St. Vincent Connections to Aid Groups Here in Africa

Our connection with the work taking place at Bethany is our most obvious connection that continues to be at the forefront of our philanthropic initiatives. However, I have made some connections here in Kenya with two other NGOs (non-governmental organizations) which we at St. Vincent have a history of supporting and in fact, have done so quite recently.

In my next post, I will mention my visit to the Feed the Children warehouse which is on the same site as the Dagonetti Children’s Centre. I had a chance to visit the warehouse from where they send out maize (corn), wheat, oil, and rice to schools all around Nairobi for their lunch programs. You will remember that as recently as Halloween, we were involved with a project in support of Feed the Children with our Halloween candy drive. Mrs. Szpiech and Mrs. Morson organized this amazing opportunity again this year which collected candy which was then donated to Feed the Children through Dr. Simone’s warehouse.

The other NGO that I have come in contact with here that has a St. Vincent connection is Samaritan’s Purse. This organization is a missionary group who supports missionaries who are working in third world countries. A missionary is someone who has dedicated themselves to spreading the word of Christ and sharing the Gospel of Jesus with others around the world. Samaritan’s Purse is a partner with Bethany Hospital and is the missionary group which the founder of Bethany Kids, Dr. Bransford, was originally and is still associated with. Samaratin’s Purse contributes financially to the work taking place at Bethany as an official partner.

The day I left to come here to Kenya, there were many brightly coloured and wrapped shoe boxes out in the hallway of St. Vincent in front of the grade 1 and 2 classes. These boxes contained gifts for Christmas that are being shipped to third world countries (quite possibly Kenya) to be given to children for the Christmas season. Samaritan’s Purse is run in conjunction with the Knights of Columbus in Oakville out of St. Andrew Parish and we are always excited to support the work of the Knights as a Catholic organization. Mrs. Demmings brought this program into our school again this year and I know our students really enjoy purchasing the gifts and wrapping them before being sent out for Christmas. We even had Father Watters join us for the afternoon.

These St. Vincent connections highlight the amazing work of our staff, students, and parents in support of philanthropic initiatives in Oakville and across the globe. It was really special to meet representatives from these groups and be able to ‘brag’ about the St. Vincent connection to their organizations. They asked me to pass along their heartfelt thanks for your support.