Updates

September 14, 2024

Dear Community,

We are thrilled to invite you to our upcoming Dinner & Dance Fundraiser on November 16th at 6:00 p.m.!

This is a fantastic opportunity to enjoy a delicious meal, dance the night away, and support a great cause.

✨ What to Expect:

  • Delicious Dinner: Enjoy a scrumptious meal prepared by Beverly Hills Gourmet.
  • Dance the Night Away: Groove to the music with DJ Wild Bill
  • Exciting Prizes: Participate in a silent auction hosted by The Auction Knight Corp.

This event is not just about having fun; it’s about coming together as a community to make a difference. All proceeds will go towards our project in support of the children in Myanmar.

Tickets are $50 per adult and $25 per child and can be purchased at Eventbrite

Families with more than 2 children only have to buy tickets for 2 children.

Spread the word and let’s celebrate together for a cause! 💃🕺

 

Ways you can help:

  1. Attend the fundraiser
    • You may also order tickets by emailing our director, Sister Jeannine Landry at  jeanninefma@yahoo.ca
  2. Make a donation – if you are unable to attend our event, please consider charitable giving: Canada Helps
    • All donations of $20 or more will come with a tax receipt.
  3. Pray for our event – your prayers for the success of our efforts is greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you very much for your support – From the VIDES Canada volunteer team.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 17, 2023

Dear Community,

To honour our commitment to developing communities around the world, we are once again hosting our annual fundraiser: Culinary Tour Around The World. This year, all funds raised will provide aid to children in Haiti.

In particular, here are the needs of our community that your generosity can help to supply:

  • Uniforms for the children, school supplies, food, medical supplies for orphans of our school
  • Migrant and refugee children at the border of Dominican Republic at Anse a Prieres (Haiti) where the Sisters started a project.

We want to acknowledge that our fundraisers have been successful in the past through the grace of God, and because of the generous support of amazing community members like you.

We are thankful to God that He has opened your hearts to give to this cause, and we pray that He blesses you abundantly for your generosity.

 

Ways you can help:

  1. Attend the fundraiser – take your taste buds on a yummy adventure!
  2. Make a donation – if you are unable to attend our event, please consider charitable giving: Canada Helps
    • All donations of $20 or more will come with a tax receipt.
  3. Pray for our event – your prayers for the success of our efforts is greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you from the VIDES Canada volunteer team

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 5, 2022

Dear Community,

VIDES Canada is once again hosting a fundraiser to support one of our projects overseas. In the past we have raised funds for Haiti, Madagascar, Ethiopia and many other developing nations. This year, our fundraiser will be to support the project for children in Ukraine.

Please join us for a fun tasting experience at our Culinary Tour Around The World event, where you can take your taste buds on a yummy adventure – no passport required!

Thank you in advance for your support! We are so grateful for this wonderful community.

Click Here to order tickets via Eventbrite

Please note that a small fee is involved if you order the tickets from Eventbrite.

 

 

Click Here to order tickets via Eventbrite

You may also order tickets by emailing our director, Sister Jeannine Landry at  jeanninefma@yahoo.ca

If you are unable to attend our event but would like to donate to our cause, please click here to see our donation page. All donations of $20 or more will come with a tax receipt. Thank you and God Bless!

 

 

October 2021

The past couple of years have been challenging for everyone in the world. It has been especially difficult for those living in developing nations because poverty and hardship have increased, yet their access to resources have decreased. VIDES Canada aims to continue our efforts in building community and extending support to vulnerable people worldwide. Now that travel is possible again, we look forward to resuming our overseas humanitarian mission.

We invite you to get to know our community and learn about an experience of a lifetime. Click on the link below.

 

Become who you are called to be

 

 

 

 

April 4, 2021

During Lent, members of the VIDES community Maria & Richard Lee had a wonderful endeavour raising funds for the Madagascar Project. Please see below for their letter. We hope you will be inspired by their story.

