After two years of planning, fund-raising as well as a lot of last minute running around and finishing touches we were finally ready for the Grand Opening.  This project is a partnership between the Chausy Administration, Canadian Aid for Chernobyl and Dream Mountain’s Foundation.  Unfortunately a high level of alcohol abuse has created a need for this type of shelter and we are proud to sponsor the first of it’s kind in this country.  A lot of negotiation was required to determine responsibilities between the Chausy administration, Social Services and CAC, but in the end all are satisfied with the arrangement.  Here our Mountain climbers (Shawn Dawson was unable to make it) who raised $30,000 are introduced to the the Mayor of the Chausy Region.  Additional funding was provided by our loyal CAC supporters.  From left are Timothy Ross, Stuart Spurrell, Bob Van Blitterswyck and Brad Speck.  It was so great to have them here to see the final result and realize the amazing long term impact they will have on the families in this community.

Outside a crowd gathered as we were entertained by a local music group playing
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Today is my last day in Belarus and it was definitely a full one.  Dave and I started our day with a meeting with the Mayor of the Chausy Region.  We filled him in on where we were with various initiatives and requested his commitment on initiatives going forward.  Mayor Anatoly is a man who cares deeply for his region and the people who live there.  He was very interested to partner with us and to commit to helping where he is able.  This is the municipal office at the city square.

Next we met with Elena, a woman who is involved in many areas of Continue reading →

Jon and I headed to Mogilev today to deliver the third and final load of family parcels there.  Although it is a large city of 360,000 people (third largest in Belarus) it is a real blend of new buildings and many sections of houses that were part of outlying villages and still have dirt roads!  This can make it very difficult to find addresses, but we managed to get all of the deliveries completed.

I don’t have a lot of delivery photos but I took a few that will give you a look into some of the sights we saw today.  This first one is a strange looking tractor that was spraying a field.  It was going really fast and looked very maneuverable for its size.

This is one of the streets that I Continue reading →