Medical-Dental Teams - El Salvador 2010

Plans are well underway for a return visit to El Salvador next February. This will be the first time we have taken our team back to the same country, having been in El Salvador in April 2009.

Our largest team ever (30 people) will leave on Saturday, February 13 and spend the following week treating up to 3,500 patients with primary medical and dental care. Based on a survey in early December by Dr. Tony Brown and Ken Dick, a decision will be made regarding the communities to be visited. We expect to return to some of the same communities visited in April 2009.

This team will consist of six doctors and four dentists, aided by paramedics, nurses, dental assistants, a pharmacist and several support staff. In addition, we will be joined by some of the Feed The Children staff based in El Salvador and Guatemala.

Over the next couple of months there will be a lot of activity – shipping a container from Guelph; purchase of medicines; arranging accommodation for the team; arranging in-country transportation and a number of other logistical things.

This will be our fifth project since we first went to Honduras in February 2007. Interest has increased, as more Canadians hear about what we are doing. Inquiries from doctors, dentists and others are received on a regular basis, most indicating an interest in being part of a future project.

On the subject of “future projects” - we will commence planning for our next project soon. A major decision is always, “where should we go?” Dr. Tony and I are travelling to Haiti in mid-November to scope out possibilities in that country. Watch for further updates.

Art Auction for Nyota

One of our exciting international partners in Kenya, the Nyota Home, has a fund raising initiative being held in Guelph ON, the location of the FTC Canada head office. We would encourage you to attend this event and support the work of the Nyota Home for children. Ticket information is shown below.

Nyota means “Star” in Swahili, and their goal is to provide Kenyan children education and love that will allow them to achieve their dreams and become stars! Nyota is totally dependent on private donations and through the support of FTC Canada, Canadians can receive a tax receipt for their donations.

Visit www.ftccanada.ca/mission_in_action to learn more.

FTC CANADA AND CARAVAN LOGISTICS INC. PARTNER FOR THANKSGIVING FOOD DROP IN HAMILTON ONTARIO

Hamilton, Ontario – Saturday, October 13, 2009 – FTC Canada partnered with Caravan Logistics Inc. and Hamilton Tiger Cat centre Marwan Hage and his community initiative, Hage’s Heroes, to provide food to 1,500 needy Hamilton families this past Thanksgiving weekend (Saturday October 10).

This has become an annual event for FTC Canada. In 2008 they provided food and supplies to 1000 families in the City of Hamilton. Marwan Hage stepped up, providing 1000 hams in 2008 to add to donations collected in partnership with numerous churches, businesses, companies and individuals.

This year Caravan Logistics joined the partnership and provided the logistics support for the day held at Ivor Wynn Stadium in Hamilton.

In addition to providing two 53’ trailers for transporting food from the FTC Canada warehouse in Guelph to Hamilton, Caravan also provide over 35 volunteers for the afternoon event hosted under tents at the outdoor stadium facility. Employees along with their families prepared for the event setting up tables and supplies, handed out food boxes and bread and carried the family food boxes to waiting vehicles.

Denis Iwaniura, Manager of Corporate Accounts for Caravan was really pleased with what his volunteer team could offer. “If we can offer a helping hand for 1500 families on Thanksgiving and it puts a smile on their face, then it’s good for everyone involved.”

Each family arriving to pick up boxes had received a voucher from one of 5 Hamilton agencies in attendance on Saturday. The 22+ pound food box contained such things as pasta, sauce, jam, peanut butter, crackers, popcorn, cereal and drink mix.

“We heard directly from families on Saturday that they were so grateful for the box of food” notes FTC Canada president, Ken Dick. “In some cases this helped supplement a Thanksgiving meal, for others this was the meal all together.”

