I am grateful

I am grateful to have a chance to meet so many wonderful people with great personalities while I was working on this project. I met many people who have a desire , aspiration , passion and compassion to help and support others with their needs. Meeting people to share ideas , experiences , desires and aspiration is an amazing learning experiences for me.

Many stories came out of the experiences of working on this project. There are stories that I will always remember and share with other whenever I have a chance. I will always remember Bruce , my neighbour in the apartment I was living. I and Bruce always greet each other and often share our life experiences’s including our day to day life. So, I met Bruce on this particular day, which happened to be the day I organized the first event in 2015. I met Bruce around the apartment, and as usual we greeted each other well , and continued with conversation. During our conversation , Bruce asked me about my plan for the day ? At this point I was not sure whether i should tell him or not for I didn’t have a chance to talk to him about the plan before. However , I decided to tell him about the event after a little hesitation. I told him that I organized an event to share the idea of the project , A Journey back to Sedika from Winnipeg, and objective . I briefly told him about the event and the project. After he listened to me carefully. He said , he would have loved to come if he knew before , but he told me he could not come because of many reasons. I told him that was alright , and thanked him for his willingness to come to support me. So, we departed wishing each other to have a good day.

Then I went back to my apartment to prepare few things before the event. However , soon after I heard someone was knocking my door. When I opened the door , it was Bruce. I was a bit surprised to see him again and I asked him what up? He said , he was sorry for he was not able to come to the event, but he said he wanted support the cause for he thought it is a good cause. He told me again that he was not able to support as much he wanted , but he said I want to donate the money he had. Then he gave me $5 Canadian. It was a touching moment for me in many ways. The first thing is what he said was touching to me for he said he didn’t have much to support me , but he said waned to donate the $5 dollar he has.

I was really touched by his act and I thanked him so much knowing he is giving the money he has by understanding the cause, which was to provide basic school supplies and others educational aid materials ,and to improve the school resource center to provide better support to improve the teaching learning process. I thanked him again knowing what it means for me. That is huge for me and I will always remember Bruce as a first person who donate to the cause of this project.

In the same day I had another memorable experience . This one was during the actual event at Assiniboine park. At a time 19 people came to learn about the project , and what was the cause and what initiated me to work on this project. After I did my short presentation I Asked the participant to donate what they feel like donating if they liked the idea and the cause. Most people did donate all what they had, but Jessica wrote me a cheque for $100 Canadian. Later , I asked her why she donated this much money. She told me she studied education , which I had no idea about at the time and she told me she always had plan and ambition to help children in the same way, but due to various reasons she was not able to do it. She said, however she is grateful to donating the money for this project for she thought it is a good cause. It was touching , very motivational and inspirational for me. It is not only because she donated that amount of money, but to know and understand someone believed it is a great cause to stand for.

There are many wonderful stories that I will always remember and be grateful about. I will share more next time when I have a chance. In fact these stories became a source of motivation and inspiration for me to carry forward in difficult times. To be honest I have seen my self passing through some tough and discouraging moments. There are times I asked myself is this worth doing what I was doing? I asked my self is this worth sacrificing all the time and the energy I was sacrificing , but the answer i often find after asking this question is , ‘what was the reason that convinces you to start working on this project in the first place ?’

Then what I had to do was to look back and see those two compelling reasons that compelled first, which is the amount of lack of school supplies and other educational aid materials and the lack of school support system within the school in small towns like Sedika.

What compelled me most is understanding the importance of providing basic school supplies and other educational aid materials that help improve the teaching and learning process , particularly students live small towns like Sedika.

Off course having these compelling reasons became the main source of motivation and inspiration working on this project , but the truth is you will always need people who support you , believe in what you are trying to do. You need people who support and encourages you in tough times . You need people who gives you advice and suggestions about how to go about it. I often think though I take the initiation I feel it is our responsibility to help and support anyone who needs our support. That is why I want to take this opportunity to call those of you who are interested in children education , especially in small towns like Sedika.

I am grateful for those of you who are out there who supported me by understanding the cause of the project. I am grateful for those of you out there who understand the cause and encouraged me , gave me advises and suggestions. I am grateful for those of you out there who supported me even when I was struggling and having difficulties in the process of working on this project. I am grateful for those of you out there who are constantly talking to me personally , gave me advices and words of encouragement or pray for me. I am grateful for those of you who are are still learning about this project , I am grateful . I am grateful for all of you out there sending your hand to reach the needy Sedika students in any ways you can.

I am more grateful for those of you who supported me with a willing heart by understanding the cause . You became a source of inspiration and motivation to do well with all the resources I have to achieve the project’s objective.

Recently I met Olga one of the people who supported the cause of this project. I met Olga when I was volunteering with an organization set up to help new immigrants. The organization name is CHAI , the abbreviation CHAI is Christian Helping Another Immigrants. As I said it is an organization organized with a purpose of helping New immigrant to adjust new Canadian life. I know what it means to be new immigrant for I myself was new once . I volunteered for CHAI for two and half years between 2013-16. Throughout these years I had a chance to help, support , and encouraged many new immigrant using my own personal experiences and stories . I know what it mean to have people to talk to and share information and idea when you are a new immigrant .

The good thing about CHAI is it is about conversation and friendship by sitting around the table. There are other programs , like game and presentation about various topic that help new new immigrant adjust to the new life. In CHAI we are allowed to share our faith in God and our experiences if it the participants are willing to share this experiences . I think my time volunteering at CHAI is a wonderful learning experiences for I learned a lot from people and met good friends .

Olga was one my friend from CHAI . Olga was new to ananda when we meet. She is from Ukraine. She was studying at Red River College at the time. She became a regular attendees and became active participant in CHAI until recently . She was working hard by herself until her husband came to Canada to joined her recently.

Olga was very friendly and cheerful person who helped many other new immigrant who comes to CHAI after. She was a great person to have a conversation with and to share experiences of daily life, all the challenges and success in a daily life.

Olga came i one of the event I organized in 2015. Olga was willing to come the event to support the project. She gave me word of encouragement for she thought it was a great cause. In fact she asked me if she could write a story about the event for she was working on a writing assignments for the course she was talking at the time . I agreed and she was able to write an article published on Red River College newspaper . I want to take this opportunity again thank Olga for all her support and the initiation she took to help.

Though life in Winnipeg is busy we had been in contact since. She always asked me about the progress of the project whenever i had a chance to talk to her. During our recent conversation Olga informed me about some of the thoughts and ideas she has to support the project.

She told me she always thought of the project and she always wanted to support the projects. She told me that currently she is working in Adidas Winnipeg and she wanted to raise some money to be able to buy some pairs of soccer shoes and soccer ball for Sedika students . She asked me about the need and the number of students need to have shoes , and other information about Sedika school students.

It was wonderful to meet Olga again and to hear from her about contribution she wanted to make to support the project. I was encouraged and inspired by her acts of generosity . She raised the money by herself to buy 9 pairs of Adidas soccer shoes , and three adidas soccer balls for Sedika elementary school soccer team. I was touching and inspiring to see the willingness to support Sedika students by understanding the need. There is nothing rewarding and fulfilling moments than sharing thoughts , ideas and aspiration to help others. We had a wonderful time sharing some thoughts and experiences in area of implementation of the project’s objective.

I want to take this opportunity again to say Thank you so much Olga for your support and your willingness to support the project. Thank you and may God bless you!