Clean water refreshes children and improves health at Holoby Village School

Children at Holoby Village School enjoy fresh, clean drinking water after a $55,426 donation repaired their contaminated water system.

For a long time, the parents of Holoby village near our Pochaiv site in Ukraine were incredibly worried about the health of their children. Over a span of more than 16 years, their children were born frail and sickly, which only worsened as they grew. Doctors struggled to pinpoint why the children were so sick. No matter what medications they tried, nothing seemed to help, either. A local pediatrician noted several concerning conditions such as allergies and intestinal and liver diseases which tended to become chronic around age seven.

After an investigation by the State Sanitary Epidemiological Service of Ukraine found harmful substances in drinking water, the source of the children’s diseases became clear. Years of drinking contaminated water and eating school lunches prepared with the same contaminated water was causing serious adverse health effects.

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Photo Friday: Our top 5 “volunteers on mission” photos!

Welcome to Photo Friday! Each Friday, we share photo collections of our favourite shots from our sponsor sites around the world.

It’s National Volunteer Week! We’d like to celebrate, thank, and pray for all of our volunteers who have worked with us at Chalice. Every person has been a blessing, bringing their unique gifts to help us carry out our mission here in and Canada and overseas.

Volunteers help us in our office, in their own communities and parishes across Canada, and at our sponsor sites when they travel with us on mission. When gathering restrictions came in place in Canada, the move to volunteering from their homes did not phase our local volunteers. They still stuffed more 100,000 envelopes of child correspondence at Christmastime!

Today we’re sharing our top 5 “volunteers on mission” photos – highlighting all of the ways our volunteers share their expertise, passion and, above all, love with the children and families at our sites.

#5: Sojin’s new pals

Sojin volunteered her time and talents on a mission trip to Paraguay. She loved playing with the children at the Open Centre in our CMAVIL site. Sponsored children come to the Open Centre before or after school, where they receive help with their homework, a hot meal, healthy snacks and of course, lots of outdoor play time. So it was extra fun to have buddies from Canada for a whole week to push them on the swings, skip their jump ropes, and play soccer!

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Year after year, Chalice volunteers make huge impact

Volunteers are at the core of Chalice and make a huge positive impact on the work we do. From the parents who run feeding programs in our sites, to our Chalice Champions in Canada who fundraise and advocate in their parishes, schools, and communities, volunteers help us keep our costs low and impact high.

The ongoing pandemic has drastically changed how we work, but the enthusiasm and dedication of our treasured volunteers is stronger than ever.

Cathy, a Chalice Champion currently living in Nova Scotia was recently inspired by a bingo themed 50/50 fundraiser she participated in this past winter. “When I heard that one of the schools I visited on my mission trip to Tanzania in 2019 was raising money for a library I thought that I could use the same idea,” she explained. “Thinking that it was a good way to connect with family and friends across the country during these lockdown times, I put together an emailing list and sent a message.”

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Photo Friday: Our top 5 “gardening” photos!

Welcome to Photo Friday! Each Friday, we share photo collections of our favourite shots from our sponsor sites around the world.

In Canada, warmer weather is slowly but surely arriving across our provinces. Many of us are getting our gardens, pots and yards ready for planting all sorts of fruits, flowers, and veggies. Watching things grow is one of the most enriching and exciting parts of spring!

At our sponsor sites, gardening is an integral part of life for so many of our families and communities. Growing food is a cost-effective way for families to access a balanced diet, and extra produce can be sold for an income! This week, we’re sharing our top 5 “gardening” photos to get you into the spring spirit, and share some of the amazing gardening initiatives from our sites around the world.

#5: Overcome and prosper

Many areas around our Mikinduri site in Kenya have been affected by droughts over the past few years, leading to a food shortage. Local children were hungry and malnourished, and their health suffered, as did school attendance rates.

With the support of many loving donors, Miurine Elementary School was able to start a school feeding program with a small garden! The excited students took it upon themselves to plant lots of vegetables and fruit trees. Fresh fruit makes a great snack, and the vegetables are added to school meals to make the food more nutritious!
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Vladimir flourishes in Paraguay with family and sponsor support

Defying all odds and surprising his doctors at every turn, Vladimir is a fighter. When he was born three months premature near our sponsor site in Asunción, Paraguay, Vladimir’s loving and faithful mother and grandmother were told upon his discharge from the hospital that he would likely only survive for a short eight months.

The doctors, however, didn’t consider the love and determination of Vladimir’s grandmother who used every resource available to her to care for her grandson. She poured her attention into Vladimir who thrived under her constant care. With faith and hope in God, the small family met and overcame every obstacle in their way.

