It’s about giving …

Posted on November 26, 2013 by johnageddes

For several years I worked in Bosnia and spent a lot of early Decembers in Sarajevo, a multicultural city that was still predominantly Muslim, before returning home for Christmas. The country was also in a post-war period and struggling to rebuild. I was always struck by the contrast between their society as it prepared for the winter solstice and year-end and mark varied religious celebrations and the onslaught I got when I came home the week before Christmas where I was bombarded with the pre-Christmas hype and commercialism that we endure in North America.

In the past few years, retailers have developed special shopping days to encourage people to buy, buy, buy – Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The aim seems to be to offer bargains for people buying Christmas gifts and help the retailer get everyone in the spending mode.

This year, for the first time, Canada will mark Giving Tuesday. Instead of focusing on getting, on December 3 there will be a country-wide effort to think about giving back – either through donations or volunteering.

The CanAssist African Relief Trust depends on donations from people across Canada to do the infrastructure support work in East Africa that we know helps communities to improve their well-being. We fund school classrooms and desks, hospital equipment and beds, rainwater catchment equipment in schools, clinics and communities, latrines for vulnerable children and adults at schools and in villages where no facilities have existed.

Each year CanAssist attempts to fund about $100,000 work. We rely on the generosity of donors to do this.

This Giving Tuesday we hope you will consider the CanAssist African Relief Trust in your charitable activities. And a bonus is that a donor has agreed to match the first $3000 in donations to CanAssist on December 3. So the value your donations (which already can buy about 4 times as much in East Africa as it would in Canada) will be doubled. Your donation will also be tax-deductible.

A study in the U.S. last year showed that the majority of people would prefer to have money donated to a charity than receive a gift that they could not use or did not really want. In this Holiday Season, please put CanAssist on your Giving list. Donations can be made with a credit card on the Canada Helps link below or by searching for CanAssist on the Giving Tuesday website. Or you can mail a check to 582 Sycamore Street, Kingston, Canada K7M7L8.

In the next few days, I will post some videos that highlight some of the work that CanAssist has already done in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. We plan to continue to do similar work next year with your support.

Listen to members of various CanAssist partner communities as they express their appreciation for the generosity of Canadians that is making a difference for them and their families.

Would you send your child into these toilets??

Posted on August 15, 2013 by johnageddes

Last year the CanAssist African Relief Trust funded construction of new toilets at the Mutundu School in Ruriru District of Kenya. There were about 250 children at this school all using two dirty and dilapidated toilet buildings. The “staff” toilets had already started to sink into the ground and were unusable.

Dan Otieno presents a plaque to Michael Gichira of the Murera group outside the latrines constructed in 2012 with funding from CanAssist.

Through the Murera Community Empowerment and Support Organization, CanAssist was able to provide new, clean toilets for the school and hook up a water source to allow hand-washing. CanAssist’s representative in Kenya, Dan Otieno, visited the Mutundu school in July 2013. “The work has been successfully done and the schools sanitation has totally improved (250) kids can now enjoy better latrines and have access to water.” he reports.

Lack of adequate sanitation is a scourge throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Less than 40% of people have access to any sanitation facility at all – mainly using fields and even the gutters for their toilet needs.

In addition to the humiliation and lack of privacy which accompanies open defecation, the health risks from having raw sewage exposure are many. Gastrointestinal diseases (typhoid, cholera, viral illnesses) abound and are a significant cause of morbidity and even mortality. Access to clean water for hand-washing is also usually not available. This compounds the spread of disease.

This year CanAssist will fund a similar sanitation initiative in the Twiga School in Ruriru District, Kenya through the same Murera organization. Dan Otieno, visited the school in July and reports:

“The school is in Ruiru District Kiambu country Kenya about 6 km North Ruiru town. The school has a population of around 504 and 13 teaching staff and 4 non-teaching staff. The existing latrines are filled up while some are in bad conditions and as such even dangerous for the pupils to use.”

The condition of these toilets is deplorable. Can you imagine sending your child to use these facilities? How can children be taught about hand-washing and prevention of fecal-oral spread of disease when these are the facilities being offered by their school?

The boys toilet at the Twiga school. Can you even imagine?

Dan also visited the Mutundu School in July 2013. “The work has been successfully done and the schools sanitation has totally improved (250) kids can now enjoy better latrines and have access to water.” he reports.

Given the successful improvements made at the Mutundu school last year, CanAssist is eager to find funding for this second school sanitation project in the same region. The cost of providing latrines for this school will be about $6000.

Can you help? Any donations to CanAssist allocated to the Twiga School Sanitation Project will help us acquire the financing to go ahead with this project.

Ruth and Donald Redmond will celebrate 65 years of marriage on August 21. Congratulations!

The family of Ruth and Donald Redmond of Arbour Heights in Kingston Canada would like to celebrate this couple’s 65th wedding anniversary by helping to fund this project to improve sanitation at the Twiga School. Donations specified to the Twiga School or the Redmond Anniversary Fund will be allocated to this project and can be made through Canada Helps (link below) or by mail to CanAssist, 562 Sycamore Street, Kingston, Ontario. K7M7L8

Roofs or Rooves?

Posted on July 15, 2012 by johnageddes

No wonder English as a second language is challenging. Sometimes I have trouble with it myself.