 

During these days of lockdowns, I turn to the Gospel for comfort.  Today, I read the story of the crowd asking Jesus for a miraculous sign.  Instead, He offered them the sign of Jonah.  Not an appealing sign, as I recall, because after disobeying God, Jonah was shut down in the dark, dank belly of a whale.  I had also hoped my Gospel reading would inspire this testimony, but I did not see how the sign of Jonah related to my experience.  Yet, the story remained in my mind and I wondered,“If the cross is the sign of Jesus, what is the sign of Jonah? ”

The similarities and contrasts between the signs slowly became clearer.  Jesus and Jonah were locked in darkness for three days.  Even though Jonah had run away from his mission, God in His great mercy, freed him and returned him to a new life of obedience.  Jesus obeyed His Father’s will, unto death, and then resurrected from the tomb and offered us a new, eternal life.

Jonah’s darkness and redemption are also mine because I do not always obey God’s will.  One day, however, He called me to Madagascar, it became my mission, my sign and my rebirth.

The first time my husband and I went to Madagascar, we were shocked by the extreme poverty. Someone once said that poverty is punishment for a crime you did not commit.  In 2020, the IMF ranked this island the 11th poorest country in the world. Yet the Malagasy are not desperate; in general, they are happy and grateful people, because they have the basic: love of God and family.

My memories of Madagascar are filled with wonder.

I remember the courage of consecrated people, who choose to live among the poorest of the Earth, providing them with the means to live in dignity: education, food, clean water, sanitation, health and pastoral care…

I saw impoverished people sharing the little they had with those even less fortunate.  I was awed by the Malagasy’s profound faith.  They will walk barefoot, in heavy rains and sliding mud, to go to Mass 30 kms away, and wait to receive the Sacraments outdoors and thoroughly drenched.

The local flora and fauna are also quite spectacular.  Madagascar is renowned for being a biodiversity hotspot. There are eight varieties of baobabs in the world, and seven of them are only found on the island.  There are no poisonous snakes, no lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes…  Although they are the most endangered animals on the planet, the island is home to 105 varieties of lemurs.

An SDB priest, once told us that we had been bitten by the “African Bug.”  Worried, I asked how we should protect ourselves.  Laughing, he answered that the only known cure is to return to Africa often. We did, but we also made it a mission to help the Salesian Sisters (FMA) from Canada.  Generous benefactors cooperated to provide funds for: water wells; sanitation facilities; schoolbooks and classroom supplies; medicine and clinical supplies; maintaining and enlarging schools; a wall protecting the vegetable garden providing food for school children; buying barnyard animals and even a cow for milk, cheese, butter, yogurt…

These life-changing miracles are possible thanks to charitable people like you.  “Love comes from God, when we love each other, it shows that we have been given new life.” (1-John 4:7)

Much remains to be done in Madagascar, but the last time we went, there were many positive signs.  We saw a man in Manazary, who had lost his sight and couldn’t provide for his family.

The FMA sent him to a school for the blind and paid for his education.  Upon his return, the

Sisters offered him a little plot of land with a small hut.  He was so proud to show us how he had learned to work his vegetable patch and telling us how his surplus is sold at the market.  He remains grateful to God, the FMA and the benefactors having made possible his miracle of rebirth.  His personal sign of Jonah.

We returned home filled with the Spirit, with gratitude and awe and some very practical projects. Vides-Canada supports projects directly impacting the lives of women and their children and so here are four very exciting projects:

 

  1. Child Sponsorship – Mahajanga

This program provides education, school supplies, food, clean water and health care to the sponsored children.  (For further details see: videscanada.ca)

 

  1. Agricultural School – Manazary

To the existing farm buildings, the Sisters hope to build an agricultural school which would help stem the rural exodus.  Youth seeking employment in big cities often fall prey to drugs and alcohol, or to unscrupulous people who either sell them to human traffickers or organ harvesters.  There is also a water canalization project.  It would channel the abundant water during the rainy season into a man-made lake, which would be stocked with fish to provide proteins to the diet of the school children.  Not only would this program teach students about water conservation, but it would prevent diseases and hunger due to food scarcity during dry season.