This story was edited for publication in the Truck News. [October 19, 2009]

Learn more about the recent food drop in the City of Hamilton at www.ftccanada.ca/hamilton

Camp is over for another year

Mish Adventures 2009 came to a close on Thursday, July 30th with a community BBQ in the 10 Houses part of the reserve. Thanks to Diana and Robbie Bottle, we ended camp with a celebration of a meal with our good friends. It was wonderful to have Chief Connie join us along with many of the kids from 10 Houses that we spent time with for 3 weeks.

We learned a lot this year “flexibility” was the biggest lesson. Weather, school bus troubles and sickness caused us to learn to be ready for anything and to find a way to run the program with the kids regardless of the circumstances. We also learned, that as much as you can plan with a certain result in mind, things can change so much that if you just "go with the flow", the result can be so much better than you expected.

We will miss our friends in Mish - the greatest reward this summer – deeper friendships! Our lives have been changed because of the friendships developed with campers, parents and others in Mish. We are so thankful we had this opportunity.

Thanks to a great staff team – you are a ‘Dream Team’! Thanks to those behind the scenes who gave generously in so many ways. You made this a summer where lives were changed and seeds of hope were planted.

"Broken Walls" come to MISHKEEGOGAMANG

“Broken Walls” arrived with a big truckload of equipment ready to be introduced to our friends in Mish. We welcomed them with a community BBQ and introduced them to everyone present.

Jonathan Maracle and Bill Pagaran led seminars at the Peg Youth Conference from July 20-23rd. Kris Delorenzi, another member of the group, joined them as they performed twice for the community. It was wonderful to have Barry, Luane and Joelle Greene also join us for the three days. Their regalia and dance was a magnificent example of the beauty of the native culture that is missing in so many communities.

The most exciting part for us occurred when the concert ended and members of the community joined the boys on the pow wow drum for a time of drumming and singing. It was wonderful to sit and listen to their hearts as they expressed joy to their Creator.

Sky Hedricks from Eagles Cry in Thunder Bay also joined the team. It was very moving to hear the story of his life’s journey. It was inspiring to the whole Mish camp staff team to watch Sky make the kids feel special.

Day 2 Report

Thursday, July 16, 2009

As predicted the weather today was very rainy and unseasonably cold so we were not able to operate the camp program. This is simply because we don’t have access to indoor facilities as planned.

We occupied the time planning some events for the Youth Conference next week. This included cleaning the home that our guest music group, Broken Walls will be using next week and we baked several loaves of bread for us and members of the community.

Broken Walls is a band led by Jonathan Maracle, a Mohawk from Tyendinaga Territory in Ontario. The band performs a fusion of aboriginal and contemporary styles of music (http://www.brokenwalls.com/).

We are hopeful the weather will clear up tomorrow so that we can get back to spending time the community children. If it rains again tomorrow, we will run a program for the children on both Saturday and Sunday to make up for the lost days during the week. Right now it is promising to be a genuine summer weekend - complete with sun!

Camp has Begun

Tuesday, July 14

We have arrived in a Mishkeegogamang community busily preparing for an election. Unfortunately this planned event has led to some unplanned disruptions and a lack of access to facilities on the reserve.

In an effort to adapt, in the first week of camp we divided our team in two and sent them out to the larger wide-open areas on either end of the reserve to operate camp near the children’s homes.

Our school bus has not been available, but we hope it will be ready for next week so we can resume regular activities at the school. The school has not been available, as planned either.

The weather has been great and we’ve had about 15-22 kids in each camp area. We have opted to run sports, games, crafts and, under the circumstances, everything has gone remarkably well. Unfortunately, because we have no indoor facilities, we will not be able to operate camp if it rains. Tonight there is a storm developing that is predicted to last for 36 hours once it starts. We can only hope the forecast is incorrect.

Many of the children remember us from last year and are definitely excited that we have returned this summer. It’s great to build these relationships as children get older.

We drove 24 hours to Mish, encountered a few challenges when we arrived but what a privilege it is to able to give these children some ‘fun in the sun’ for a few hours each day!