Tag Archives: chernobyl

Best Birthday Ever version 4.0

Yesterday we held our 4th annual birthday party for the children of the Chausy Orphanage. Again this year it was hosted by Corbin Evans, a grade 8 student at TISS Intermediate school. Corbin raises the funds for this party through various means throughout the year including bottle drives and Crispy Creme donut sales. Here is Corbin and his Mom, Jennifer, dancing at the party. Needless to say the party was a huge success.

Before we see a few more pictures from the party, I’ll back up to a couple of other activities from the day.

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“Water is Life” Initiative

As usual here in Belarus, we are playing the “hurry up and wait” game. We cannot deliver the food and family parcels until they are released from Customs bond. But there is lots to do so we are kept busy preparing for other activities like our upcoming birthday party for the children of the orphanage as well as one for the “Families of Invalid” children (AKA the “Day of the Angel” Party). We also have several other projects on the go. We are renovating the bathroon of a small apartment for a single Mom as well as providing water to 6 families, 4 while we are here and 2 after we depart.

Today we started on the water for the first family. The well drillers were at their home first thing this morning and were finishing up early this evening. The family includes a Mom & Dad, an older daughter with a 2 month old baby and three younger daughters. Here is a picture of all but the oldest daughter and her child.

Unlike Eastern Ontario where we have to drill through solid bedrock, here the soil is very sandy with some clay. As a result

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Getting Things Underway in Belarus!

Our delegation has been arriving over the past two days with the last group arriving tomorrow night. We have a smaller delegation this year and a slightly shorter timeline so we are off and running on day 1. Dave Shaw was in Belarus at the end of March to meet the containers, get them unloaded and organized in our bonded warehouse in the School #1 gym.

One of the containers being unloaded

One of our projects this year is bringing running water to 6 families. It is hard for us to imagine living without running water, especially with a large family or young children. But bringing in water involves more than just a well and a pump. A sink,

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