• The society provides medicine, medical equipment and treatments to children across Canada.
• For the love of children aero space school – Canada – given $25000 for educational programs
• We build playgrounds which are accessible to disabled children
• We organize special events like Santa’s Express
• We support Opening Gates Riding School for the disabled
• We provide funeral services for abandoned children or for families under financial constraints.
• We provide and fund educational programs at the Aero Space Museum of Calgary. We give opportunities for children to go to the Space program in Houston, TX (NASA).

• Dadar School – Need a new gymnasium India
• Ashid Bahl School Orissa – Given Rent, school supplies and food
• New Bhaktapur painting school
• Swami Rama orphanage/school
• Mountain View school – given $25,000 electricity India
• Orissa – Temple/school –  given funds for phuntsokling youth football club
• Tibetan Childrens village Dharamsala – Kangra
• Jigamata Girls Hostel – Given $3000
• The deaf and mute school of  Ahmadnagar – need sleeping mats and blankets and to improve kitchen facility – Apang Sanjiwani
• The phuntsokling school Orissa
• Mercy and grace schoo/orphanage Adhra Pradesh
• Mahatma Vastigruh Mali Wada Adhmednagar 
• Vioyalaya Vastigruh Orphanage School – Given tv, cricket bats, water well and veg garden
• New English School – Village Wakodi Tehsil  Adhmednagar
• Sankalp Pratistha Sanchalit (savale) Shelter Home – Ahmednagar

• Talek school Masai Mara – given administrative building, toilets, completion of unfinished class rooms – need more class rooms Kenya
• Masai tribe near mosiro – Rift valley- Need water well- Kenya
• Kagemi Primary School – Needs electricity – Kenya
• Westlands Primary School – Need sports equipment Kenya
• Thika School-School furniture
• Makuyu primary school- Nairobi Kenya
• Sud Academy – Need educational supplies – Kenya
• Nyota community school – Kenya
• National school feeding council of Kenya
• Mathare community care school – Kenya

• Shree Hachowk school Nepal – Need new toilets
• Gumpa Center - Nepal – Need to finish last phase of orphanage $2 0,000

• Institution educative incial san Fransisco – Peru – Lima – Roof needed $5000
• Cusco school – Ashid Bahl need 6 new classrooms
• Cep Hogar Del Nino Jesus – Lima
• Hugar Transitorio Deninos san jose orphanage – Cusco

• Ashid Bahl School - Cambodia
• Carpenters 4 Cambodia – Given tools – Need to repair Phnom Penh

• Sarahim School for disabled Children – Kabul Afghanistan
• Allohodine Orphanage Kabul Afghanistan

• Papa aanyu oriana school kampala Uganda
• African Child Foundation School Uganda – $50,000

• Saint vincent de paul school Lebanon (south)

• For the love of children school/Sri Sri Ravi Shankar School-Sri Lanka

• • Victoria Primary School – Philippines

• Wawase children’s orphanage West Africa ACCRA

After returning from Haiti, I saw that not much had changed for the 1.3 million people left homeless in the ravaged capital one year later. Thousands still live in inadequate tents without their basic needs being met. Less than 5% of the rubble has been cleared. Cholera epidemic has claimed the lives of over 3,600 people. To add to the existing problems there is the violent political unrest over the elections. Rape is prevalent in the tent camps. The people are frustrated at the Haitian Government taking so long to decide how they should be helping the homeless. Attempts to provide temporary shelters for the homeless like the Corail project is sadly failing forcing the Haitian Government to come up with a long lasting solution. The Corail settlement intended for about 4,000 built on borrowed land has no running water, electricity, health clinic, affordable transportation or jobs. Many desperate people on hearing about the settlement moved in, building shacks made of corrugated metal which are surrounded by raw sewage. Many did not like the idea of being moved outside the city as they make their living within the city and the commute is expensive. In the countries I have helped in the past that were hit with natural disasters; saw people given temporary shelters as a temporary measure which sadly became their permanent homes. People here believe the same will happen in Haiti.

