2 • LOOKOUT
July 29, 2013
Port stop included charity work CPO2 Ron Eccles & SLt Nathan-Cody Black HMCS Ottawa
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During a port visit to Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala, June 29, sailors from HMCS Ottawa made goodwill visits to an orphanage and hospital. Twenty crewmembers from the ship visited Maná de Vida and the Hospital Regional Escuintla in the nearby town of Escuintla. Before journeying to the care facilities, sailors made a brief stop at a shopping mall to buy, with their own money, toys and candy. They combined their purchases with two packages provided by the Boomer’s Legacy Foundation, which consisted of hand-made hats, mittens and dolls. Plus sailors gave a cash donation from a 50/50 draw of $770 that was split between the two facilities. OS Sacha Perron won the draw and immediately returned his winnings into the charitable proceeds. “I just wanted to help,” OS Perron said. “It’s simple in my mind: I didn’t need the money, but they did.”
Maná de Vida
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Sailors first visited Maná de Vida, a children’s aid association. Many children come from impoverished families with little to no prospect of a solid future, either economically or socially. If not for Maná de Vida, many children would never receive an education, and many would go days at a time without a meal. Songs and applause accompanied the 150 smiles, as the children led the crew on a tour of the facility. The children seemed to have no cares about the language barrier; many were eager to hold the sailor’s hands, get a piggy-back ride and smile at the chance to wear a peak-cap or beret. Maná de Vida provides the children with breakfast, lunch and a snack, and the facility houses a small primary, elementary and high school, and there is a pool for swimming lessons and fun. The facility also provides spiritual development as the foundation for children to break a vicious cycle and life history of violence, abandonment and addiction. After the tour, sailors passed out the homemade dolls and hats from the Boomer’s Legacy Foundation, along with the toys and candies. The director of the facility was overwhelmed by the cash donation, and the gratitude of the children was evident in their smiles and laughter.
CPO2 Ron Eccles, Contributor
Above: LS Catherine Quentien squeezes her new friend at Maná de Vida Orphange. Below: OS Sacha Perron of HMCS Ottawa shares toys and smiles with a new friend at Maná de Vida Orphange during a port visit to Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala. Hospital Regional Escuintla
The Hospital Regional Escuintla is for children abandoned by their parents because they cannot afford required medical treatment. The homemade hats provided by Boomer’s Legacy provided necessary comfort to very sick children. The cash donation brought the senior nurse, who guided the sailors through the facility, to tears, and she assured them it would be used for children whose parents had abandoned them. “While we are here in the region to accomplish a specific mission, it is important also for us to be able to provide this humanitarian support,” said Captain Moley Mangana, the ship’s Padre. “In fact, the crew told me they’d love to do even more of this type of work.” HMCS Ottawa is currently in the region conducting operations in support of Operation Caribbe, Canada’s on-going contribution to JIATF South and multinational, inter-agency drug interdiction operations in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean basin.
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