy about this kind of work, having to come up with an alternate solution or being flexible enough to change where you thought you were going or what you thought you were doing in any given time, and to be able to quickly tell the story, so that you could show the impact of what you’re doing.
“I have a particular attachment to Africa, and particularly East Africa. I love the Middle East, so those are possibilities, but we’ll see what comes up.”
