The developing world faces many challenges, but one of the greatest is the lack of access to health care. This summer, we hope to be a part of the solution. From August 15th-25th, we are returning to Dominican Republic with 50 Western-Fanshawe Collaborative BScN students and the Fanshawe College Practical Nursing students. In addition to some regular projects, we will be hosting medical and dental clinics in villages and communities, free of charge. Each day is an adventure, and each day is filled with incredible memories as a result. The trip, affectionately called “Danica’s Dream,” is named after a little girl who inspired the building of a clinic that we continue to support and partner with.
However, we have an urgent need! We need another physician to accompany our medical supplies, to help with clinics, and to share their expertise and knowledge with those who need it most.
Do you know anyone who can help us? Are you a medical professional who may know a doctor that would be willing to invest some of their time this August to be a part of the Hero Holiday experience? Would you be willing to approach your family physician or any doctors that you know, on our behalf?
If you have any suggestions or questions, please contact our Hero Holiday department as soon as possible: nettie@heroholiday.com or call 1-866-432-4464 and ask to speak to the Hero Holiday department.
Together, we can bring love, hope, and change!
Archive for the 'Mainpage' Category
The developing world faces many challenges, but one of the greatest is the lack of access to health care. This summer, we hope to be a part of the solution. From August 15th-25th, we are returning to Dominican Republic with 50 Western-Fanshawe Collaborative BScN students and the Fanshawe College Practical Nursing students. In addition to some regular projects, we will be hosting medical and dental clinics in villages and communities, free of charge. Each day is an adventure, and each day is filled with incredible memories as a result. The trip, affectionately called “Danica’s Dream,” is named after a little girl who inspired the building of a clinic that we continue to support and partner with.
However, we have an urgent need! We need another physician to accompany our medical supplies, to help with clinics, and to share their expertise and knowledge with those who need it most.
Do you know anyone who can help us? Are you a medical professional who may know a doctor that would be willing to invest some of their time this August to be a part of the Hero Holiday experience? Would you be willing to approach your family physician or any doctors that you know, on our behalf?
If you have any suggestions or questions, please contact our Hero Holiday department as soon as possible: nettie@heroholiday.com or call 1-866-432-4464 and ask to speak to the Hero Holiday department.
Together, we can bring love, hope, and change!
My name is Charles Roberts and I am the Director for Hero Holiday. I, along with my wife and three children, the Bernardi family and the Boyce family, are all currently in Mexico representing Hero Holiday here. Over the past couple of years, my wife Tricia, our sons, and I have been living here off and on. Our boys know this as their home. We know this community very well and have many friends here. We have been fortunate to be able to partner with local government agencies and authorities to better assist the people we are here to help.
Considering the media coverage of the Swine Flu, and the Drug War along the northern Mexican border, I feel it is important for you to hear from us on a personal level. We are living here, day in and day out and would love to share with you, from our perspective, what is really (or not really) happening.
Safety has always been, and will continue to be, our number one priority for all of our trip participants. Safety is always at the forefront of every decision we make and every trip that we facilitate.
I am continually saddened by the media in Canada and the US. Their overreaction and selective coverage to the Swine Flu and to the Drug War stories in Mexico have created and continue to create an incredible amount of fear in people. Considering the media’s business approach to ’sell’ stories to the public, we are constantly seeing more and more ’stories’ that are slanted to instill fear in their listeners. Looking at it carefully, it is clear that ‘fear’ sells.
When hearing news stories, always remember to use a personal filter and your own common sense to read between the lines of what is being reported. When considering traveling to other countries, the most reliable information is official government information that they publish for our safety. It is direct, to the point and usually not ’selective’ or ‘over-dramatized’. A few trusted sites that we gain our information from are the following:
- Canadian Foreign Affairs (http://www.voyage.gc.ca/
countries_pays/menu-eng.asp ) - Canadian Health Agency (http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/
index-eng.php). ) - The World Health Organization (http://www.who.int/en/ )
These three are highly respected government agencies, and are accountable to people for what they say. Our Canadian government will ALWAYS air on the side of extreme caution when it comes to travel advisories. If there is any reason for concern at all, our government will clearly communicate that to us, again, sometimes to an extreme.
Today, April 29th, 2009, the World Health Organization communicated again that there is no need to advise against regular travel.