I wanted to write a blog item about two projects that CanAssist has funded recently in Kenya and Uganda. Both were to construct a roof on a building. So there are two roofs. Does that seem right? When I say the word, it sounds like “rooves” – but then that doesn’t look right either. The plural of hoof is hooves; thief, thieves; half, halves; but rooves? My word processor spell checker rejects this spelling. So I looked it up. It turns out that either spelling is correct, but that “rooves” is the archaic form. I’m not sure whether to take that as a complement on my historical knowledge or an insult that I am getting to be…archaic.

Regardless, it seems that the roofing business has been stimulated by two projects in Africa, thanks to CanAssist.

The first was for St Gorety Secondary School in Nyatike District of Kenya. As often happens in Africa, this community received some funding for a needed classroom at their school from a local governmental initiative. CanAssist was already building one classroom so they thought that they would add the second at the same time to save costs. Unfortunately the grant only covered the cost of the floor and walls. The second classroom was left without a roof and the community did not have access to the $3500 needed to put one on.

They became worried. Bricks that are used to make these buildings are all locally made and if not protected with a roof when the rains come, the structure may become damaged. Students at Loyalist Collegiate and Vocational Institute (LCVI) and Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute (KCVI) heard about the plight of fellow students in Kenya and took up the cause. Through their fundraising efforts, CanAssist has received donations that will cover the costs…and cover the building. It didn’t take long for the Kenyan school to get moving with this once they knew the funds would be available. This week I received notice that the roofing is completed and the classrooms are able to be used. The Kingston secondary school students, through their Quarters for Classrooms campaign were able to raise the roof!

Volunteers from Queen’s Health Outreach celebrate the completion of CanAssist funded classrooms at the St Gorety School in Nyatike District, Kenya. Students from LCVI and KCVI in Kingston raised the money to “raise the roof” on this building.

In addition, in early June, a group of CanAssist supporters from Kingston and Whitehorse Yukon (yes we have supporters across Canada) headed to Eastern Uganda to visit two communities there where CanAssist has funded projects at schools and a clinic. These travellers managed to raise about $9000 in donations which were spread between a secondary school in Kyabazaala, Uganda and the Olimai Health Centre. The clinic needed equipment but the priority was to put a roof on a new building for the facility. Like the St Gorety School, walls had been constructed but the money to roof the building was not there and the concern was that the structure would become degraded by rain and weather the longer it was left uncovered. In early June, I sent the money for the project. The Olmai Clinic in Uganda was quick to put CanAssist money to use to roof their new building. Last week photos arrived of the roofing completed. When these folks get to work, things happen quickly. The new structure, along with other improvements that have come through CanAssist, will raise the status of this facility from a Level 2 to a Level 3 clinic – thereby qualifying it for increased programming for the community.

The Olmai Clinic in Uganda was quick to put CanAssist money to use to roof their new building.

So, the work has been done. The school and the clinic have new buildings completed thanks to the generosity of Canadian supporters of the CanAssist African Relief Trust. Now all that is left is for me to decide – roofs or rooves in the report. Since my spelling checker rejects the latter, I will go with roofs. And bring myself into the 21st century.

As a reward for making it to the end of this post, here is a CanAssist Youtube video about the St Gorety School roof project with music by the St Gorety choir. Mission Accomplished.

Canada Day in Africa?

Posted on July 4, 2012 by johnageddes

We may have been busy celebrating Canada Day in Canada but would you imagine that it is a special day in some African communities as well?

I received some great pictures from the Hope School in Kenya this week. This school is the one I blogged about last week – the Canada Day Challenge. I spoke with the Director of the school on the weekend and advised him of the generous donation from the Sasamat foundation towards classrooms at the school and he was ecstatic.

“We will all celebrate Canada Day and the generosity of your Canadian friends at the school on Monday when I announce this gift to the staff and students.”

Children at the Hope School in Mbita Kenya, celebrating Canada Day 2012.

On Monday the children gathered to celebrate their Canadian sponsorship and express appreciation. With home-made signs they gathered for juice and acknowledgement of the help their Canadian friends have offered.

But there are Canadian flags flying elsewhere in East Africa as well, thanks to CanAssist.

A group of CanAssist supporters recently returned from a visit to Uganda and sent me photos of their trip. Included was one of the Canadian flag that flies proudly over the school compound. When I visited the school last year, the principal laughed and said “That Canadian flag is made of nylon and it flies well in the breeze. Our Ugandan flags are heavier material and it takes much more wind to get them going. So Canada is always brightly represented even when our flags are limp.”

The St Gorety Secondary School receives a Canadian Flag, and support for two new classrooms at the school.

When I visited the St Gorety High School in Nyatike District of Kenya last year, I took with me a flag for the school – one that was sent by Virginia Puddicombe, a teacher at KCVI in Kingston. Virginia also sent along photographs and letters from Canadian students to their counterparts in Kenya and the Africans have sent greetings back. A kind of pen-pal relationship has begun. We hope that, in this digital age, some face-to-face interaction can happen through Skype and the Internet.

While we proudly celebrate Canada here, there are people around the world who also pause to be grateful for the generosity and support that Canada and Canadians offer to them.

Oh, Canada!

P.S. We have raised about half the $2500 necessary to get the Sasamat promise of another $5000 for the Hope School. If you have not yet takent the opportunity to help us reach this goal in July, more information about how to contribute is available on the CanAssist Hope School web page.