For our part we built one of the first permanent building; an orphanage that was destroyed by the earthquake. About 50 orphan children can now live and receive education better than before. After receiving new clothing, food, education supplies, toys, and a new home equipped with electricity and water the children’s moral has been lifted and they no longer feel helpless. The nightmares they once had of the earthquake and the aftermath of it is slowly turning into a goodnight sleep for all. We did not obtain any assistance or cooperation from the Government of Haiti, but the government officials did come around to nitpick on the building specifications of the orphanage. We asked the Government to help pay for two teachers but got no response. We learnt that the 9 new schools houses were to receive students but the Government failed to provide teachers or salaries. The orphanage has also provided a home and employment for our agent who lost his home and had to save his own son from the rubble of their house. He like many is still waiting to hear when he can have a permanent roof over his head. With no answers in sight some have started reconstructing their homes using their savings, others have moved in with their relatives or friends, reminiscence of what I saw in Sri Lanka, Peru or Kashmir. Underfunded NGO like ours can only hope that donors will still help us to expand on the orphanage to accommodate more orphans looking for a home. It was imperative for us to show donors how 100% of the money went to help children as we in the society do not get paid but volunteer our services. Water is still a big factor in the outbreak of cholera and there is a great need to provide deep water boreholes. The society is also going to supply solar powered lamps and help people grow their own vegetable gardens.

On seeing the whole situation in Haiti one wonders why less than a billon has been delivered by foreign donors of the over $6-billion pledged towards reconstruction efforts.

The Haiti reconstruction fund is supposed to administer $ 508 million but has so far only received $ 265million. UN appeal to combat cholera epidemic for $ 174 million has raised only 20% of the needed funds. Non-profit organizations raised hundreds of millions in weeks after the disaster; many have not delivered on their promises, some funds misspent.

In the light of the above it is very frustrating to see the lack of aid being delivered in the reconstruction efforts. We cannot leave these people in this state of desperation or dependant on foreign aid; they need to get on with their lives with some dignity.

We still need help to supply the orphanage with more beds, kitchenware, land to grow a vegetable garden and a permanent water supply. We need to rise another $ 25,000.00. We will appreciate any help you can afford towards this worthy cause.

A WISH COME TRUE FOR THE YAMADA (JAPAN) SCHOOL CHILDREN

I and a member of the society (Michiko Hashimoto) just came back from a mission in Japan to fulfill the wishes of the Yamada school children.

The Yamada School north of the Fukushima plant survived as it was on higher ground from the Tsunami and earthquake. The Town of Yamada, Iwate Prefecture, is in an area hardest hit by the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. Much of the town is now gone. The elementary school, located on a hill, luckily suffered only minor damage. Since then, the 295 children and their teachers (many of whom also have lost their homes, friends and family members) have been sharing the space with locals who are temporarily housed within the school. Only one child died who did not attend school that day due to sickness, but many of the children lost their parents, relatives and friends.

Although the school got a little help from the government, the bulk of the costs of educating the children have to come from the parents. The school children asked us to help fund for the programs (educational trips) that were covered by the families and which no longer can be covered due to the natural disaster. The parents who survived do not have a home or jobs; those who do work for an average wage equilvant to $9.00 per hour.

These programs that were supported by the parents included educational and cultural school trips to sights like this one sponsored by our society to the UNESCO heritage town of Hiraizumi. These trips were the highlight for the graduation classes during the whole year and the children looked forward to them. To deprive them of this would have meant a more negative impact on their lives, which have already been shattered with their losses. This 2 day school trip ( at a cost of Yen 1,000,000.00- one million Yen) of learning, fun and giving back to the community can certainly go a long way to give them hope, courage and some normality in their shattered lives. On this trip to Hiraizumi 100 children got to perform the tiger dance and also go for a picnic at an amusement park. Included in the trip was an educational visit to the Coca-Cola plant. They enjoyed learning about the history of their region and its rich culture and heritage. 295 children also received gifts of school supplies from the society.

A lot of the rubble has been cleared very efficiently and in a very short time in comparison to other natural disasters in other countries that I have helped in. I saw some temporary homes that were very well built, the people that have moved in them are told that they can live in them for 2years and it is not known what will happen after this period. They still have to pay for the utilities by themselves. Japan Island is limited in space and that worries the people who are left homeless.

