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Guelph-Humber career services co-ordinator leads annual volunteer mission to home for orphans and abandoned children
BY REBECCA KENDALL
In a small village in Trinidad, a woman left her young daughter with a neighbour, saying she was off to do some errands. She never returned. The neighbour, who was unable to care for the girl, approached the girl's uncle and asked him to take her in. He refused, says Alison McGeorge, career services co-ordinator at the University of Guelph-Humber.
“The uncle told the neighbour, with the girl standing at her side, that he didn't want her — that nobody wanted her — and if the neighbour couldn't care for her, she could throw the girl in the dumpster down the street.”
The girl, now six, was welcomed into the Bridge of Hope children's home in Trinidad's James Smart Village. McGeorge, who spends a week volunteering at the home each year, last saw the girl in March.
“She's beautiful and full of life,” says McGeorge. “She's doing really well at the home. She's attending Grade 3 and is surrounded by people who love her.”
Forty children live at the Bridge of Hope, and each has a story of loss, she says, noting that although some of the children are orphans, most have been abandoned.
“One of the unique things about the home is that it's not an institutionalized setting. It's very much like a family home environment. There's a house mom and dad and the staff of aunties. The kids get along wonderfully, and they're very supportive of one another.”
Bridge of Hope was founded by a Trinidadian entrepreneur who worked in the United States before being drawn back to Trinidad to open the facility, says McGeorge. Since then, he's made great strides in garnering international support for the orphanage, she says. This includes a number of full scholarships for the children to attend American universities.
Since 2004, she and her husband, Callum, have chaperoned a group of Grade 8 students from Chartwell Baptist Church in Oakville on a week-long volunteer mission to Bridge of Hope. The church has been sending members of its congregation to the home for the past 10 years. Before going to Trinidad, Alison McGeorge leads a six-week preparation course for the students to learn about Trinidadian culture and what will be expected of them during the trip. She also helps with fundraising efforts.
“Callum and I go because we feel strongly about the impact this experience can have on the students we travel with, as well as the children and staff at the home,” she says. “The kids from Oakville get new insight into the difficulties that some kids have. They're left with a new appreciation for what they have and the things they take for granted, like having parents to care for them.”
While there, they're involved in the daily activities of the home and do repairs on the facilities. They've also helped build a community garden.
“It's a children's home, but it does a lot to serve the entire community, including offering a walk-in medical clinic, a small library, a nursery school and computer labs and classes,” says Alison McGeorge.
The volunteers' community involvement has also included delivering food to those in need and helping seniors with household work.
“I have a real passion for service-learning,” she says. “The kids we take are so keen to help out and do as much as they can at every turn.”
When they returned from Trinidad this year, one girl approached teams from her soccer league and asked them to donate their gently used jerseys and shoes to the children at Bridge of Hope.
McGeorge has been active in her community and abroad since she was 14. Her first taste of volunteerism was preparing and serving meals at the Scott Mission in Toronto.
“It was a significant experience because I had never been exposed to homelessness and poverty in that way before. At first I felt quite uncomfortable and didn't really know what to say to these people or how to act. One of my jobs was to go around and serve the drinks, and my nerves were put at ease very quickly as I realized that these were just people going through a hard time. I had a nice time interacting with them. I think this experience taught me that it's not hard to make a difference.”
This summer, two teens from Bridge of Hope will be spending five weeks in Ontario. McGeorge helped Chartwell Baptist Church raise money to fly the pair from Trinidad and pay for a month-long leadership training program at Ontario Pioneer Camp in Port Sidney. There they'll learn skills that will be valuable for them and their communities when they return to James Smart Village, she says.
During their final week in Ontario, the teens will stay at her home, and she and Callum will take them to popular attractions in Toronto and Niagara Falls. She also plans to take them to the University of Guelph-Humber.
“It'll be a good opportunity to show them a university, and hopefully it will motivate them to work hard in school and have the chance to further their education. We hope that, through this experience, the kids will realize that there is lots of opportunity out there, and if they work hard, they can do and be anything they want.”
