Our Summer Children Selection Complete!

We have had a great year for recruiting new host families, allowing us to host 22 children this summer in our region.  The difficult job of deciding which children will come is left up to Rhona Dixon, our “Respite from Radiation” chairperson.  Rhona has been hard at it all week and managed to finalize the last few children today.  Here is Rhona with 3 children from our “Child Rescue Program” at the Chausy Orphanage who will be coming to Canada for the first time, Maxime, Alicia and Stepan.

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Alicia is a bright and animated little girl who has only been at the orphanage for a few weeks.   Here Rhona shows her a letter written to her by her host family for this summer.

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Maxime is going to one of our Directors homes, Chantal Seguin.  Chantal has hosted Vadime (below right) for the past several summers and she wanted to host a second child that Vadime could be a good mentor for.  Vadime will be a great “big brother” to Maxime especially when they return to Chausy and he now has someone that he can talk to and confide in.  In this picture, Vadime is showing Maxime pictures from some of his previous visits to Canada.

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Next, we drove South of Chausy to a dairy farm collective where a little girl named Xsoosha lives with her mother.  The houses you see here are on the collective farm and are used by employees of the farm.

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Here, Rhona is showing Xsoosha and her Mom a picture of the family that will be hosting her, along with a letter and some pictures drawn by their children.

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The last family we visited today was about 20 km West of Chausy on another collective farm, this one raises chickens.  Again, the houses below are for the families of the farm workers.  Jhenya is 9 years old and we arrived just when she and her sister were walking home after meeting their Mom on her way home from work.

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Rhona is showing pictures and a letter from the host family to Jhenya (in the red sweater), Dasha, her 11 year old sister, and her mother.

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Jhneya has a problem with one of her eyes so she will also receive a much needed medical consultation and possibly treatment while in Canada.

It is a lot of fun watching the children’s faces light up when they are told they have been chosen to come to Canada, however, there are always many more smiling faces that also deserve a break from the radiation.  If you have ever considered hosting a child in your home, I’m sure we can find a match for you for summer 2016!

Eric McKenzie