Spice Island Cultural Day Association of Quebec is making Grenadian children smile for the holidays.
For the second consecutive year, The Spice Island Cultural Day Association of Quebec (SICDAQ) is putting a smile on the faces of Grenadian Children for the upcoming Holiday season by offering the gift of care through their Christmas Smile Project.
Widely recognised as one of the most vulnerable groups within our society, it goes without saying that among those hardest hit during the pandemic are the children of the Island. Forced to deal with drastic change and uncertainty during important developmental stages in their lives, SICDAQ is answering the call, in collaboration with the Office of the Honorary Consul for Grenada in Quebec, Theodore H Blaize.
Through our successful GoFundMe Campaign: Helping the Spice Island Kids, which ran during the Spice Island Cultural Festival in July and continued until the end of October, SICDAQ was able to partner with 3 of Grenada’s local charities: Reach Within, The Father Mallaghan Home for Boys and The BelAir Home for Children and Adolescents to help these institutions continue the marvelous work they are doing for the kids in need in Grenada.
Reach Within, an organisation on a mission to help children and adolescents heal from developmental trauma caused by abuse, neglect or abandonment, a cash donation of Cdn$500 was awarded by the SICDAQ organisation. “These funds, for which we are extremely grateful, will assist us in our drop-in centre in St George for teens and young adults in need of life skill training and therapeutic mentoring programmes,” said Dr Karen Lawson, Founder & Director.
Father Mallaghan Home for Boys (FMHB) is a residential care facility owned and operated by the Child Protection Authority of Grenada. FMHB is designated primarily for the accommodation of boys, ranging from ages 12 to 18 years old. A barrel filled with food products, boxes of school supplies, games, toys and personal items including, hygiene products, socks, PPEs and other items have been shipped and has now arrived in Grenada. “The Home prides itself on its ability to provide residents with a sense of home, and a physical space conducive to the implementation of psychosocial programmes. We are extremely happy with the support of SICDAQ and the Spice Island Cultural Festival in Montreal for 2 consecutive years,” said Ingrid Lashington, Manager.
Bel Air Home for Children and Adolescents comes out of a need to provide a safe, caring, loving and protected environment for children and young people deprived of their natural family setting, was gifted with 2 barrels of food items, school supplies, hygiene products, PPEs and 4 boxes of toys. “The Home provides shelter and daily care for up to 35 children ranging from 0-18 years. “Words cannot express how grateful we are for this wonderful donation from SICDAQ. We are forever thankful and grateful,” said Lisa Charles, Home Manager.
“An abundance of love is being shown by our organisation to these needy children in our homeland with our Smile Grenada initiative. We want to offer our special thanks to those who answered our humanitarian call by donating through our GoFundMe Campaign and to our members who supported this call,” said Byron Cameron, President of SICDAQ.
In addition to the Christmas Smile project, the SICDAQ organisation is also proud to announce that they were also able to send approximately EC$20,000 of PPE items to Derrick James, Director Office of the Diaspora Affairs, to be distributed to hospitals, clinics, churches and senior homes in Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique.
The Spice Island Cultural Day Association of Quebec is a non-profit organisation which has as one of its many mandates to act as a medium to garner supplies, services and resources to support and strengthen institutions in Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique.
SICDAQ
