RECENT NEWS FROM CANADA
President's Report, 2010
CANHAVE has had another successful and busy year. I would like to begin my report by thanking a number of people. First, the countless donors, who through their generous donations to CANHAVE have allowed us to continue to support orphan children in Uganda and to complete and to start various projects. I want to thank the Board members of CANHAVE in Canada and in Uganda. They are all volunteers and they willingly give of their time and talents. Gwynneth Evans continues to give valuable leadership in her role as Volunteer Executive Director, and we are deeply indebted to her for her efforts on behalf of our Ugandan children and youth. We had a very successful Fundraising Dinner last October and to David and Ann McLean and all those who helped in organizing the Dinner, we say thanks.
One of the major highlights of the past year was the contribution of over 10,000 gently used tools to the CANHAVE Trade School by Lee Valley Tools. The tools were provided by their customers. The enthusiasm and hard work by the Lee Valley Tools staff are most appreciated. To get the tools and other valuable items from Canada to Kisubi is a story all of its own. It involved a tremendous amount of work and patience, frustration and finally triumph. We thank all those who contributed to the container, to those who collected items and filled the container, and did all the paper work and organization to see the container move from Canada and finally arrive in Kisubi. Special thanks to Janet Castle for getting the job done.
Highlights of the past year include the Fundraising Dinner, the shipping of the container to Uganda, providing a security fence around the Trade School, finally getting electricity into the building, providing funding for the building of a Girl's dormitory. This past year saw the election of two Boards of Directors in Uganda, one for the school children, and one for the Trade School. These two Boards now report to an Ugandan Board of Trustees. Another highlight was the establishment of a Scholarship Fund to assist those CANHAVE Students entering College and University. Surely, the most important highlight of year is that over 100 Ugandan students, children and youth are getting an education through efforts of CANHAVE. Thank you for making this possible.
Floyd McPhee
May 2010
The Canhave Story
It started with a phone call. That phone call came in April
1990 from a friend of mine living in Toronto. He asked me to visit
a refugee from Uganda, recently arrived in Ottawa. I visited
Caroline Nakayenga and her young daughter, Catherine. While
Visiting Caroline, I was introduced to Edward Bukenya, another refugee
from the same district in Uganda where Caroline had lived. Before
coming to Ottawa, they had met each other in a refugee camp in Kenya.
The Parkwood Congregation was instrumental in helping both Caroline and Edward get settled, providing financial aid, food, clothing and friendship. They were welcomed into the congregation.
In 1994 Caroline returned to Uganda to visit family and friends. She also visited Edward's sister who, because of the HIV/AIDs virus, had lost her husband, and was herself dying of the disease. From her deathbed she asked Caroline to somehow care for her five children soon to be orphaned. Caroline promised that she would help.
Once back in Canada, Caroline invited me to visit her in her apartment, on Argyle Avenue, on a hot summer day in August. She told me of her commitment and invited me to join her in her effort to support the 5 children in Uganda. I agreed. We started to hold meetings with interested people at Parkwood, and soon had plans to be registered as a Charitable organization. The name we chose was CANHAVE Children's Centre. We are better known as CANHAVE (Canadians Helping Aids Victims with Education). A volunteer interdenominational Board was established and Grete Hale joined us as a Board member. We originally considered building a home to accommodate the children. This is where the name CANHAVE Children's Centre comes from. However, in a visit with the Ugandan High Commissioner, he suggested that we focus our attention on educating the children, leaving them with their elderly grandfather with whom they were now living. So our focus turned to educating the children, and leaving them to live with relatives.
Our stated purpose was, "to promote the physical, emotional, social, intellectual and spiritual well-being of the orphans of AIDS victims; and to assist the orphans of AIDs victims in finding a satisfying purposeful place in their society." The five children were enrolled in the Busabaga Primary School. Unfortunately, the school had no windows, or doors, or flooring. As money came in, we were able not only to pay for the tuition fees, but install windows, doors and a concrete floor. With the help of a grant from the Presbyterian World Service and Development Fund, we were able to build a cement latrine for the School and community, and later on, install a water tank. These initiatives enabled the children to attend school, regardless of the weather, and also to enjoy good drinking water and bathroom facilities.
That was the beginning of CANHAVE: five children. That number has risen to 60 with a commitment of the Board to increase the number gradually until we reach 100 students.
Over the years, CANHAVE young people started to graduate from the School system and some of them asked us if we could help them learn a trade so they could support themselves financially. About the same time, a Christian Brother donated to CANHAVE a seven acre parcel of land in Kisubi. We started to raise money to build a Trade School so that CANHAVE young people and others might learn a trade. The Trade School is up and running and this year it is offering to over 50 students courses in carpentry and joinery, catering, computers, poultry, agriculture and hairdressing.
Yet, we have just begun. Thousands of children, without parents because of the HIV/AID's virus, await help. Many young people who cannot afford to be educated in a private or state run College or Trade School need to learn a trade. We must not stop.
As Catherine, daughter of Caroline, and former editor of The Clarion, once wrote in the newsletter, quoting from an unknown source: "A hundred years from now, it will not matter what my bank balance was, the worth of the house I live in, or the car I drove, but the world may be different, because I was important in the life of a child."
What lies ahead for CANHAVE?
Well, there are some immediate goals: Building the girl's dormitory, and adding a second story; drilling a well to provide clean water; building a boy's dormitory; and building accommodations for teachers and their families, so we can keep well-qualified instructors. I would hope in the next few years we would see professors and teachers from Canada volunteering their time for a few weeks, or a semester, by going to the Trade School to teach; and perhaps we might find a Chaplain to encourage and counsel the students. I hope that another group of adults might visit Uganda to come to know the school children, their grandparents and the Trade School. And this is my fondest dream – that, in the not too distent future, a group of young Canadians might spend two or three weeks or a summer visiting some of our CANHAVE children and working at the Trade School.
CANHAVE HAS HAD A GREAT PAST, BUT IT HAS A GREATER FUTURE.
Rev. Dr. Floyd McPhee
Outgoing President of CANHAVE
May 27, 2010
TELL A FRIENDCANHAVE CHILDREN'S CENTRE Registered Charitable Number: 88992 8396 RR0001
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