“WHO advises no restriction of regular travel or closure of borders. It is considered prudent for people who are ill to delay international travel and for people developing symptoms following international travel to seek medical attention, in line with guidance from national authorities.”
If you are a Hero Holiday participant, concerned about traveling to Mexico on your trip, please do not be alarmed. I understand that the media is making a big deal about this, and it may appear that the world is falling apart. However, I encourage you, as I did earlier, to please filter what your are hearing, use some common sense, and research this a little further on your own. Please do not believe everything you hear, and do not just take my thoughts on this either. Look into it for yourself via trusted sources. I am confident that a lot of your concerns will be eliminated. The worst thing you can do is to make a quick, uninformed decision, based solely on something you have heard/seen on TV.
Thank you for your understanding. I hope you are encouraged by this. I am available anytime if you would like to contact me personally.
Charles Roberts
Hero Holiday Director
Mexico Cell: (to dial from Canada) 001 521 (616) 109-9404
US Cell: (for when I am in the USA) (619) 370-6303
Email: charles@heroholiday.com
Youth Making a Difference Fund Raiser JUNE 4, 2009
Published by April 9th, 2009 in Mainpage and Featured. Closed
Last summer, my brother Sean and I visited the Dominican Republic with Hero Holiday. It was an amazing, life changing experience!
Using only pickaxes and shovels, Sean and I, along with another 120 teenagers and adults, worked on building a school and the foundation of a new house. On other days we worked alongside refugees at a dump collecting garbage. We wore long pants, ankle-high boots, and thick work gloves while the majority of the locals rummaged through filth in sandals and without gloves. We were able to double some of the workers wages for the day and their gratitude was more than evident on their smiling faces.
The day we visited the orphanage for the physically and mentally handicapped was the hardest emotionally. With one caretaker for every five children, there is barely enough time to provide even the basic needs for these children.
One little boy made a profound impact on me. I went to his crib and said “Hello”. When he did not respond I tried singing to him. I started quietly, with “Somewhere over the Rainbow.” He began to move his arms and legs slightly. Before long his arms were wrapped around me. He touched my face and encouraged me to keep singing. It’s true… “All you need is love”.
There’s no feeling quite like waking up every morning knowing you’re going to spend your day making a difference in people’s lives. After having experienced this feeling, there is no way I could NOT go on Hero Holiday again.
The “Youth Making A Difference” fundraiser will help make it possible for my brother, Sean, and I to relive this life-changing opportunity. A large portion of the proceeds will also go to the Absolute organization to assist them in continuing to take others like my brother and I on Hero Holidays, just one of the ways in which they are helping to make this world a better place.
We hope to see you there!
~Melissa
Today was the first day on the building sites for the groups from Penticton, and I was given the privilege of being the 
photographer for the week. I spent my day traveling from work site to work site, taking pictures and peeking at each of the mini-groups in progress. The big group of over 70 students and leaders from Penticton were broken up into 5 smaller groups, each with 
their own project to do. We have 4 houses to be built this week, and a childrens’ program being during the afternoon. There was excitement and movement all over the area as all 4 house groups started framing and sheeting the walls and roof panels put together today, in prep to start putting up the walls and roof of the home tomorrow!
At any given time you could hear the pounding of nails, cutting of saws and laughing of kids, as everyone had the opportunity to work on the house, spend time on with the families and play with the kids. Everyone got a considerable amount of work done on their first day, and a few groups even managed to get a healthy competition going between the pro 
Mexican “football” team (the local children) and the Canadians. I heard a few people marvel at how good the kids were at soccer, and everyone who played talk about how much fun they had.
This fun traveled across to an empty lot of a soon to be built church. This 5th group was setting up a puppet show for the neighborhood children. Kids gathered around to watch the team set up their puppet stage, they asked the students for piggy back rides and just enjoying their company.
When I asked a lot of the students how the day went and what their favorite part, a few of the girls enthusiastically told me of a conversation that their leader had with some of the kids, through a translator. He was simply asking the kids questions like “Where do you think we’re from?” and “Why do you think we are here?” They were quite surprised when one boy told them he knew that they were not here simply to build a house but for bigger more compassionate reasons. They were totally taken aback when the kids answered that they were “amigos” after being asked “Who are we?” and the same little boy replied “We are brothers.”
