As I'm sure you can imagine, our international travel has been greatly impacted by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Chalice has suspended all international travel for the time being, including our mission trips. We cannot reasonably plan for mission trips until the pandemic has passed, international travel restrictions are lifted, and travel would not expose our Chalice family (in Canada and abroad) to an unreasonable level of risk. When Chalice's international travel has resumed, our focus will be on select Chalice staff visiting our sponsor sites for operational purposes. In the spring of 2022, we will re-assess and decide if there is any change in our position and determine if we are able to start planning for our missions once again. At that point, our previously scheduled missions for India and Ukraine will be a priority. Of course, this is entirely dependent on how things evolve in the months ahead.
At Chalice, it is our joy to provide you with an opportunity to volunteer and experience life at our sponsor sites. Both you and those you meet will be enriched by a life changing exchange! Each trip is different in nature and experience. The common objectives are:
* Service projects supporting the work of Chalice's partners.
* Building relationships with our partners, the families we serve, and other Canadians with a heart for service.
* Witnessing the impact of sponsorship and sharing the opportunity of sponsorship with others.
* Collectively raising financial support for the communities we visit.
* Forming Chalice Champions in Canada to help us in our mission of "Sharing Christ with All in Need".
"It’s the most wonderful holistic experience, because you’re learning from the people you are helping, from the staff at the site, and from the members on your team. You receive so much love and joy and always want to give more." - Virlana Shchuka,
“For the Girls!” 2016 Kenya Mission
Upcoming Mission Trips
Mission to Ukraine
Mission Dates: To be determinedLocations: Lviv and Kolomyia, Ukraine
Chalice sponsor site: Pochaiv
Sponsor children: If your sponsor child's code begins with HOL, IVF, LVI, or VOL, we will be visiting their region!
During our mission, we will spend time at one of Chalice's three Ukrainian sponsor sites: Pochaiv Sponsor Site. At Pochaiv Site, Chalice has partnered with World for Children since 1999. Halyna Mykytiuk directs the sponsorship program, based in three subsites in the Ivano-Frankivsk and Volyn Regions. The site's central office is located in the village of Malechkovychi in the Pustomyty District, a suburb of the city of Lviv. The program currently supports 1960 children living with their families in either dorm-style factory apartments in cities and towns or rural family homes with small farms. The site works closely with beneficiaries to develop agricultural skills to sustain small family farms. Through Chalice programs, including the gift catalogue, Pochaiv Site supports orphanages and many schools throughout the area.
We are inviting volunteers to come learn and serve within the following contexts:
- Home vegetable growing and greenhouses
- Summer school for student government leaders
- Training workshop for site staff and school organizers
- Lunch meal preparation - Ukrainian cooking
- Gardening, farming, greenhouses
- Education
- First Aid Instruction
- Psychology
- Counselling
- Nursing
- Social Work
- Human Resources
- Administration
- Management, Supervision
- Cooking (home or professionally)
- Nutrition
Full mission details here.
If you would like further guidance on how your background and experience may relate to our mission objectives, simply contact our Mission Coordinator, Joanne, at 1.800.776.6855.
Mission to India
Mission Dates: To be determinedLocations: Mannackanad and Munar, India
Chalice Sponsor Site: Kerala
Sponsor children - If your sponsor child or elder's code begins with HMC, HMM, or HMR, we will be visiting their region.
Our site director, Sr. Deepa, is inviting Chalice volunteers and staff to come learn and serve within the following contexts in the community: nursery, primary, and secondary schools; supplementary education centre for children; school for special children, which includes a physiotherapy department; a society and centre for candlemaking and making the host for use during Holy Qurbana (the Eucharist as celebrated in Syriac Christianity); a printing press; tea farming; family circle groups (Chalice's family funding model).
We are primarily recruiting volunteers who have a heart for learning and serving. We are also looking to form a team with experience in some of the following areas: Education (all levels), including teaching children with exceptionalities; dance, yoga, other types of body movement; self-defence, physiotherapy, speech therapy, nutrition, uplifting parents (social work, counselling); health and hygiene, including environmental; social work, including protection for children.
If you are interested in applying or learning more, contact Joanne Albrecht today! 1.800.776.6855, joannealbrecht@chalice.ca.
Missions to Guatemala
If you are interested in missions to Guatemala with another organization operating out of Quebec, email our Mission Coordinator for more details.
Thank you for your desire to serve with us!
Recent Mission Trips
Mission Dates: October 2-22, 2019
Locations: Morogoro, Mkongo, Mjimwema & Ruaha National Park, Tanzania
Chalice Sponsor Sites: Mbinga & Neema
Sponsor Children - If your sponsor child or elder's code begins with BL, MB, MG, ML MP, MS, PAN, VPO, or NEM, we visited their region.
Our site directors, Sr. Mary Grace Jacob (Neema Site) and Fr. Cino Thonakkara (Mbinga Site) invited Chalice volunteers and staff to engage with the following groups within their communities: Sisters of Visitation (Neema) and Vincentian Fathers (Mbinga), Sponsor Site Staff, Clinic Nurses, and Community Health Workers, Faith Circles (sponsorship beneficiaries), groups involved in microfinance, microenterprise, and food security, and children at the local schools, an orphanage, and a 4K Club.
Help children and families in Tanzania by donating now.
Solidarity Tour to Paraguay
Mission Dates: March 2-16, 2019
Location: Villeta, Paraguay
Chalice Sponsor Site: CMAVIL - Center of Maria Auxiliadora Villeta
Sponsor Children - If your sponsor child's code begins with VIL, we visited their community!
Sor Maria Graciela Fernandez (Site Director) invited a team of 15 Chalice volunteers and four staff to engage with the following groups within the community of Villeta: Team Onondivemi (site staff), Family Circles (sponsorship beneficiaries), Animadoras (leaders from each of the Family Circles), children at the Central Abierto (Open Center), and families from a nearby Indigenous community. We primarily recruited volunteers who have a heart for service. We were also looking for volunteers who had experience in the following areas: Information Technology, finance and savings, wood and leather handicrafts, public health, family/child psychology and counselling, social work, teaching mathematics, painting and artistic skills, and coordinating events for children.
Our mission was an incredible blessing to our Chalice family in Paraguay and in Canada! You can see photos from our mission and read about it here: www.ChaliceOnTour.blogspot.ca. Our team is still raising support for Villeta - we are specifically seeking sponsors for children. If you are able to sponsor a child today, please let us know!
Medical Mission to Haiti
Mission Dates: November 16-29, 2018
Service: Provided patient care and practitioner training in the areas of general medicine and vision, as well as public health education.
Chalice has been working in Haiti since 1997 and currently operates in three areas of the country. This mission brought us to one of these areas - our Haiti North Sponsor Site. Our partners at Haiti North are a local Non-Government Organization. The Haiti North Site impacts two communities: Terrier-Rouge and Grand-Bassin, both about halfway between Cap-Haitien and the Dominican Republic border. Each community has a local clinic, which is run by the parish, and they offer primary care services. There are approximately 700 children sponsored through Chalice in each community, each receiving support in education, health and nutrition, as well as family development. Additional support (such as water filtration and a poultry cooperative) reaches beyond sponsored children and their families to impact others in the wider community. The team provided clinical services alongside local health professionals both to learn from as well as offer training, as appropriate.Our Mission Trip Coordinator: joannealbrecht@chalice.ca ; 1-800-776-6855
Mission Blog: www.chaliceontour.blogspot.ca
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Chalice Missions Flickr page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chalicemissions