We visited several towns and cities in this northern region. One thing that was noticeable is that there was no notable presence of other charitable organizations; just government workers. South of Yamada thousands of people living near the Fukushima nuclear power plant have been ordered to evacuate. In the Fukushima region tens of thousands of people are still displaced. I saw from the flight plane on the TV monitor that our plane did not go over Fukushima but rather went around it to land at Narita airport because of the radiation factor. Some people who fled the earthquake, the tsunami and the nuclear disaster now face harsh judgement of their countrymen who see their choice to flee their homes as "un-Japanese". In nearby Sendai city a 10m wave struck deluding farmland, sweeping cars across the airport runway; 200 to 300 bodies were found.

I met a 10 year old boy at the school who went by the name of Rikito Watanabe who escaped the tsunami. His mother picked him and his brother from school and went home to pick up their dog. The boys stayed in the car while she did this and soon after the tsunami hit killing the mother in her home. Rikito managed to escape through the broken car window when the car was overcome by the water; his brother was not so lucky and was killed.

Never in my 31 years of dealing with natural disasters have I seen people put aside the needs of their own family and start helping friends and strangers like I saw in Japan.

“Even a snowflake never started out thinking it could become an avalanche.”
History has proven to us over and over that significant change usually happens with the smallest of effort. We can never underestimate the effect any one of us can have on helping to make change, and even if our efforts, like that single snowflake, are tiny in comparison to the challenge, every problem is on its way to being solved when we make that first initial step to try to make a difference.

HISTORY OF SNOWFLAKES FOR ZAMBIA --
In May 2008, a group of volunteers from across Canada, participated in a 3-week project building a home for a disadvantaged family in Palabana, Zambia. During this time, the team visited a school that had recently opened, and to their shock and dismay, were shown a small mud hut with a thatched roof, roughly 6 feet x 8 feet (2 meters x 3 meters). Inside, there was a beat-up piece of black board, a few colored pictures decorating the walls and merely bricks covered with plastic bags for the children to sit on. Over 40 children came out of this tiny school to greet the team. It was learned that these children were orphans and that a local, retired headmaster had built this school to try to address the growing problem in the village of children not being able to afford to go to the local government school to get an education. While the Zambian government provides free education up to grade nine, the reality is that many families, and in particular orphans and their caregivers, simply cannot afford the requirements to be able to attend school: books, supplies, uniforms, shoes, etc..

Led by Michael O’Reilly, members of this volunteer team vowed that day to return to Palabana and build a “proper” school for the growing number of orphaned children. Hence was born "SnowFlakes For Zambia".

PALABANA :
Palabana is a rural village of roughly 3000 people and is located approximately a 1-hour drive from the main capital of Lusaka. The people are peaceful and friendly, and the community has a very strong religious base, with up to 16 churches from different faith groups in and around this small village. The community is deeply concerned with the plight of their children and their lack of education. As well, the impact of the AIDS crisis on these children is not only impacting the present, but has serious long-term concerns for the future. The village of Palabana is also concerned with how their children will be able to participate as active and contributing adults and how they will be able to find employment and learn to care for and feed themselves. How can the community take an active role in addressing the challenges they face? Can this community, as well as others like it, continue to thrive and grow? These are some of the concerns our program is intended to target.

THE PALABANA PROJECT MISSION --
Since that initial decision to build a school was undertaken, this venture continues to attract concerned individuals wanting to donate and participate in the effort. Scheduled for July 1 – July 19, 2011, the current goal is to build: a school for orphaned children; 2 homes to house teachers for the school; latrines and a boarding house for rural children currently unable to attend school due to the distance and cost to travel. While the scope of the project has expanded significantly since its inception, the growth is driven by a desire and understanding by all participants to see a more holistic and sustainable “community” program developed, rather than simply building a school. This “SnowFlakes For Zambia” project is a Canadian “SnowFlake” effort to build the necessary infrastructure, and to design and implement an effective and sustainable program to address the social, educational and community development issues surrounding orphaned and disadvantaged children in Palabana, Zambia.

While education is still the primary focus, it is the training and education of the community at large that will, in the long run, provide for better outcomes. The vision of this mission is seeing all citizens in this village, children and adults, develop into net contributors to the welfare of both their community and their country.

If you are interested in donating, or traveling to Palabana to help with this project, please contact: Michael O’Reilly at m.moko@shaw.ca , Yvonne Marcil at yvonnemarcil@sympatico.ca. or Jeanette Hendrickson at jean10@telus.net .