Everyone found a lot of meaning in there moments spent with the kids, and this one is just one example of the memories that our group made in their first day. I can only imagine the countless memories that each student will have to bring home with them, and the cute little smiling faces that they will never forget.
It seems to me that all of the groups are having a great experience so far, and even at the end of the day everyone seemed to be building up their enthusiasm…excited for next day spent with their families, “their amigos”.
I look forward to spending the rest of the week with this group, snapping pictures, chatting about their new experiences, and new friends.
~ Kristi, a School of Leadership student and “journalist” for the week.
Absolute in 2008 - Video
Published by December 30th, 2008 in Newsletter, Other Sites, Mainpage and Featured. 0 CommentsIn 2008, we were a part of some incredible moments! Together, we were a part of life-changing projects, opportunities, and memories. Through our High School Assemblies Program (Think Day), we saw hope come alive and we were able to spread the word on how we can all be a part of change in our world as we did over 340 presentations in schools across Canada. Through Hero Holiday, we worked alongside of 600 students and adults who participated in one of our 14 trips. Each of us came on Hero Holiday to accomplish change and inspire hope in communities in Mexico, Dominican Republic and Thailand. Together, in 2008, we built 20 homes in Mexico, completed one school and worked on two others in Dominican Republic, worked on a Children’s Home in Thailand for victims of child prostitution and exploitation, and we brought food, clothing, supplies, hope and dignity to many children, families, and communities in these countries. We even managed to release our first book, One: A Face Behind the Numbers. It has definitely been a busy year in Absolute!
2008 has also been a year of incredible events in our nation and around the globe. We live in a world of change, and while change may be inevitable, that does not mean that we need to give up and forget about those who need us the most. We can each play a part in restoring hope and building a future for those who don’t seem to have much hope for a future. Because of all that we have experienced together, we truly believe that hope can change everything, and we have been a part of that change. However, the truth is that we cannot continue to do this without you. We need you to help us move forward. The children and the families in the communities we work in need us to continue to push forward to bring change.
Check out this AMAZING REMINDER of all that we have accomplished together this past year!
For those reading this in an email, click on the link below to view the video.
Absolute truly needs your partnership. We are unable to do this without you. Without financial partnership, our programs and projects would not be able to reach the Canadian High School students that we do, nor would we be able to host our Hero Holidays, build our projects, or reach the communities that we currently operate in. Without your help, we would not be able to continue to see lives changed, hope realized, and history being made. Would you please consider helping us for the year ahead? We cannot do this without you.
We are looking for people, just like you, to commit to $10, $20 per month or more. A little goes a long way, and with a little you can help to make a HUGE difference.
For more information on how you can partner with us, contact our office at 1(866) 432 4464. As well, you can donate online through our paypal account. Just go to our donation page at http://absolute.org/donate and follow the link.
We look forward to what we will accomplish together in 2009!
Christmas can mean many things to many people: for some of us, it is a time we look forward to as we get together and catch up with those that are close to us. To some of us, Christmas can seem very overwhelming or we can feel that it is much too commercialized.(I know that I personally dread going into the busy mall and being surrounded by people who often seem to be the most uncheerful givers!)
A group from Manitoba have decided to get away from it all and go back to the true meaning of Christmas: to give the Gift of Love. This Christmas, these amazing people will be giving a family in Mexico ultimate gift: a home that they have only dreamed of!
Each member of this Hero Holiday team was asked what they most look forward to, and this is their answers:
Jessica – I am most excited to see the people that live there and the family that will be living in the house.
Harvey – I’m excited about sharing this experience with our kids. I’m also looking forward to meeting the family we’re helping
Barb – Kerry and I have dreamed about taking our kids on a humanitarian trip for so many years and it’s finally happening!!! I’m also blown away by how passionate each one of my children and husband is about making a difference in this world. I can hardly wait to see how our lives will be changed and I am so excited to finally meet the family who we are building the house for!
Quinton – I’m excited about building a house and tasting new foods.
Jackson – I’m excited about being in a place I’ve never been before.
Hannah – I’m looking forward to the scenery, to speaking Spanish, and to fun traveling!!
Christa – I’ve been wanting to go on a mission trip for a very long time! I am so pumped to build that house and see the looks on the family’s faces!
Judy – I am excited about working together with others I hardly know and being part of an awesome “gift” to a family!
