Holocaust survivor knows ‘what it’s like to be hungry’
There is a poignancy about Jack Kowarsky’s presence among the children being served breakfast in the cramped lunchroom of Surrey’s Bridgeview elementary. In May 1945, when he was the same age as some of the youngest ones now eating scrambled eggs, he miraculously survived the Holocaust. Of an estimated one million Jewish children living in […]
Adopt-a-School 2018: Thousands of children come to school hungry, traumatized by dehumanizing stresses of living in destitution
Within the past few months this newspaper has carried stories concerning poverty that should cause alarm in the minds of most right thinking people. One disclosed that hundreds of homeless children can be found in the Greater Vancouver area — 681 according to a survey. Another spoke of the continuing delay by a B.C. government […]
Adopt-a-School has dispersed $3.8 million to schools over past eight years; Money raised is primarily used to feed students, but provides multiple services
The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School program has sent $567,328 to 94 schools throughout the province this year to help teachers feed, clothe and care for children suffering from poverty. Since AAS began in 2011 – in response to requests from teachers unable to help these children and their families – the program has dispersed $3.8 million […]
Telus donation helps kids keep up with technology
Youth who age out of foster care here face a high risk of addiction, homelessness, unemployability and teenage pregnancy. “That’s been our experience,” said Kathleen Bennett, executive director of the Northwest Inter-Nation Family and Community Services Society, which provides child protection services to six Tsimshian Nations and the Haisla Nation. It’s a bleak future, but the NIFCS […]
Birchland Elementary: Former Seaforth Highlander steps up for Birchland pupils
Trevor Street asks a simple question: “Have you ever been to a country that doesn’t have an education system?” Many people would likely answer no. Street, who runs the Partners Marketing Group in Port Coquitlam, has seen what such a place looks like. Two tours as an infantryman in Afghanistan with the Seaforth Highlanders of […]
CABE: Holidays can be brutal for kids who can’t even look forward to home-cooked meal
The two-week Christmas break is a joy for most students, but not for desperately poor kids, says Erin Watkins, a youth worker at Coquitlam Alternative Basic Education (CABE). “School is closed for two weeks. In here it’s clean, warm – they can’t get high – and they get fed,” Watkins said. “It’s scary for these kids when none of this is available.” […]
Surrey: Refugee families receive food and vital assistance
For refugee families it’s often the local school that holds them together until they find their balance. And for Obeid Abouzeid, his wife Nazadar and their five children – all boys – their place of refuge is Lena Shaw Elementary on 100A Avenue in Whalley. This Surrey school is home to 42 Arabic-speaking children, including […]
Tutors keep it real, pay it forward at QE in Whalley
The world outside can be harsh and dangerous for teenagers in Whalley but it’s countered wonderfully by the warmth and caring found in the library of Queen Elizabeth Secondary on peer-to-peer tutoring nights. Twice a week after school as many as 16 tutors set up shop in the library like vendors in a market, each with a card on […]
Tupper Alternative Program
There’s nothing extravagant about what the alternative school program at Vancouver’s Sir Charles Tupper Secondary needs from the community. Food, clothing and bus tickets. Some students don’t have enough to eat at home, some don’t have coats just hoodies for all weathers, and some skip school because it’s too far to walk or skateboard in […]
Sidoo family steps up for Maple Ridge Secondary
When Jordan Sidoo was 14 years old he would sell pen and pencil sets to his friends to raise money for The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School campaign. Seven years later he’s a director of the Sidoo family’s charitable foundation with his brother Dylan, 24. And on Wednesday the brothers wrote a $15,000 cheque to AAS to be used to […]