It is an exciting week at the Chausy Orphanage. Although Dave Shaw has been there for the past week working hard on next years initiatives, the exciting day for the children came today when hockey school began. Dave and Allan Malcomson along with Brian and Shawn Knowles arrived yesterday and will be holding the training sessions every day this week at the newly built arena in nearby Gorki.  These coaches are not strangers in Chausy as they held similar sessions in the Fall of 2010 and the impact on the Orphanage teams was remarkable.  The coaches will be living at the Chausy Orphanage in the “Malcomson Home for Family Living” which was donated by the Malcomson Family.

Here is a picture from the 2010 training session showing Dave Malcomson working with the kids on positioning:

and another showing Brian Knowles working with the goalies:

This program, as well as other CAC programs, got a boost this past week as the local Chausy paper published a story on some of the programs we have implemented and included the orphanage and the hockey.  Click here to see the actual article from the paper.  It is in Russian so I will give you some of the highlights.

The article talks about the “Malcomson Home for Family Living” and describes how valuable it is for the children to learn some life skills.  Unfortunately being raised in an institution does little to help you understand how it is to live in a family environment or even cook your own meals or do your laundry.  Here is a picture from the paper of two boys in the kitchen at the home:

The article also mentions the poultry and pig barns and how these not only provide food, but also teach the children practical job skills for their future in this agricultural society.  It talks about our 15 year relationship with the orphanage and ends with this statement regarding the children of the Chausy Orphanage “The most important thing for them – is to become worthy members of society and look to the future with hope.”  I couldn’t have said it better!

Eric McKenzie