 

  1. Water Well and Sanitation – Port Bergé – Sr Krystyna

The priority in this new FMA’s mission is to build a clean water well and sanitation facilities. The challenges are enormous in this area: high illiteracy, especially among women; teen pregnancy; rural exodus; lack of clean water and sanitation; food insecurity and severe undernourishment… Four FMA and occasional volunteers from Canada, France, Italy and Poland work here, but lacking housing, they temporarily live at the Bishop’s place.  They teach in a makeshift Youth Centre.  In time, the Sisters hope to build classrooms and lodgings.

 

  1. Ambanja – Sr Germana

This mission is slightly more advanced than Port Bergé.  It has 3 kindergarten classes, and two early primary grades.  However, funds are needed to buy chairs, desks, blackboards, books and school supplies, to pay teachers’ salaries and build a school canteen.

 

If you would like to help with any of these projects, contact:

Sr Jeannine Landry, at the Laura Vicuña Centre,

8555 Joliot Curie, Montreal, Que, H1E 4C3

Tel. 416 803-3558, or 514 648-8279

A tax receipt will be provided for donations over $20.00

E-transfer at     jeanninefma@videscanada.ca    or

Make a cheque to      VIDES Canada and send at address above.

 

In the name of VIDES Canada and our Director, Sr. Jeannine Landry, I would like to thank you for your precious collaboration and generosity.  May the light of Jesus’ love guide our steps in our Lenten journey and may His resurrection bring us a new life in accordance to His will!

 

Maria & Richard Lee

 

 

 

October 25, 2019

Our Dinner Dance fundraiser on Saturday, November 16 will benefit our community in Ethiopia. Your generous donations and the proceeds from ticket sales will be used to purchase food, medicine, school supplies and other necessities for the children.

A volunteer from VIDES Canada, Michelle Zettel, recently went on a mission to Ethiopia. She will be sharing her experience during a presentation at the Dinner Dance.

Click here to read a part of Michelle’s story.

 

 

October 10, 2019

Save the date! Our annual fundraiser is on Saturday, November 16 at 6pm!

The funds will benefit our project in Ethiopia. Thank you in advance for your support! We are so grateful for this wonderful community.

Click Here to order tickets via Eventbrite

Please note that a small fee is involved if you order the tickets from Eventbrite

You may also order tickets by emailing our director, Sister Jeannine Landry at  jeanninefma@yahoo.ca

If you are unable to attend our event but would like to donate to our cause, please click here to see our donation page. All donations of $20 or more will come with a tax receipt. Thank you and God Bless!

 

 

Click Here to order tickets via Eventbrite

 

 

 

 

June 15, 2019

One of our wonderful volunteers, Maryse Elachkar, wrote a book about her reflections on faith and her relationship with God. This is an uplifting gem of an indie book. Available on Amazon!

Please see the link below for  a preview. 

 

 

 

November 20, 2018

Our annual fundraiser was a success! Thank you to everyone who supported VIDES by attending, volunteering, donating, decorating and just enjoying yourselves during this event. See below for snapshots of the Culinary Tour Around the World and our wonderful community: 

 

To see more photos of our event, please visit our Facebook page.

 

 

 

 

July 16, 2018

Our annual fundraiser will be in the fall! The VIDES Canada Board has organized a fun evening of food tasting, cultural exhibits, performances and a chance for you to win prizes!

If you are unable to attend our event but would like to donate to our cause, please click here to see our donation page. All donations of $20 or more will come with a tax receipt. Thank you for your support!

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 8, 2018

Join us at RenewTO – a Young Adult Conference on October 13, 2018. For more information visit http://www.ocytoronto.org/renewto/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check back soon for new updates!