Happy New Year to all of you and yours! With the new year comes our updated initiatives for 2019. Please read below to find all of our plans and dreams for the upcoming year. If any of the items grabs your attention we would love your help, just click on the “Donate Now” button on the right side of the webpage.

Thank you all for your past support and we look forward to posting updates as the year progresses.

Dave Shaw – Director of Humanitarian Aid and Orphan Initiatives
and Eric McKenzie – President

Running Water ~ $12,000 Raised

Most families living in homes in the Chausy region do not have running water or indoor plumbing. Over the last two years Canadian Aid for Chernobyl helped 9 families improve their lives by connecting them to a water supply.  The impact is immediate and lasting. We have 6 more deserving families that will receive this life changing gift in 2019.

Sponsored by:

• Margaret Campbell & Ridgetown Community – 2 wells
• Bill and Lesia Mazwell – 1 well
• Students at Fulford Academy – 1 well
• Gary and Rebecca Mitchell – 1 well
• The Yuille family – 1 well

Containers ~ $16,000 needed   (Overseas and inland shipping)

CAC currently has enough humanitarian aid to fill 2 transport containers for this spring, provided the funds are raised. The containers will consist of food and parcels for a targeted 800 families including seniors on small pensions and impoverished families and families with disabled children. In addition, we hope to raise enough funds for hygiene products for impoverished families, orphans, abused / neglected children, disabled children and adults. Also, shoes boxes for seniors, gift boxes for orphans, handmade quilts, clothing, footwear, wheelchairs and walkers.

Food Boxes ~ $30,000 needed

Canadian Aid for Chernobyl has launched our 18th annual food box drive; providing 50lbs of staple food products to seniors on minimal pensions, single mothers or families on social assistance, families with invalid children. Last year, we hand delivered 600 food boxes.

These boxes are genuinely appreciated and will be hand-delivered by our self-funded volunteers in April when families’ preserves are depleted.

We hope to provide food to more than 600 families!

Family Boxes

In addition to the food boxes, CAC delegates will deliver more than 400 humanitarian boxes from Canadian families to families living in the contaminated regions. In the past, families throughout Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes have sent parcels through CAC for safe distribution.

Rescue Home for Children ~ $15,000 to $20,000 USD needed

Many children continue to live in dangerous family or foster family situations, but living in an institutional orphanage environment is not an option.

CAC, in partnership with the Chausy Administration, is in the process of establishing a rescue home in the Town of Chausy.  The concept is to purchase a property and hire a long-term house Mom who would nurture and care for several children of various ages.  The children would have the advantage of living in a loving family environment while attending regular public school and would have access to extracurricular activities.  

The Malcomson family has committed the funds for the purchase of the property.  Funds for renovations and furnishings are needed. Targeted completion is the end of 2019.

Building Libraries through Literacy

To be Raised – St Lawrence Academy

Over the last 13 years, CAC has partnered with a number of elementary schools in Leeds and Grenville, providing orphanages and schools with several thousand new hardcover books for education and personal enjoyment.

This year Riley Shaw, a teacher at St. Lawrence Academy, is spearheading this initiative with students and families from the school. The focus this year will be to raise funds to create a library and student lounge at School #1 in Chausy, where students can meet to enjoy the books we have provided.

Orphan Initiatives:

Chausy Orphanage – Child Rescue Program ~ $10,000 needed

Currently there are 94 children living at the Chausy Orphanage.  Of those, 26 are orphans and the others have been rescued from difficult situations by CAC thanks to generous donations through our auction gala.  This is the first “foreign” agreement for sponsorship of children living in an orphanage in the history of Belarus!

Funds are still required for food, clothing, footwear and hygiene products for the children.

Music Program ~$700 USD needed

CAC has been developing and supporting the Music Program in the Orphanage for more than 14 years. In the Spring of 2013, we expanded this program to introduce acoustic guitars, electric guitars, electric bass guitars, drum sets, tambourines, song books etc. In addition we took several instructors with us and it was a tremendous success.  

This program continues to be popular with the children at the orphanage.

Chausy Orphanage – Agricultural Program ~ $5,000 needed

After years of operating the Chausy Orphanage with critical food shortage in late winter and early spring, in 2005, Canadian Aid for Chernobyl introduced the Agricultural Program. Through the support of our donors, we provided the machinery, equipment and seeds needed to harvest sufficient potatoes and various vegetables for the entire year. In fact, for the last six harvests they have yielded a surplus and the children took their produce to market.
In 2010, we appealed to our supporters to help us expand this program and we built a state of the art poultry barn and delivered it to the orphanage in April 2011. What a success! The hens are yielding 90 eggs a day, and we need to purchase the 6th round of 50 broilers!

Funds needed to support our agricultural program: providing feed for the layers and broilers, Purchase broiler chicks, crop fertilizer, fuel and machinery maintenance.

