Rosedale Village responds

No, this is NOT the famous Rosedale in Toronto, home of the rich and famous. This is a nice little retirement community on a golf course in Brampton, home of the memory-challenged.

Since my article appeared in the community newsletter last week, many neighbours have been asking for information about donating bedkits. I have discovered that the best way to handle these inquiries is to make up a little kit with a donation form and brochure in an envelope addressed to Sleeping Children.

The whole online donation thing appears to be a turn-off for most of these retirees, so I am trying to make it as easy as possible. I must say the local response has been very encouraging. Thanks to all of you who may be checking out this blog.

Weather forecast

What will the Bangladesh weather be like in October? The monsoon season usually ends around the end of September, followed by winter, which lasts from October through early March.

Winter is cool and dry, with temperature ranges from 5°C to 22°C (41°F to 72°F).

Going wireless

When we get to Bangladesh, I want to be able to update my posts regularly.

I think I've found a way to e-mail my posts from my iPhone.

We'll know it works if this appears on the blog.

[Note: Hurray, it worked! Now I've got to figure out how to do it with photographs.]

Odds and ends

Got my Criminal Records Search (aka Police Check) done at the Peel Regional Police headquarters on Friday. This was the first time for me, and I was amazed at how many people were there for the same thing. It took about 10 minutes and $25.

My fundraising appeal has gone viral, as they say in the online marketing biz. I am now hearing from people twice removed from those I originally contacted. Many are already aware of Sleeping Children, and some tell wonderful stories about founder Murray Dryden in the early days of the organization.

I also heard from editor Sue, who confirms that my article will be in the next community newsletter.

Picking up speed

The donations are really coming in now. Some of my neighbourhood friends picked up the ball on this and are spreading the word to their own circles of friends (Thank-you Donna, Jim and Keith), with the result that people I never would have reached are telling me they're buying bedkits for Bangladesh. This is fun!

Also several of my CharityVillage.com team mates have donated bed kits. By my rough tally, including the matching kits I am buying, it looks like we are probably getting close to 200 kits, and I am sure there are many that I haven't even heard about.

One issue is the online payment form. People are telling me it's a bit cumbersome to use, and doesn't really provide a place to direct the gift to Bangladesh, so I am starting to suggest they print out a donation form and mail it in with a cheque. They can do that at http://www.scaw.org/reports/download.html.

Helping hands

As I mentioned earlier, I got the word out on this by e-mail to a few friends, neighbours, and relatives. I must say I have been pleasantly surprised by the positive response, so I am emboldened to cast the net a bit wider. I have asked our local newsletter the Rosedale Village Voice to run an article containing the info on ways to donate.

Also, earlier this week, I had an opportunity to make a little presentation to my CharityVillage.com team mates, and one of them (Thank you Natalya!) actually donated online before I finished speaking --- the wonders of technology. I told them that I would be donating a bedkit in each of their names. I'm hopeful that more of them will warm to this fantastic cause, although I know that everyone already has several favourite charities of their own. 

Say Cheese

Several people have asked me about the pictures we'll be taking of the kids who get your bedkits, so here's a sample from a previous Sleeping Children trip. 

Note that those spiffy outfits they're wearing came from their bedkits. They come to the distribution site well scrubbed, but with clothing that would have been pitched in the trash long ago here in Canada.

The team is very careful to ensure that the donor's name on the plaque is matched up to the actual kids that received their kits, and that all donors receive their pictures.

P.S. I'm told by experienced team members that the kids always have big, excited smiles until they get in front of the camera, and then often put on a serious expression befitting such a momentous occasion (usually the first time in their lives that they have posed for a picture).

The "Ask"

I sent out an e-mail to friends and family today. Not everyone I know, but just those I thought might be likely to help this along by donating to Sleeping Children to buy a bedkit or two. I will match their gifts with my own. My fundraiser friends call this "The Ask."

This is something new for me, and I was a bit hesitant, wondering how the recipients would react. But I figured "What the heck, might as well find out." Already heard from several of them, so maybe it went down OK.

If you would like to help out, please go to the donation page.

If you're game to help out, you need to:

1. Do it now, so your bedkit gets put into the Bangladesh distribution.

2. Clearly state when you make your donation that it is for Bangladesh.

I'll be there handing that kit directly to a child, and I'll be telling her or him that it came from my friend back in Canada. And we'll snap a picture for you so you can see the smile, too.