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Photo Friday: Our top 5 “Grow Families” photos!

Welcome to Photo Friday! Each Friday, we share photo collections of our favourite shots from our sponsor sites around the world.

When a child enters the sponsorship program, the whole family benefits from the support. Families can grow together when they can all access nutritious food, health supplies, and send the sponsored child and their siblings to school. Knowing there is a regular source of support gives the family stability, confidence, and the ability to plan for future needs.

This week, our top 5 “Grow Families” photos celebrate God’s great gifts to us: our parents, siblings, grandparents and even our ‘families’ that aren’t related by blood. Through sponsorship, everyone can thrive.

#4: Building strong families

Ethel is the president of her Family Circle at our Samar site in the Philippines. She lives with her husband and five precious children, three who are sponsored through Chalice! Thanks to the support of sponsorship, her children Liberato, Hazel, Erica, and Ella Jean are all able to attend school, while baby Aiden will have the support needed to grow up happy and healthy. Wanting to give back to the community, Ethel and her group-mates planted a garden at her children’s local school!
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Critical needs funding gives Tracey new life

With a mischievous grin and sparkling eyes, Tracey, a non-sponsored child living near our Tondo sponsor site in the Philippines, seems like any other active seven-year-old child. His antics keeps his parents on their toes as they smile with relief and whisper prayers of thanksgiving.

This typical rowdy behaviour brings his parents much joy because unlike most children, Tracey has faced many medical challenges in his young life. He was born with a congenital heart defect known as Tetralogy of Fallot, a rare condition caused by a combination of four heart defects. His parents knew that he would need surgery at some point and worried about how they would ever afford it. His father has only been able to find infrequent contract work, so the family of four survives on their grandfather’s meagre salary as a local police officer.

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Photo Friday: Our top 5 “new life” photos!

Welcome to Photo Friday! Each Friday, we share photo collections of our favourite shots from our sponsor sites around the world.

Easter is a time to celebrate new life! As the winter melts into spring and the first flowers unfurl from the earth, we are filled with hope. New life abounds in our sites in many forms, and our dedicated site staff work to nurture them all into an abundant harvest. Our top 5 new life photos celebrate the hope of Easter and a new and brighter tomorrow!

#4: Starting life out right

Pregnant and breast-feeding moms need to be extra mindful that they are getting a complete diet rich in vitamins and minerals. In rural Kenya, mothers-to-be and new moms were facing malnutrition and it was affecting their babies. Thanks to generous supporters of Chalice’s nutrition fund, the Sisters who run our Mercy Care site provided 388 mothers with a complete package of nutritional staples they need to stay strong. All the pregnant mothers involved delivered healthy babies, and the babies gained weight properly. The breast-feeding babies were stronger, more active and healthy! Continue reading “Photo Friday: Our top 5 “new life” photos!”

Little things given with great love

Ten vulnerable families from our Neema site in Tanzania deeply appreciate the recent gift of their very own rooster and laying hens! The children in these families are lovingly cared for by elderly grandmothers and mothers with chronic illness who are unable to work. Each family’s new feathered friends brought them immediate relief. The hens provided nutritious eggs to supplement the children’s diets, and soon, began to produce new chicks that quickly grew. Excess eggs and surplus chickens were sold to neighbours, which gave the families extra funds to buy other much-needed items such as groceries, clothes, and medicine.

The children squealed with delight when they first saw their new chickens, and were eager to learn how to care for them. Soon, they were all expert egg collectors!

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Photo Friday: Our top 5 “going mobile” photos!

Welcome to Photo Friday! Each Friday, we share photo collections of our favourite shots from our sponsor sites around the world.

Many of the families that we serve live in distant, rural towns far away from the hustle and bustle of central cities. Unfortunately, this means that they lack quick access to essential services such as medical care. When faced with further difficulties such as lockdowns caused by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, families face prolonged periods of isolation from food supplies, doctors, and other nessecities.

Thankfully, with the support of our sponsors and donors, our sites are able to quickly adapt in times of turmoil. Mobile medical clinics and on-the-go nutrition programs allow families to receive timely care when it matters most, while mobile businesses give families a chance to become self sufficient! This week, we’re sharing our top 5 “going mobile” photos to showcase some of these incredible initiatives taking place at our sites.

#5: Medicine on the move

At our Mercy care site in Kenya, a mobile medical clinic funded by kind Chalice donors is making a world of difference for children located in remote areas. Sr. Franclit, who works at the site, says when the mobile medical clinic came to the area, the situation was dire. With no other way to access health care, skin infections and other illnesses were going untreated. “Now, the children are very healthy, they are getting enough food, and they are getting enough medicine,” says Sr. Franclit.

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