Chausy Orphanage – Yearbook ~ $600 needed

The goals of this initiative is to work with the students at the Chausy Orphanage School to improve their technical skills, celebrate the students’ successes and build their self-esteem. The last 7 years school yearbooks were a huge success. The students, school director and staff remain keen to continue producing keepsake yearbooks. Students from Belarus and Canada are working hard together as a team to produce the 2018/2019 yearbook. CAC has introduced the children to the worldwide web and this initiative will maintain the Internet connection to the school and expand student use of email and the web.

Birthday Party for Orphans

$2,000 Corbin Evans working hard to raise

After the tremendous success of our past three birthday parties for our orphan and rescue children, we are pleased to have the fundraising underway to host this fun and exciting birthday bash again!  Corbin Evans, a grade 8 student from Thousand Islands Secondary School, is in the process of raising the funds needed for this years party and Corbin will once again be in Chausy to help host the event.

Malcomson Home for Family Living ~ $3,000 USD needed

In September 2008, CAC initiated an agreement between the Department of Education, the Chausy Orphanage, the Department of Humanitarian Aid and CAC to construct a house on the orphanage property. This “home” was completed in 2009 and provides the opportunity for orphaned and abused children to experience family life and develop skills in family structure and finance. They learn to purchase and prepare meals, care for a home, do their laundry and enjoy life as a family. The house sleeps 6 students and one supervisor. Until now, the graduating kids leave the orphanage with no family skills, no understanding of money management, no experience at food preparation or how to live in a healthy family environment.
CAC has received numerous letters from the children who enjoy the house and are deeply motivated to strive for a better future and have enjoyed a positive taste for family living. They are having a blast!!  Special thanks to the Malcomson Family.

General household maintenance and upgrades.

Initiatives for the Physically, Mentally and Medically Challenged

Guardian Angel Program ~ $6,000 USD needed

The Guardian Angel Program is an ongoing program that deals with children/young adults in the Chausy Region of Belarus who have been labelled “Invalid” because of some physical/emotional/intellectual challenge.  This label has often had them treated as undesirables.

Our main objective is to ease their situation in any way.  Helping caregivers by making their days in any way easier and they themselves feel more significant/valued/cared for, can often give some hope and sense of significance.  Clothing, food, transportation, ambulatory devices (wheelchairs, etc.) are just some of the things and services we try to provide for those who struggle. At this time we have 150 families registered in this program

Invalid Children Support ~ $5,000 from Brockville Rotary Clubs

Canadian Aid for Chernobyl has once again partnered with the Rotary Club of Brockville and Rotary Club of 1000 Islands and families with disabled children: providing a medical fund of $5,000 to be used for medicines, medical supplies, surgery or improvement to quality of life.
There are 150 families with physically, mentally or medically challenged children currently registered! Thank you Rotarians for making a tremendous difference in the lives of these children!

Mini Van for Invalid Children Organization

In 2010, CAC partnered with Don and Shirley Green and successfully purchased a mini-van for the organization of Invalid Children. This has now made it possible for many children living in the rural areas the opportunity to attend daycare and our new social workshop / learning care facility in Chausy. It has given the child/young adult the opportunity to do crafts, woodworking and most importantly an opportunity to socialize and to feel significant.

• $5,000 USD operating budget needed
• $2,000 USD repairs – aging vehicle
• CAC would like to raise the funds to replace this aging van.
• $15,000 USD needed

Social Workshop for Invalid Children and Young Adults ~ $2,400 needed

In 2014 CAC announced the grand opening of the areas first Social Workshop for children and young adults with physical and mental challenges. Located in the center of Chausy in a former school, it offers a classroom environment and interaction with regular children. This is a wonderful opportunity to support our vision to integrate children with challenges into society. Our kids are busy making crafts, carving wood, sewing as well as selling their creations at local markets and fairs. CAC is responsible for the classroom expenses, heat and electricity. The city authorities are responsible for providing the psychologist.  

Storage area ~ $1,350 needed

CAC has agreed to continue our financial support to the Organization of Invalid Children to allow them to operate their distribution of humanitarian aid from a small storage room. CAC pays the rent, electrical and minimal heat.

Shoeboxes For Seniors ~ Target 800 Shoeboxes

Many seniors living in the affected regions of rural Belarus are destitute and lacking in basic hygiene items.

The Shoeboxes for Seniors committee has been in full swing packing and receiving products, since early spring, for our delivery in April.  Over 700 boxes have been lovingly packed with essential items; toothbrushes, paste, soap, hand creams, small towels etc. These boxes are hand delivered by Social Service and are overwhelmingly accepted.  Spearheaded by Mary Bernard.

Quilts for Chernobyl

Once again, our quilters have been hard at work creating beautiful handmade quilts for our orphans and impoverished children. This April, we will once again have the pleasure of presenting these beautiful quilts … lots of excited and happy children.  What a wonderful gift for a child!

Spearheaded by Mary Bernard.

School Initiative ~Funds Raised by Harry & Mary Preston

Again this year our members, Harry and Mary Preston are focusing on an upgrade to a school. This will include sports equipment, computer and printer along with supplies, classroom books and a geology demonstration. There will also be an exciting field trip with a class to Minsk to see the Patriotic War Museum and Aquarium along with lunch at McDonalds! It will be a day these children will not forget.