Alison – I am wicked excited to see how those people live, and hope that I will come back as a changed person and more grateful and blessed!
Danae – I have been dreaming about experiencing Christmas in another culture.
Kelsey – I am really pumped about meeting the little kids and being able to make them smile and give them hope again!!
Jeannine – I can’t wait to interact with the locals especially the children – and watch my own children do the same!
Ashton – Everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Alyia – I can’t wait to meet all the kids!
Gina - I’m extremely excited about learning about a different country and culture. The thing I’ve been looking forward to and thinking about the most is meeting the kids. I can’t wait to play with them and create some new relationships.
Thomas - I’m excited about doing something different for Christmas, helping less those who are less fortunate, and touring Mexico!!
Lori - I’m excited about building, meeting new people, and being surrounded by another culture, language, etc.
Savannah – I’m excited to see all the little kids and to play with them and make a difference in all the people’s lives there!!
So, stay tuned! There is more to come from this group as they travel across the country in a bus and continue their 2008 Hero Holiday Christmas Adventure!
Welcome to Corporate Saturday!!! A new band joining our Tour.
Published by November 11th, 2008 in Team 2, Road Team Blogs, Student Zone, Mainpage and Featured. ClosedAbsolute would like to welcome Corporate Saturday to our Think Day tour. They will be joining Team 2 on their tour across Canada.
Over the past three years, Corporate Saturday has worked hard to establish themselves in their hometown of Windsor, Ontario, and they are now looking to do the same across the country while touring with Absolute! They recently released their first full-length album entitled, “Looking at the Same Stars” and won The “Best Young Songwriters” award at the 2008 Toronto Independent Music Awards. Corporate Saturday’s current line up consists of Rob on drums, Brendan on guitar, Austen on vocals and the newest member, Bobby, on bass. Together they form a tight knit musical family with the common goal of making good music and spreading a positive message. Being inspired by the Absolute presentation early in high school, the band later decided to apply for a position. After three years of hard work and practice , Corporate Saturday is ready to hit the road for the first time with Absolute!
For more information and to hear a couple songs visit,
www.myspace.com/
Absolute sadly says good bye to All Left Out and wishes them luck on their UK and Japan tour in the up in coming months. You guys ROCK!
Thinking of Garcia
Published by November 6th, 2008 in Staff Blogs, Hero Holiday and Mainpage. Closed
Fours years ago, Vaden and I were driving down a road that seemed to go nowhere: it was washed out in places, had almost no traffic except for the odd motorbike or donkey, and it had houses lined along the side of it, full of people who shyly waved at us as we rumbled along. Somewhere along that place we found a man with a dream, and his name was Garcia…
Garcia is a musician, a husband and father, a pastor, and a man with a vision bigger than what was in front of him. He had a community back on that road that we found ourselves on that day, and he traveled every day of the week from his own village, Maranatha, to serve that community and help it move forward in whatever way he could. He came to help out because he loved them and believed in them. They had a local area where they had a church, held community meetings, and one day hoped to have a school. It was a small area, about 20 feet by 30 feet, and it was covered by four posts and a tarpaulin. All around the area, many feet out, was a trench that had been dug at one time, but was now covered in by weeds, grass and life. Five years earlier, Garcia had inspired some men in the community to dream of what a school could like in that place, and so together, they dug the trench, in hopes that someday they might see a school for their children.
In that area, we, like Garcia, saw what could be, but not yet was: a school that could change the future of the hundred plus children in that community. This is what faith and dreams are made of and what Absolute wanted to be a part of, so the following summer, our Hero Holiday teams began to work with Garcia and the people in Arroyo Seco to accomplish this dream. It is a labor of love that has filled our lives with laughter, warm memories, huge community parties, and tearful good-byes. And in some way, it has changed us all.
This past summer, we put the finishing touches on the school. As we drove away, I looked over my shoulder and saw a bunch of children waving good bye, with Garcia and his family in the middle of the crowd, smiling and shouting out blessings…It felt good to be a part of something so incredible. Over the time that we worked in their community, over 700 Canadian teenagers and adults who joined us on Hero Holiday had witnessed the fulfillment of a dream, and it inspired us all.
