It has been a long haul since the money was raised but the truck has finally arrived. Last spring Mark Seymour of Kriska Transport set out to raise the funds to buy a truck for “Hope for the Future” our partner organization in Belarus. The money was raised and delivered in March 2007 but it has taken 3 trips to Germany to find the right vehicle! In this picture you see Svetlana Simanova of “Hope for the Future” with the new truck as they prepare for the return drive to Belarus.
Svetlana was very excited about the new truck and sent the following note to Dave Shaw:
Dear Dave,
We have looked for a truck that we needed for a long time but now we are lucky, we have what we wanted. The truck is in a good condition and we hope that it will work well for the help to Belarussian kids and and our organization. We are very happy that our dream has become true.
You can see our smiling faces in the pictures.
Please, thank everybody who took part in raising money for our truck and the microbus for Chausy orphanage. We appreciate it so much.
Best regards
Svetlana
Dave Shaw told me that the most exciting thing for him is that this is another example of us not just handing over aid, but we are giving them the ability to help themselves. Although Canadian Aid for Chernobyl personally delivers all aid to it’s final destination, many other organizations just “drop and run”. This leaves “Hope for the Future” with the difficult and expensive task of distribution. Imagine a very poor family in a remote location being told that there are 3 boxes of aid for them to pick up in Minsk! Now “Hope for the Future” has the capability to get this badly needed aid right to the people who most need it!
As I said previously, Mark Seymour of Kriska Transport spearheaded this initiative and the money was raised from the following companies:
MacKinnon Transport
Robert Transport
Rosenau Transport
Richard Muir Charitable Foundation
Calyx Transportation Group
XTL Transport
Yanke Transfer
Armour Transport
CAT Inc.
Pollock Nationalease
L E Walker Transport
Marsh
Kriska Transport
These are companies that truly care and are helping us make a difference!
On a separate note … there is a small delegation going to Belarus this month and although I will not be there, I have arranged with Neil Matheson to send me pictures and updates regularly so that I can post their progress to this blog … so stay tuned!
Eric