Here's the latest update from Sylvia at Canada Comforts.
CANADA COMFORTS
(Bears & Bags)
1185 Wychbury Avenue
Victoria, BC V9A 5L1
Greetings to you all in 2008
Once again I’ve been trying to get a letter off to you all. As our little grass-roots project gets larger it becomes difficult to keep up the administrative end. However there are some things I’d like to bring to your attention. I hope this isn’t too “house-keeperish”!
SHIPMENTS: The year 2007 ended with seven containers being loaded. Six 40’ containers were to Bangladesh, Sudan, Peru, and three to various areas in the Philippines. One 20’ container was loaded and driven down to Belize. Needless to say, the volunteers who were doing all the loading were exhausted.
January finds us with a container for Honduras being loaded on the Mainland side, and one being loaded for Ghana & Moldova here in Victoria. This year, Canada Comforts has been involved with 41 shipments sent through the Compassionate Warehouse medical teams, individual Doctors and other volunteers.
SATELLITE GROUPS: You leaders have been fantastic (all 52 of you), and the response from your groups has been overwhelming. A tremendous thank you for all that you do. Will you please share any letters or pictures we send with your group. Costs are mounting& we are having trouble trying to cover our expenses.
Drop-Offs
Vancouver IslandPlease note there is no longer a drop-off point in Courtenay. Coast Distributor in Lantzville is just tremendous. I know the owners personally, and they are committed to this project. I am phoned from the Compassionate Warehouse in Victoria when the truck loads from Coast Distributors arrive. To find the parcels designated for me, a truck load of parcels has to be sorted. I may miss some, but the main thing is that Coast Distributors is absolutely reliable and your things are definitely going to the Developing World. Also from up Island the drop-offs with the Majors in Duncan, & the Gudeons in Shawnigan Lake are absolutely reliable, and many thanks to them for being drop-off points.
Sylvia Hatfield, MSM
Co-ordinator
250-474-4614
canadacomforts@shaw.ca
The Lower Mainland (Vancouver, North Vancouver, Surrey, Burnaby, & Adergrove) The Vancouver drop-off contact is now Linda Comba at the same place & phone #. All the drop-off places deliver to Elinore Reddicopp in Surrey. She either stores your things, and volunteers come from Victoria to help load a container from there, but most of the time Elinore and her husband load their truck and bring your parcels over to the Compassionate Warehouse in Victoria. PLEASE put your FULL name, phone number, address and e-mail inside your parcels so the drop-off people can let me know. (Initials & only first names usually become unsolved mysteries). I can’t keep in touch or bring you up to date if I don’t know who you are. To all the drop-off people working together, my heart felt thanks.
Also, many thanks to the Mahoods (Art of Yarn) in the Kelowna area and the Moffatts in the Dawson Creek area. They personally bring your parcels to us here in Victoria.
Mailing All of you in the rest of the Province, and those in the other Provinces, thank you for mailing your parcels directly to me. That is true caring for these children when you spend so much money on postage. I receive at least five a week.
If you don’t hear from me, or one of the volunteers, when you mail or drop-off parcels at various points, I certainly don’t mind you phoning me and I will try to check things out. Just remember to have mercy, because I am trying to co-ordinate about 900 people (10 years ago we started with 3!). It really would help me if you would leave a message (long distance people too). I try and return all the day’s calls before I go to bed at night. One thing is very positive, I am confident the drop-offs are absolutely trust worthy-so the beautiful things that you make & buy for the children are reaching their destination.
FINANCES: Because of rising costs, we are looking into various ways our Canada Comforts Core Group could apply for funding, or perhaps become an official charitable organization and issue income tax receipts. More later.
REPORT: Dec. 27/07 from our Congo load (orphanage) which contained our bears & some other stuffed toys (enough for 1 toy each).
“They were children & orphans since they were born; they had never touched a toy or received a gift from their parents or anybody. One nurse told me that some orphans were refusing to put down their toys even when they were eating, taking shower or sleeping...thinking that it might be stolen....You made our children who were fighting over one home made toy all the time to the happiest children...I can hear now birds singing because I was hearing only crying & fighting....Thankyou for the good people that helped our children in the Congo” J. Byakweli
PICTURES: I am enclosing a copy of our latest picture. We are forever hoping that we will receive more. The Doctor who delivered these bears had this to say in his report:
“This family lives in absolute poverty near Mbale, in East Uganda. Ugandan friends took me to see and help the father. Geoffrey has AIDS & has difficulty growing crops to feed his 9 children. Grace, his wife has HIV &, at time of visit, was caught between feeding her baby weak soup or breast feeding & risk passing on HIV to their infant. Geoffrey’s first wife died of AIDS.
There were lots of other examples as well as many positive; inspiring scenes....Uganda is an interesting area to work in-wonderful people-even in poverty. Please pass on my thanks to the members of Canada Comforts for their efforts.” R. Moir
BEARS: Please do not give out the pattern, unless you explain about the tight knitting & happy face. It is really important. Our core group who do the quality control, need help from you on this matter. It seams that every request we receive now is asking for our bears. Bear knitters please keep up the good work.
BLANKETS: My heart felt thanks to all of you who do blankets. The baby blankets that come in are lovely, but we also need crib size approx 36” X 42”. People forget that the children turn around while sleeping. The same with the hospital size blankets. We had asked for 84”X60” because we were dealing with 12” squares, but 72”X60” is fine, or there abouts. It must cover someone while they are sleeping. When the children lie on the ground widthwise, it is amazing how many they can get under one blanket. Every blanket that is sent to us is used. So if you don’t want to change the size, just keep on with what you are doing.
TOQUES & SCARVES ETC: We just can’t keep up to the request for these, so keep them coming. Remember sweaters are worth their weight in gold. Also the dish cloths for the midwives are now being sent to Africa as well.
DRESSES, SHORTS & BAGS: Again, we can’t keep up to the request for these. The bag is the only pattern that must be ours. Some of you are making T shirts with your shorts & that is fantastic. Babies & children’s clothing are always asked for, & we never have enough.
SHOPPERS: To those of you who keep their eyes out for store sales, and who check the thrift shops for children & baby clothes, many thanks. All of you send these clothes washed and in excellent condition. Also thank you for your wonderful response in sending us the nylotex that some of you have found in the Thrift Stores.
Thank you for all your hard work, your caring and your compassion during 2007. You have made a tremendous difference in our world- caring for people who thought they were forgotten or considered worthless; helping those who have suffered during a disaster; sending love and hope with everything you have made, bought, or financially given. All of us are making a difference...one person at a time ...one box at a time ... one load at a time.
My love to you all,
Sylvia
