In parts of Canada and the U.S., rainfall is so common, it’s almost a nuisance. We grumble as we walk home in the rain, or complain off-handedly to our colleagues about the commute to work.
It’s tempting to forget that in many parts of the world, rain isn’t a nuisance – it’s life.
Kenyans have dealt with ongoing drought over the past several years, and Chalice’s Mombasa site was no exception.
Continue reading “How Chalice Supporters Alleviated Drought in Kenya”
If someone ever gifts you a goat and a few chickens, and you’re not sure what to do, just ask Virgil and Shirley.
On a Chalice medical mission trip to Tanzania circa 2013, they found themselves in this exact scenario.
Continue reading “Virgil and Shirley Share Their Love in Action”
Calling All Foodies: Chalice Cooks Up Love in the Kitchen
May 16, 2022
Bedford, Nova Scotia, Canada –
Chalice, a Catholic international development and aid charity, is inviting foodies around the world to pull out their chef’s hat and roll up their sleeves at Love in the Kitchen this June.
Taking place June 18-19, Love in the Kitchen is a free online cooking and theology conference. Featuring 20+ Catholic speakers, they’ll share their insights into how our spirits connect to our stomachs.
Speakers will present on a wide spread of topics, including cooking, baking, body image, wine, and mixology – and how they connect to theology.
The pièce de résistance: Saturday night, a free, live cooking class with renowned Catholic chef Fr. Leo Patalinghug of Plating Grace Ministries.
Continue reading “Media Release: Chalice Cooks Up Love in the Kitchen”
You know how it goes: you sponsor a child until they reach adulthood, and then they go off to have a successful career.
Continue reading “3 Ways Your Sponsorship Can Help the Elderly”
Nitesh’s job may involve playing with fire, but don’t worry – he’s built a business and a reputation as an expert in just that.
In fact, as a metal fabricator, he finds his passion for the trade grows stronger each day.
But building a successful business took a lot of blood, sweat, and dare we say, fire.
Together, Nitesh and his wife have three children, and they live with his parents. He’s always had a passion for working with metal, and initially trained as a welder.
Though he worked in the field for 10 years, welding took its toll. Despite working hard, he still didn’t earn enough income to support his family.
What he wanted more than anything was to start his own business, but the chances of getting the money together was low.
That was, until his eldest daughter was selected for the Chalice sponsorship program. As it turned out, that little spark was just what Nitesh needed.
Continue reading “Child Sponsorship Sparked Career Opportunities for this Family”
When Trina met Vincent at the airport, she burst into tears.
It was an emotional reunion, fit for friends after years apart. And in a way, that was exactly their situation. Though they’d never met in person, Trina and Vincent had known each other for years.
She sponsored him through Chalice when he was still a young man growing up in Kenya. So when they finally met, it was like a friend coming home.
The journey to the airport that day, though, was a long one.
Trina heard about Chalice at her church in Stratford, Ontario, where a Chalice Champion was giving a talk about sponsorship. She was going through a hard time in her life, and the idea of connecting with and supporting someone in need appealed to her.
After Mass, she waited to approach the table at the back, where sponsorship booklets were spread out.
After everyone else had chosen, there were only two people left: an elderly gentleman, and Vincent, who was in his early teen years and based out of the Starehe Boys site. Starehe later became the Nairobi site.
Continue reading “How Child Sponsorship Formed a Bond that Spanned Oceans”
If you thought Chalice was only there for sponsored children, well, think again.
Since the early days of Chalice, we’ve been working to help both sponsored and non-sponsored children around the world live fulfilling lives. Sonu, a non-sponsored young man living near our Assam site, is one of them.
Born into a family that struggled financially, Sonu soon encountered struggles of his own. When he was young, he was diagnosed with polio, an infectious disease that can paralyze parts of the body. Quickly, it eroded his ability to walk, and his mother had to carry him to school. Even as a teenager, he needed to crawl to get around.
Sonu’s parents couldn’t afford to treat him, and his illness quickly grew into a problem with a dead end. Everywhere he went, he needed his parents’ help.
Until, one day, a light appeared in the darkness.
Growing up near our Haiti North site, life wasn’t always easy on Djenica.
Though she was incredibly smart, her parents couldn’t afford the school supplies to further her studies. Even buying food and clothes, the basic necessities, was a challenge for them.
When she was 11 years old, and desperately needed it, Djenica was chosen by a Chalice sponsor.
“After the first sponsor chose me, I began to feel better because I found food, school supplies, shoes, clothes,” she writes.
Not only were the necessities covered, but her family made the most of their family funding bank account.
Continue reading “From Hopeful Student to Successful Nurse in Haiti”
When women are given opportunities, they are unstoppable. And who knows that better than mother-of-three Lorenza?
This enterprising mother lives near our Ayolas site in Paraguay, and is fortunate two of her children, Cesar David and Rodrigo Ariel, have Chalice sponsors. Lorenza “faces difficulties with courage”, our site staff write, while sharing the values of love and responsibility with her children.
Since two of her children are sponsored, Lorenza is a member of a Chalice Family Circle Group. Parents meet monthly to discuss expenses and empower one another to start small businesses.
Soon, it was Lorenza’s turn to be empowered.
Valens Wolfs doesn’t take credit for a club that sponsored a child for over a decade and inspired students year after year. The credit, he said in an interview, all goes to his students.
When grade 13 was still around, the seasoned teacher taught a class called Science in Society at Father Michael Goetz Secondary School in Mississauga, Ontario. The class covered science’s impact in society throughout the history of technology, and quickly, the word spread: this was the class to take. Soon, enrollment tripled.
Eventually, students who finished the course began asking: “Sir, can we keep meeting?”
Valens, knowing those moments don’t come around every day, jumped at the chance.
“As an educator, doesn’t matter what you’re doing – stop everything, hold the presses, we’ve got interest,” he said.
Thus the SSO Wh5t Club (pronounced ‘So what?) was born. What began as a group of students meeting weekly to discuss an article blossomed into a 25-year club that raised awareness of social justice issues and, eventually, sponsored a child named Samuel through Chalice.
Continue reading ““So What?” Mississauga Teacher Inspired Students To Care”