Yesterday, however, I got an email with an update of what has happened in Maranatha, the community where Garcia lives. This past Friday, while many of us got together with friends and had Halloween parties, Garcia, his family, and the thousands of people that live in Maranatha, his own village, fought for their lives and homes as they faced a flash flood. Many of their homes were covered under two to five feet of water and sewage, and many of them lost every last earthly possession that they had. Garcia and his family lost most of their possessions, but managed to salvage some valuable items such as beds and food. However, the local grocery store, where many of them were only able to buy their supplies on credit, was swept away and food is scarce. Like so many of the world’s poor, they are now forced to rebuild their lives and start over…at the beginning.
Why is life so blatantly unjust? Why do the poor always keep losing, and the rich get drunk on the excess of the world? How is it that our governments can find trillions of dollars to bail out multi-national companies in a financial crunch and still manage to employ hundreds of thousands of people at salaries that keep growing, and yet many of the world silently slips away and struggles moment by moment to exist? What is my part in all of this? How do I live my life in light of what I know to be true both here and there?
I don’t have all the answers, I just have a conviction that I can’t give up: I can’t stop doing what I know I am called to do, and I MUST NOT quit just because things seem difficult where I am at.
So, Garcia, when I see you again, I will tell you this in person, but until then, I will put it in black and white: you are a great inspiration and friend, and your struggle is my struggle, and we are linked by a common faith and purpose that is deeper than culture, skin color and economics. I will continue to pray for you and will do what I can to help ease the burden. You and your family have done so much for a community, their children, and their future, and now it is time for a community of people to do something for you.
If you would like to help us get some money to Garcia and his family, please email me and I will let you know what you can do.
Great Opportunity!
Published by September 22nd, 2008 in Staff Blogs, Hero Holiday and Mainpage. ClosedHey Everyone!
We love what we do: we get to travel, see the country, create change and bring hope. We also love to be able to pass on cool info that we think students might benefit from…this is one of those moments:
Ashoka’s Youth Venture, recently launched in Canada, is proud to announce their first global competition to recognize and support young changemakers worldwide.
If you know young people with IDEAS or existing PROJECTS for change, please encourage them to enter the Staples Youth Social Entrepreneurship Competition by October 15, 2008.
The various prizes include seed funding to implement their ideas, a free trip to attend the next Youth Venture Summit in the U.S., and special opportunities involving MTV and Nike for environment and sports-related projects.
For more info, check out changemakers.net
When we all woke up yesterday morning, we all thought we were in for a little bit of a long, but exciting day. However, no one ever dreamed the day would end up having 40 hours in it!
We are currently back in Dominican Republic with a new first for Hero Holiday: 39 nursing and pre-med students, one doctor, two dentists, and our staff…and after 40 hours of being awake we are still going strong!
We started our orientation last night in Buffalo, after some people driving as far away as 8 hours from the border to join us. In the middle of our evening pre-trip orientation in our hotel, Nettie, our Hero Holiday administrator, received a call saying that our airline had canceled our flight due to weather in Buffalo. In fact, the whole airport was shut down. Now we were faced with a dilemma: we had tickets from JFK to Dominican, but no tickets to JFK…a quick negotiation with a bus shuttle company and two trips later, we found ourselves now sprawled out at 4:00 AM in the Rochester, NY airport, awaiting our new flight to JFK, and on still no sleep…
When we finally got to Puerto Plata, we shuttled to the hotel, dropped off our bags to get ready to go out on our awareness tour to see everything that we are about to be involved in, and out of nowhere: torrential downpours. (Did I mention we were out on open backed trucks?) But then, the crowning achievement of the 40 hours was the clutch going on the one truck in the middle of the road in the middle of the rainstorm, and the other truck getting stuck in the mud trying to get back to them…
So, you may ask, was it worth it? And the answer, of course, is “Always!”. The group that is here is going to be doing medical clinics and working on a building project. Most of all, they are going to be experiencing what it is to make a difference. If today is any indication of what they are going to be like, I am already in love with them! They have not complained once when they were wet, tired, or hungry…they just kept telling us how excited they are to be here!
And so, to all ourHero Holiday peeps that are with us for the next ten days in Dominican, we want to say that we are excited that you are here too, and that there is no one we would rather have join us for no sleep, unforeseen travel hiccups, broken clutches, torrential downpours, and the anticipation of what tomorrow can hold!
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