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Business in our Community |
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Third cargo of supplies heads to Africa
By Irene Chwalkowski, The Suburban
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Photo by Irene Chwalkowski, The Suburban
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Christmas Park students raised $2,000 to send medical and school supplies to Kenyan children.
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About 300 students from Christmas Park Elementary School in Beaconsfield marched from their school to the parking lot of Beaurepaire United Church in Beaconsfield last Friday afternoon, waving Kenyan and Canadian flags and singing songs.
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$"/>They gathered around a 50-foot container filled with 178 suitcases and boxes — the third collection of educational and medical supplies, books, toys and clothes leaving this week for a small village in Kenya, Africa, through a program called Suitcases for Africa.
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$"/>The children raised more than $2,000 for the project, and wrote letters to the children who live in Itegero, a small rural Kenyan village.
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$"/>The first three suitcases were sent in 2005, shortly after Beaconsfield resident Ebi Kimanani, who never forgot her hometown of Itegero, died after returning home from Uganda where she ran trials for AIDS and malaria drugs.
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$"/>A year ago, 27 suitcases and boxes were packed and sent by a group called the Kenyan Girls. Darlene Anderson, Maya Byers, Susan Cruickshank, Wendy Hamel, Eta Markowicz, Doris Morgan, Debbie Pearson and Linda Toivanen spent 17 days distributing the supplies and helping the children in the region. They also brought money to build a well in Itegero.
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$"/>“It was an emotional experience,” said Pearson to the three volunteers going to Itegero this year.
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$"/>Jackie Szabo, Bronwyn Lambert and Kelly Faubert will accompany the shipment, which is expected to arrive in June, through customs and ensure that everything gets to its destination safely. They will also distribute the supplies and gifts to the village and schools.
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$"/>Pearson said she’s especially touched by the commitment she sees in the children.
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$"/>“They were very involved. They were extremely excited about this. They would bump into me in the hallway and say: ‘We found cardboard in the dollar store that would be good to make the flags!’” she said. “It’s a hands-on experience. I think they’ve learned that they can make a difference — that every small act of kindness counts,” she said.
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$"/>Cruickshank said the AIDS crisis has wiped out a generation, with children now being raised by their grandmothers.
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$"/>“You can see the elderly grandmothers that are nearly bent over that are raising these kids,” she said. “They’ve taken over quite willingly and teaching them their value system.”
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$"/>There will be a fundraiser at May 19 at Newtown restaurant on Crescent St. and a Sunday mechouie (BBQ) in a country barn with a DJ on June 10. These events will also help set up a scholarship in Ebi Kimanani’s name to award funds for high school to deserving Kenyan students.
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$"/>For more information call Eta Markowicz 514-250-1791, Darlene Anderson 514-457-3786 (evenings and weekends), or Kelly Faubert 514-821-7054; e-mail: suitcasesforafrica@yahoo.ca.
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2007-04-25 10:44:33
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