Needle news

Back to the travel clinic today for the third and final Twinrix shot, so I should now be protected from Hep A & B, plus I've already had the Tetanus/Diphtheria and the Typhoid Fever shots.

Lots more to go yet, though, and at various intervals from departure date, so to keep it all straight I made a schedule of the shots and dosage dates for oral vaccines, as well as separating which ones are administered at the travel clinic from those I get from my family doctor. I highly recommend such a schedule to anyone taking this kind of trip.

This isn't cheap --- about $300 paid to the clinic so far and the meter is running.

Meeting the team

Co-leaders Richard and Joan pulled in our team of volunteer travellers yesterday for an initial orientation session. We received 4 hours of non-stop information on everything from what to pack to the logistics of a distribution site.

Turns out I am one of two first-timers on the Bangladesh trip. Richard and Joan are experienced hands, having been involved with Sleeping Children for more than 20 years, and having travelled on at least that many bedkit distribution missions (although this is their first trip to Bangladesh). Maxene and Doug M both have one trip under their belts. Marg and I are the rookies.

Forms were passed out for obtaining a police check (mandatory), physician's approval, and a travel visa from the Bangladesh High Commission in Ottawa. We also sign a legal release form absolving Sleeping Children from liability.

Looks like a great team, and our leaders are clearly equipped to handle whatever comes our way. Here's a picture.


L-R: Joan, Marg, Richard, Me, and Maxene (Doug M unable to attend).

Deshi joke

As the birth of the baby became imminent the father, Mr. Jamal, telephoned the hospital. Unfortunately, he got through to the Bangladesh Cricket Control Board by mistake.

"Has anything happened?" he asked.

Jamal was most puzzled when the voice at the end of the other line replied, "Oh, yes they are all out... the last two were ducks."

What's in the news there?

Back to see Dr. Saldanha at the travel clinic, this time to get a Typhoid shot and the second Twinrix vaccination. 

I've also been checking the news from Bangladesh, just to start getting a feel for the country and what's going on there. The big story seems to be the offshore search for oil and gas which, if successful, would be a boon for the developing economy. The country has a relatively small coastline on the Bay of Bengal, and offshore boundaries are being disputed by neighbouring India and Myanmar (formerly Burma).

The politics are very confusing. There are two major parties, each led by a woman, and both leaders are in jail. The army runs the caretaker government, and has arrested 12,000 political prisoners, including the leader of the third party, in the past two weeks. The last time Bangladeshis actually had a chance to vote out a government was in 2001. It's a mess.

Don't leave home without...

I dug into the literature provided yesterday at the Travel Clinic. I get the impression they would rather you just stay home. 

But if you MUST travel to Bangladesh there are many, many things to be avoided, and many pharmaceuticals to keep on hand to help you survive when you do something stupid, like eating a piece of fruit or putting an ice cube in your Coke (See the list on the right). 

I'm thinking that if you were caught in Toronto with this many drugs in your possession, you'd probably be explaining it to a judge.

What's this all about?

Welcome to day one of my blog.

This is the journal for my first trip as a volunteer traveller with Sleeping Children Around the World (SCAW), a Canadian charity that provides bedkits to children in underdeveloped countries.

In addition to being of some possible interest to friends and family, I hope it might be useful for anyone who is contemplating a trip like this.

Since its founding in 1970 by Murray and Margaret Dryden (parents of NHLers Ken and Dave), SCAW has raised more than $20 million to provide bedkits for 935,350 children in 32 countries.

Bedkits  are pulled together in the destination country with the help of an in-country partner (usually a Rotary Club or Lyons Club), and are purchased with donated funds. Anyone may donate, and that is how everyone first gets involved. If you'd like to donate, please go the web site.

One cool thing ...

Donors receive a picture of their bedkits with the children who received them (see top right). The gratitude is evident in the smiling faces. Some of them trek many miles to get to a distribution point.

Another cool thing ...

All donated funds go to purchase the bedkits. Administration is funded from an endowment set up by the Drydens, and we travellers all pay our own expenses.

On our 19-day trip to Bangladesh in October, we will be distributing 8,000 bedkits.

Even though departure is more than 4 months away, preparations are well underway. I have been contacted by my team leaders, Richard and Joan Hryniw. Flights have been arranged, travel insurance purchased, and this morning I received my first round of vaccinations at a travel clinic in Mississauga, accompanied by a 20-minute speech covering all the ways one can be stricken in that part of the world.