As mentioned previously, a major component of the Fall trip this year was a hockey school for the children of the Chausy Orphanage.  It was sponsored and run by the Malcomson family who are long time supporters of CAC and our work at the orphanage.  Additionally they are talented Hockey coaches and have a lot of experience running hockey schools here in Canada. The week long hockey school included classroom training sessions at the “Malcomson Home for Family Living” located on the orphanage grounds as well as on-ice sessions held at the newly constructed arena in nearby Gorki.

Here the students gather around the coaches during an on-ice session:

While in Chausy a meeting was held with the Mayor of the region who presented Continue reading →

Over the past few years, with the help of Don and Shirley Green, major reconstruction has taken place at the Chausy Hospital to completely renovate the operating room and critical care ward.  But the work doesn’t end there!  Much more work is needed to help bring this Hospital up to an acceptable standard.  Next on the list is the Sterilization room as well as the ER Entrance and Emergency Rooms.  Here is a picture of the current sterilization room:

and the floor beneath Continue reading →

As part of our Fall delegation, CAC Director Stephen MacKinnon once again returned to work with the children at the Chausy Orphanage.  Stephen is a past recipient of the Prime Ministers award for teaching here in Canada and over the past several years has put his skills to excellent use helping these children.  He set the groundwork for the development of a fourth Yearbook for the orphanage school and got them to start the process of taking school photos along with capturing pictures and memories to be published.

Another highlight of Stephen’s visits is the creation of videos by the students.  This Fall it was Karina, a talented singer and dancer at the orphanage, who took up the challenge and created a documentary about a new student at the orphanage.  Every trip the quality and creativity of the videos improves and this was the best one yet!  Here is Karina working with Stephen while another student, Ilya, looks on.

During the September delegation, Canadian Aid for Chernobyl initiated a new Continue reading →